"April 19th, Bernard Hopkins will destroy another undefeated fighter. I'm going to make him look ordinary and I'm going to send him home on a long flight back to London," stated light heavyweight king Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins as he shared his thoughts on his upcoming clash with super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe. You don't want to miss what he had to say in this in-depth interview as he talks more about Calzaghe and the politics of the sport, how his partnership with Golden Boy Promotions started and his relationship with Oscar De La Hoya as well as Shane Mosley, who he confirms he'll be helping train for his May 31st clash with Zab Judah.
PC: I told you before that I think you, more than any other fighter, make other fighters come out of their character. I know you're not the type of cat that needs extra motivation, but is Calzaghe's extra talk giving you more fuel for this fight?
BH: Nah. This what this is brother; this what this is. First of all, what he trying to do, and I became a master at this thing called psychology warfare, what Joe is doing with all of this talking he's doing is trying to get me to talk because ain't nobody in Wales really buying no tickets. They want me to do something ignorant and stupid, tear a flag up or say something disrespectful to their country and all of that. Saying something to him and the other statement I said, people can draw in between that with a fine line, you know what I mean? You can just look at Gerry Cooney and Larry Holmes. People wanted that Great White Hope. That's always been thrown in our face, but they look at that like its promotion. It's something for them to have fun with so they look at it like, "Oh, Bernard's racist." At the end of the day, people know that a fight between 2 men is a rivalry amongst race and it makes no difference, black, white, Chinese or Puerto Rican. What it is, he ain't like Ricky Hatton dog. When Ricky Hatton fights, Ricky Hatton has London coming. Wales is not London so Joe, right now, is starting to get a reality check that he ain't as big in London, even though they will support him, but he ain't Ricky Hatton dog. Wales is a little small town like Hampton in New Jersey.
PC: I see what you're getting at.
BH: You follow me dog? So what they're trying to do is use me, thinking I'm this emotional nut and don't give me no credit for being able to outthink these jokers, so they trying to outthink me. So the reason Joe is out of character is for a plan to try and get me to motivate his fans to try and come over so he could be further motivated because if you take that away, he ain't in Wales no more (sneaky laugh). Now what have I been doing?
PC: I haven't seen you saying much, that's for sure.
BH: I've been quiet, haven't I? When a guy like me is quiet, it rattles everybody because you know that's not me. I'm up running them mountains; I'm up at 5:30. These sparring partners, we changed 3 of them so far. We got 4 of them in here now. I'm not overdoing it. They bring me in here and I spar 3 days a week. I have media day next Thursday and I'm out of here on the 14th. All the rap is gone. I'll talk to you and I'll talk to anybody else that wants to talk to me, but really, all of the rap is gone dog. It's no more rap, it's time for execution. What does the Executioner do? He comes in, he don't care if you like him, he's not trying to be liked and he ain't trying to be hated; he comes to do a job and he leaves and you rarely see his face. Silence is the best weapon to use when you're that guy that speaks your mind all of the time and people get used to that. When you be quiet, it rattles them. Joe is now being played to be out of character because of what I said; trying to get his people riled up and guess what? I'm not saying nothing. They thought they were going to just have to sit back and not say nothing while I run my mouth. Here again, I'm winning this fight. They look at Joe as this nice guy; an Oscar De La Hoya of Europe. Nice looking guy, a pretty nose, he don't look like he's been beat up, he has all of these defenses and he's been fighting over there and his nose is not flat like he's been punched in the nose. So he comes across as this European movie star type of guy. He ain't a trash talker. They going to show him kissing the baby with his family and all that and here they show me coming out of D-Block in Graterford on TV.
PC: I see the angle (laughing).
BH: Oh, the angle is there, but the thing is I don't have a problem with that. I ain't got no problem where I come from. I ain't saying I'm happy with everything I went through and had as an adolescent; all of my trials and tribulations. I don't blame nobody. I done my time, paid my dues and did beyond what anybody thinks a convicted felon could do in any given day or era. So April 19th, Bernard Hopkins will destroy another undefeated fighter. I'm going to make him look ordinary and I'm going to send him home on a long flight back to London. It's going to be someone out there, and mark my words, that's going to say, "This is what we fear, that he would leave Europe and this is what was going to happen to him." They still ain't going to give me the full 100% credit, but I'm not even tripping off of that because it don't matter. I just want to show my promotion through this era. What we have amongst us, this potential icon who fought way beyond expectation and at this top level at 43 and a half by the time April comes here, a quarter rather, is something that people should see and enjoy instead of repeat how old he is. Let's enjoy it while we can. I don't see no other 43 year old fighter that's on top of his game, unless he's embarrassing himself inside the ring for the next 4-5 years. I don't see nobody on the horizon man. I'm not saying that to brag or boast, I'm just saying it is a blessing. I thank Allah every day in my sleep and when I get up, thank you for having me in this condition to be able to speak without stuttering, to be able to count and do business outside of boxing, to be respected by corporate America, white, black Chinese whatever, outside of boxing, make deals, hustle even when I have a major fight and still don't get distracted for all of these years man.
That's what I pay my homage to, and at the end of the day, I'm ready to rumble man because a lot of guys, when they go in that ring, they don't think about D-Block because they've never been there and that's not a knock on them because they've never went the way I went, but I know how to dig back into those days. Like I always tell my partner Shane Mosley, who I will be helping right after my fight, I'll go to Big Bear and help him. Let me tell you something, I told Oscar and I told Shane, "As long as we still in this business and we're not trying to embarrass ourselves, when we step in that ring as athletes, we must fight like we're poor even though we're not. That is very hard for some. Not for Bernard Hopkins, but for some, that is very hard. Oscar, you have to fight like you back in East L.A. and Shane, you have to fight like you're in Pomona, California. You gotta fight like you were in the Olympics and you saw that car or house you wanted to buy your moms and wasn't able to buy. You have to go back there and it ain't easy. It's going to be days you're sparring and you're going to get cracked by your sparring partner and you're going to look at yourself and say, 'Why am I doing this and I got 10+ million in the bank?' It's going to be days when you get up and it's going to be raining and you feel tired and you're going to be wondering, 'Damn, what's wrong with me?' It's just one of the days, but that's the days that are going to test your will to fight like you're poor even though you're not." That's a hell of a thing dog and everybody can't do it.
PC: I can remember a quote you said right before the De La Hoya fight and it was, "It was easy getting out of that wool or linen sheet, but it's tough once you're in silk sheets to get up at 5:30 in the morning knowing you don't have to." For you to still be willing to go there is much respect man.
BH: It's hard getting out of those silk sheets. The issue with me brother is I never bought those silk sheets. I never bought those silk sheets because I never had none. I still got those sheets that are maybe a grade higher because my wife buys all of that stuff. If I come in there and I see some satin, I'm going to pitch a you know what. It's like I'm sleeping on something that's wet. I don't want to be sliding all over the place man and I be sneezing at night and she going to tell me I'm messing up stuff; I don't want all of that stuff man. You going to sleep on something that you can't even sneeze every now and then?
PC: It's too pretty to sleep on man.
BH: Yeah, it's too pretty to sleep on. You sliding and you sweating; nah man, I don't want none of that. Just give me the sheet on the bed
I just learned that it's different grades of sheets. I don't want to sound stupid or ignorant, but they told me its different grades of sheets that are a higher caliber and whatnot.
PC: You got me on that one.
BH: Yeah, I just learned that and I've been eating a long time now and I didn't know that. 100% wool or
see, my man Malik know about all that stuff. The only thing I know is if they are clean, put them things on the damn bed. It's hard to get out of those silk pajamas man. I keeps it real. That don't mean I gotta be all ignorant and walk around with my underwear showing, but I've been introduced to 2 sides of society: corporate America and the hood. I know how to adapt to both. I frequently go back to both areas. Most of my family, you know, my sisters, I got out, but cousins, aunts and uncles and all that are still there, I can't bring everybody out the hood so I'm constantly in the hood. Some corners I stop and some corners I don't. Certain barbershops I go to and certain ones I don't. So when you come from the area where we come from, I mean, we know the stops. I ain't about preaching to everybody what they should do and what they shouldn't do. If they ask me, I'll tell them, but I just keep it moving man. Sometimes I just beep the horn, "Yo Chad!" I got fans and friends that are into all kinds of things, but they're still my fans. I just don't go down that alley with them; I ain't getting out the car. Ya'll on the corner, I'll keep stepping; keep rolling.
PC: I look at these press conferences for this fight and I see the beard growing out a little bit and you sporting the hoodie. It looks like you put BHop up for this one and you've brought back the Executioner?
BH: Yeah, the mask is back too! They don't even know, but nah, this is for print. You could let them know, but yeah; yeah, yeah, yeah. I will have it shaved down a little bit, but I'm on my grind man. I got the hood on all through the press conferences and that's what I told them, "X done got in that dark place man." They telling me to wear a suit man, but I told them, "Right now, I'm not the promoter." I'm not Golden Boy right now and they understood that. Oscar is like, "That's the way I gotta be." I told him yeah! I told him look here man and they look up to me in a way though. He's opened up in the last year and a half to me more than he ever did because he understands how I roll. See, before, he probably thought I was crazy because they didn't want us to be together. You see, power is strength. We come from different areas, but at the same day, we had the same ideas to both be champions and be somebody.
I'm not saying that I've been perfect all of my life and you're not saying I said that and I'm not saying that you are either, but at the same token, Shane, Oscar, Richard Schaefer and a lot of other fighters look up to me from what I accomplished, not only personally in my life, but that I was bold enough and brave enough to take on a big multi-billion dollar business and say to them that, "You're not going to do it to me and if I could save somebody else by not letting you do it to me, then people pay attention when you don't get killed." The expectation is that you will not survive going against these powerhouses man. You have to remember that I went and sat in hearings in '99 when I was getting calls in a nice threatening way, "If you do this, your career is over." This is public information. I'm not fabricating nothing. It's a good story and people could go back in their archives, I mean, if you could find it. It's 2008; they might have erased it. I remember being threatened by
I got threatened in a professional way. It's a street threat and a professional threat. The professional threat is, "I don't think that would be wise because it's a lot of things that won't happen for you that should happen for you in a fashionable time if you go down there and speak," because they're politicians and politicians are going to do things in a different manner than a street guy. The politicians were, well he ain't doing so good now, but Spencer and McCain, when they were doing the Muhammad Ali Bill. They called on fighters. Roy Jones, he didn't show, Holyfield, he didn't show, and I remember this like it was yesterday man and I challenge you to do your research to see if you can dig that up man. I went on a train from Philadelphia and guess what
I was getting ready to fight that 2nd rematch with Robert Allen and it was a week before I was going to training camp and I took off of training camp to go to New York City where they give the Heisman Trophy away at and spoke in front of all of the Senate hearing on behalf of the Muhammad Ali Bill at the time that was trying to be passed. I got a major right up on that man and I got a lot of respect for that, but at the same time, I was Public Enemy #1. A lot of people don't tell you that because they'll smile in your face and try to get you knocked off in the ring. They make you fight mandatory after mandatory. Short money. They put in purse bids for $50,000 when it should've been a couple of hundred thousand dollars to try and discourage me and if I win, I only get $50,000 and then they get sanctioning fees out of that because I got the belt. I went through it dog, but I'm making them pay now baby!
Let me leave you with this one and this is a very profound statement. They were glad when I said I was leaving because "we ain't gotta pay him no more and he can't mess up what we got planned for other fighters." If he stays around and keep beating these guys up, that means I make more money. The Oscar De La Hoya reunion really shattered a lot of people man; trust me. They said it wouldn't work; they tried to scare Oscar off before he even sat down to talk with me. I brought the idea to Oscar, and you could ask Richard Schaefer and all of them, I told him I didn't have a promoter and they looked at me like I was crazy because I had just knocked the man out and that night, I ran into them in the hallway of the lobby and told them I'm a free agent and that I would like to sit down and talk with them. I told them Arum was offering me a contract, but I wasn't sure I wanted to go that way. I wanted to start my own promotional company because I was just tired of dealing with promoters at that time. I got all 4 belts, the first time in history a fighter has had all 4 belts, WBA, WBC, WBO and the IBF. Next thing you know, I didn't hear from them for 2 weeks until they reached out to my lawyer, Arnold Joseph, and we're in L.A. shocking the world. You heard all of the jokes. They joked about us all the way up to damn near
except the Jay Leno show. They were saying we would be suing each other in 6 months and it would be done in 6 months; they feared that. That was the kind of, let me run this by you because you know history, but that's the kind of fear that reminds me of, and in a different way, but when Malcolm X and Martin Luther King was drinking coffee together. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King having a sit down (laughing). We can't have that because if Martin Luther King becomes friends with Malcolm, they messed up either way. If Martin Luther King becomes a Muslim with Malcolm, they done, and if Malcolm becomes
not a Christian, but affiliated with Martin, they know they were done, so me and Oscar messed some people up with that man; trust me!
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Be sure to check out Part 1 of this in-depth interview.]
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]