Bernard Hopkins: Update
Bernard Hopkins might have been the best over-forty boxer ever. Time and again, he’d get in the ring with younger fighters who told him, “You’re old and you’re tired.” And Bernard – by word and deed – would answer, “You think so, do you? I’m going to teach you a few things about fighting.”
Not everything that Hopkins did was wise. He made enemies and ruffled feathers. “There’s still people who hope I get on a plane tomorrow and it don’t land right,” he acknowledges. “And there’s parts of my past that I’m not proud of. But they’re part of me. And I’ve been right more than I’ve been wrong.”
Now, nine months shy of his sixtieth birthday and seven years removed from his last fight, Bernard is part of the contemporary boxing scene through his association with Golden Boy. “This is a different time in my life now from everything that came before,” he says.
Hopkins joined Golden Boy in 2004 as a minority partner with the title “president of East Coast Operations.” He was given a small equity interest in the company and has been on salary ever since. It was also agreed that Golden Boy would promote his future fights.
Richard Schaefer (Golden Boy’s CEO at the time) recalls, “Bernard was brought in to advance Golden Boy’s interests with the fighters and also to explain the fighters’ needs to Golden Boy. Because of his personality, where he came from, and what he had accomplished, he had credibility with the fighters. So when he talked to them about no drugs, no alcohol, stay in shape, stay out of trouble, they were much more likely to listen to him than if it came from me. We had no idea that Bernard would fight for as long as he did. And to be honest; given the hostility between Bernard and some of his earlier promoters, very few people thought that the relationship would last. As you know, I’m no longer with Golden Boy. But from what I hear, not only has Bernard done everything that has been asked of him, he has been extremely loyal to Oscar.”
Bernard Hopkins counsels Golden Boy fighter John “Scrappy” Ramirez. Photo by Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy Promotions
“Bernard has gone out of his way to mentor some of our fighters,” adds Eric Gomez (president of Golden Boy Promotions). “They listen to him; they trust him; and they respect him because he has street credit. Whatever they’re going through, Bernard can say he’s been there, done that, and gone through worse.”
“Life is a chess board,” Hopkins says in response. “When I was young, I played the short game and made mistakes. Now I know how to play the long game with my pieces. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do things. Let’s say you got a weed that you want to get rid of. You can nip it off, but that’s the short game. The weed grows back. If you pull the weed out by the root, it never grows back. I preach discipline. I preach motivation. I preach doing things right.”
Bernard’s association with Golden Boy brought him to Barclays Center for the April 20 fight between Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia (who’s promoted by Golden Boy).
“It’s been a soap opera month,” Hopkins acknowledged on Wednesday of fight week. At the final pre-fight press conference on Thursday, Bernard was uncharacteristically brief, saying simply, “We have a fight. Period. Enjoy it.”
That night, Hopkins talked about what Garcia needed to do to beat Haney, explaining, “Ryan has to be patient enough and calm enough and consistent enough to do what he has to do to take care of business. That’s a lot for a personality like Ryan, but that’s the key. This fight isn’t about one big left hook. Be patient; be calm; be consistent. If Ryan does all that, the big punches will come. Haney is a high-level, very good technical fighter. But when the time is right, when the opportunities are there, Ryan can take more chances than Haney. Smart calculated chances.”
And asked about Garcia’s erratic behavior, Bernard answered, “I don’t agree one hundred percent with what Ryan believes and does. But I realize that this is part of what we live in today. The world is changing. In this time that we live in, the thinking of this generation, it’s different. What I believed and did in my time was criticized too. It all comes down to the fight. If Ryan wins, they’ll be calling him a genius for being successful in a situation where he wasn’t expected to be successful and saying he had everything planned.”
Ryan Garcia embraces Hopkins after scoring the most important victory of his career. Photo: Golden Boy / Cris Esqueda
Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – MY MOTHER and Me” – is a personal memoir published by Admission Press that’s available at:
In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, he was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
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