As someone who has covered boxing for over 14 years, it has been an honor to report on Bernard Hopkins.
The two of us have a connection that few reporters, if any, can say they have with Hopkins. He went to prison for five years when he was a young man. Yours truly is a former gang member who was facing 1 to 5 years in the California state prison system back in the late 1970s for gang-related violence. Only a legal technicality that got the case thrown out of court prevented that from happening.
The point is, once one has had a good taste of the streets, it’s not easy to completely change one’s life for the better. It’s not easy getting someone who has never been in any serious trouble to understand just how difficult that can be, and that is no doubt part of the reason why Hopkins still talks about his trials and tribulations more than 20 years after they took place.
There is a unique sense of pride that sets in when a metamorphosis such as the one undertaken by Hopkins occurs. You can bet that is why he became the fighter he did, why he became one of the greatest middleweights in history. In his heart, he knows just how lucky he is to be where he is today. To be alive, period. He will not take any of it for granted.
That is why he is such a tireless worker, why he will never slack off. He knows if he does, he could get embarrassed in the ring. With everything he put himself through during his trouble-making days, there is no way he will let that happen. His inner strength is such now that half-assing anything is out of the question.
Having a good idea about the way Hopkins thinks, it was not surprising to hear him label his first world title fight as his most impressive and most important. Even though it was a draw with Segundo Mercado nearly 14 years ago in December 1994. The setting was Ecuador, Mercado’s homeland, and he and Hopkins were battling for a vacant middleweight world championship.
“I’m going to go back and I’m going to mention this fight and if you remember this fight it was about will, it was about heart, and it was about willing to leave my country and go abroad,” said Hopkins, who Saturday will defend his Ring Magazine light heavyweight belt against Joe Calzaghe at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. HBO will televise.
Hopkins said he got to Ecuador only 48 hours before the fight, giving him little time to adjust to the foreign surroundings. He said other fighters involved on the card looked at him “like I had two heads. Why would I come in so late?”
Hopkins, then 29, was knocked down in the fifth and seventh rounds.
“I survived two knockdowns – if you remember this fight – I come back and I knocked him down and I got a draw in Ecuador fighting an Ecuadoran,” Hopkins said. “That was a fight that any knowledgeable person around the world that seen that fight – promoter, fan or media – had to think for one second that we got a guy that’s going to rise up amongst boxing and be considered great.
“And here I am 10-plus years (later). That fight there showed me and showed probably a lot of other people that I’m going to be around for a long time. And it came to pass. So that was the most important fight to me, not actually a big fight, but it was a fight that … built character for me.”
You see, we get back to the character issue. When a guy like Hopkins, who went through a lot of personal turmoil, gets his act together he builds that character like few can. And the rest, as they say, is history. Four months later, in April 1995, Hopkins stopped Mercado in the seventh round in Landover, Md., to win the championship. Today, Hopkins has a record of 20-2-1 in world championship fights.
Through it all, Hopkins, 43, has proved to be one of the most intelligent fighters of the past two decades. He sees and does things in the ring few can only fantasize about doing. He can ruin an opponent’s game with the best ever. Which leads us to the future of this certain Hall of Fame inductee.
As smart as Hopkins has been in the ring, he knows he has to use that wonderful brain to determine what road he wants to take post-Calzaghe. From the sound of a conference call he played host to promoting Saturday’s fight, he came off as being fairly certain that this will be his last fight. Win or lose.
Yes, we know, he has said that before. But never like this.
“You know, as you get older every year you get to thinking differently than last year,” Hopkins said. “At least I do. I don’t know, maybe some people think different. I don’t know. But, you know, you can only go to the well so many times and get water. You go there one time there ain’t no water there because you already took it out. I’m going to the well April 19 because there’s a bucket left.”
If Hopkins (48-4-1, 32 KOs) beats Calzaghe, it will be yet another in a long line of impressive victories in a career that we should all be glad panned out the way it did. Hopkins is to be praised for his accolades in the ring. He is to be praised for the intestinal fortitude he has shown outside of it.
Of course, none of what Hopkins has done means diddly to Calzaghe. He has his own life to live, his own career with which to be concerned. Hopkins’ dignity is a very powerful tool, one that he has used with deft precision. But Calzaghe is wearing this jacket of someone who made his bones in the United Kingdom, one who has rarely ventured far from home to display his craft.
In other words, he has more than plenty for which to fight. He wants to show American fans what all the fuss is about regarding his record of 44-0 and 32 knockouts and 10-year reign as a super middleweight world champion. Hopkins will have his hands full.
Then again, Calzaghe recently admitted that he will, too.
“Early in the day, it’s a challenge in itself to go to America and to win,” said Calzaghe, 36, of Wales. “At the end of the day, let’s face it, I’m going outside my comfort zone, and at the end of the day you’re (meaning Hopkins) the Golden Boy (Promotions) fighter. So at the end of the day I have to not just go there and win, I have to go there and win a proper win.
“I have to go there and dominate. And that’s a difficult task to do against somebody like Hopkins. At the end of the day I know you say he’s 42, 43, but he’s still an excellent fighter. You can’t take that away from him. Look at his last two fights (against Antonio Tarver and Winky Wright), he has won comfortably.
“The guy can still fight – he’s a very good fighter. The two (losses) against (Jermain) Taylor (in 2005) were disputed decisions, so you can make a case to say his last loss was to Roy Jones (in 1993) all those years ago.”
In the game of life, Hopkins’ last loss was when he was sent to prison. His biggest victory came when he got out and made the decision to be all that he could be.