Bernard Hopkins
Bernard Hopkins
Bernard Humphrey Hopkins Jr.is an American professional boxer who has held multiple world titles at middleweight and light heavyweight. He reigned as middleweight champion from 1994 to 2005, unifying and successfully defending his title a record 20 times. He won the IBF title in 1994, later adding the WBC, WBAand The Ring magazine titles in 2001, and became the first man to simultaneously hold world titles by all four major sanctioning bodies when he won the WBO title in 2004;...
ProfessionBoxer
Date of Birth15 January 1965
CityPhiladelphia, PA
The only way you can get experience is from the clock. Time works with some people and against some people. Fortunately, the clock has worked in my favor.
Enjoy that you can see me now. I would love to see the great Michael Jordan and Julius Erving in their younger days, but they're gone. Look at me at 50, I'm going to eat right and live right so I can take less punches and look normal.
I'm not going to give up. If you pay attention to my plan and the way I live and the way I eat, then you have a chance to extend your life a few more years.
You've got to be willing to look at a guy's face and say I will kill you if I have to. You've got to be willing to look in his face and say that I will stab you, I will hurt you and you can't talk the game, you've got to really act and do the game. Prison is a thing where talking gets you killed. What gets you respect is you do. The guy that you fear is a guy that says nothing.
I would never let a white boy beat me. You can print that. I would never lose to a white person.
If you don't know your own value, somebody will tell you your value, and it'll be less than you're worth.
It takes no effort to be ordinary. Ordinary is not even a challenge. You can do nothing and be ordinary.
There is no better way to introduce our company to the area than to have a Philadelphia fighter like Demetrius represent us.
John said he was there for me and that he could tell me a lot about Tarver. I said, 'Are you serious?' He said he would even get in the ring with me and spar some if I wanted. He said he could still go 15 rounds. He was one of my defenses and he could have had an attitude about it, but he respects my longevity in the game. He understands because we trained so hard in the gym together all those years.
That's the only thing that I say to myself that I need to work on.
Bernard Hopkins, tonight, around the world and, I think, in person - one month shy of being 41 - put on a 12-round exhibition. I don't have to be ashamed of what happened tonight. Just to be competitive respectfully at this level, I believe, that y'all will respect me for my performance tonight.
Everything rides on Dec. 3. This fight is important because that's where Bernard Hopkins will show that anyone who went through the minefield again with him is in trouble. I've beaten everyone who got into the ring with me a second time, and some of them I sent into retirement. I have to deal with the clouds and the storm. You think you got me down and I rise up.