By Jake Donovan
The city of Philadelphia knows a thing or two about bullies. Their hockey team (the Philadelphia Flyers) was long ago given the nickname “Broad Street Bullies”, a status popularized by the team’s brawling ways during the mid 1970’s.
It wasn’t pretty – or even within the rules of the National Hockey League – but it eventually led to their becoming the league’s first expansion team beyond its original six to win the championship (better known as The Stanley Cup).
If you had to pick the boxing’s version of a Broad Street Bully, you needn’t look any further than the City of Brotherly Love, in fact Broad Street itself. It’s where Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1, 32KO) first cut his teeth as a prizefighter.
Tonight, it’s where he makes his return after more than a year away from the ring. The future Hall-of-Famer fights in his hometown for the first time in nearly seven years when he faces Enrique Ornelas at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia (Wednesday, VERSUS, 8PM ET).
A different Bernard Hopkins has been packaged for the public heading into this event. Having served as a prime stakeholder of Golden Boy Promotions for more than five years, tonight’s show marks the return of Hopkins the promoter.
No longer the bully, we’re supposed to believe, but the legendary fighter who can successfully multitask, guiding the remainder of his own career as well as the best East Coast talent his promotional company has to offer.
You can’t possible pound the pavement to drum up support if you’re spending your time scaring everyone away.
It’s why the promotion has focused more on Hopkins giving back to the sport after spending more than 20 years taking everything he needed in order to reach legendary status. The Hopkins comeback is the headliner, but not the entire story.
There’s also the developing of undefeated local fighters such as Karl Dargan, Danny Garcia and Taneal Goyco, all of whom will appear on the undercard.
Of course, what’s a community show without giving back to the community? A portion of the proceeds from the live gate will be distributed to three separate charities. Local police and fire department personnel receive a discount, as do Temple University students as well as veterans and active military members.
Most of what the night is about is the doing of Hopkins wanting more than to merely return to the ring. It had nothing to do with calling out a fighter, dropping a derogatory term or a few, or demanding more from an industry that has long been reluctant to give back, though almost always eventually giving in.
Instead of using the industry to get what he wants, Hopkins has allowed others to use him as a vehicle in efforts to drive their own career.
“There needs to be an outlet for our young fighters. They need a home base,” acknowledges Hopkins. “I could’ve fought anywhere and brought the talent behind me. I’m the door, and they’re behind me. I’m using myself to springboard their careers.”
He does so while putting the finishing touches on his own career, one that’s destined for Canastota in his first year of eligibility, which will basically be five years after retirement. So begins the transformation from fighter to full-time promoter, though the old dog insists he has plenty of fight left in him.
Hence, the return of boxing’s Broad Street Bully.
In his own way, Hopkins is even more accomplished than the bruisers on ice that managed to make NHL history in the mid 1970’s en route to two consecutive Stanley Cup championships, the only two in the club’s 42 years of existence. Five more trips to the Stanley Cup finals have followed, including a third straight after their back-to-back championships, albeit in a sweep to end their run. They were also blanked in their last attempt at hockey’s greatest prize, with their last appearance coming in the 1996-1997 season.
Hopkins has won more than a few championships of his own, and has also fallen short on the sport’s biggest stage, but has never been shut out or even truly dominated on any level. Losing only recently became some semblance of a familiarity, after only twice watching an opponent’s arm raised in victory in 50 fights spanning nearly 17 years.
The first came in his pro debut, dropping a four-round decision to fellow newcomer Clinton Mitchell just above the light heavyweight limit. A drop in weight would follow, as would 22 wins before running into Roy Jones Jr. in a fight that marked the first major championship bout for both.
Twelve years of terrorizing opponents and everyone else that stood in his way soon followed, specifically the best middleweights of his era. Along the road to a record-breaking 20 consecutive middleweight title defenses came his becoming the only fighter in the history of the sport to collect and simultaneously own all four major championships within a particular weight class as he became without doubt the dominant middleweight of his era.
Early in the reign, Hopkins developed a reputation as one of the most complete fighters of his time, but even more infamous for his anti-establishment stance on all industry-related issues. In addition to throwing down in the ring, Hopkins always took it upon himself to fight the good fight wherever he saw fit.
Most notable was his stance against the promoters he felt were doing him wrong, as well as his refusal to sign away his life to Don King, even if it meant spending more than half of his title reign unable to secure the other middleweight belt holders.
It changed in 2001, though a calculated move for Hopkins, the only kind he’s ever taken as rarely if ever is anything in his career done on a whim. He took on Lou DiBella as an advisor, and agreed to terms that would allow Hopkins to control his career for a brief period, in exchange for entrance in HBO’s middleweight tournament.
Two fights later came a career-defining 12th round stoppage win over Felix Trinidad to become the first fighter since his longtime boxing idol Marvelous Marvin Hagler to serve as undisputed middleweight champion.
Then came the sides of Bernard Hopkins not quite as fan friendly.
First was the well publicized split with and subsequent lawsuit loss to DiBella, in which Hopkins was forced to cough up more than $600,000 of his hard-earned money, a loss that meant a lot considering his reputation for being notoriously frugal.
As he continued to grow older, next came the transformation from boxer-puncher to whatever it takes to win. It was later in his reign as well as his move to light heavyweight in which he became boxing’s answer to Dave Schultz, perhaps the most bruising figure during the Flyers’ bully era as evidenced by his record setting number of minutes spent in the penalty box.
In order for Schultz to be summoned to isolation, he needed to be caught by the referees. Therein lies the difference between hockey’s bad boys and the version of Hopkins that graces a boxing ring these days – getting caught in the act.
His mauling, grappling, grinding action to a halt style has been perfected to an art form. Warnings come, but never to the moment of losing points or flirting with disqualification.
Though it’s allowed Hopkins to extend his career into his mid 40’s, it hasn’t always worked to perfection. He’s batting a meager .500 over his last six fights, each of which had more and more fans calling for his retirement.
But two controversial losses to Jermain Taylor were followed up by a career-resurrecting win over Antonio Tarver in his first trip to light heavyweight in 18 years. Just six months after an ugly, albeit narrow points loss to Joe Calzaghe came his most dominant – and watchable – performance in years, a virtual shutout of previously unbeaten Kelly Pavlik.
The Pavlik win was supposed to lead to one more grand act before possibly calling it a career. But plans for a cruiserweight showdown with Tomasz Adamek went nowhere fast. While negotiations for a summer clash fell apart, they were discussed, which is more than can be said for a light heavyweight bout with Chad Dawson that appears destined to never occur.
A lesser man would take such matters as a sign to pack it in and allow the next generation to take over. But the only direction Hopkins will offer to travel if not forward is sideways.
Waiting in the wings of tonight’s results is a long awaited rematch with Roy Jones. Not wanting to go into a big fight cold, Hopkins agreed to take short money for the VERSUS appearance against Ornelas, a middleweight journeyman who fights at the heaviest weight of his career.
It’s not HBO money, but waiting on a network handout has never been Hopkins’ thing.
After all, there’s only room in this town for one bully to survive.
That bully makes his return tonight.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .