By Thomas Gerbasi
Did you ever want something so bad it hurt? Well, that’s because wanting something so bad to the point where you lose your focus on the little things that you got you to where you’re at in the first place will hurt you. Revenge, redemption, desire, whatever you want to call it, can only end badly if you let it consume you.
Middleweight legend Marvelous Marvin Hagler knows all too well how that feels. After chasing Sugar Ray Leonard around for years, he finally got him cornered in 1987. But as soon as Hagler started abandoning his southpaw stance and playing Leonard’s game, the fight might as well have been over. Leonard would win a close, and some still say controversial, decision that night, and the bitterness over the verdict prompted Hagler to walk away from the sport.
A future Hall of Famer who also made his name in the middleweight division, Bernard Hopkins, has been doing a little chasing himself – of the man who beat him in 1993, Roy Jones Jr. That quest has taken him nearly 17 years, making Hagler’s pursuit of Leonard look like child’s play in comparison.
Like Leonard, Jones has dangled the rematch in front of his nemesis for years. He has offered it, pulled it back, and offered it again before finally agreeing to this Saturday’s bout in April. And it’s not because Jones is being charitable; it’s because after getting knocked out by Danny Green last December, the former pound-for-pound king has few, if any, big money options left.
But this isn’t about Jones’ desire to remain somewhat relevant in the sport; it’s all about Hopkins and his search for redemption against the one man he still can’t stomach losing to. It’s been a driving force for years, and when you ask Hopkins if there’s such a thing as wanting this rematch too much, surprisingly, he agrees.
But first he has a story from his formative years in North Philadelphia.
“There was this girl named Vonetta in the neighborhood, I never forget her name,” said Hopkins to BoxingScene. “And basically, back then, they didn’t call it stalking. I saw this girl every day, she lived a block away on Sharpnack Street. I lived on the first block of Sharpnack, she lived on the third block. And it was eighth grade, so, you know, you get cupcakes, and I gave her all my little five dollars I had in my pocket. And when I finally got a kiss, I wet my pants.”
He chuckles.
“I wasn’t cool under pressure,” continued Hopkins. “You wanted something so bad, and you had the opportunity, and you were circling around like a hawk, then you eventually get a chance and you blow it. Either you were short, or you blew your gasket too early, I understand what you’re talking about – that was just my interpretation.”
Hopkins understands the comparison to Hagler-Leonard and how it could reflect on him come fight night, but first he qualifies it stylistically, saying, “Hagler was so anxious, so mentally and physically tight, and Ray Leonard had the style to always be a foot or two ahead of him.”
Then comes the kicker, the only real concern he has at this point, with fight night closing in on him.
“I’ve got history to give me a warning that that is a possibility,” he said. “That now will be controlled, and you have to understand the risks of wanting something so bad and so long. 17 years to overshoot the runway, and I don’t get too anxious to the point where I make the fight harder than it’s supposed to be. You are absolutely right. This fight is a fight that I have more to lose than gain and that’s what makes this fight more dangerous to me than to a Roy Jones Jr.”
He’s one hundred percent accurate. Despite being four years older than Jones (45 to 41), Hopkins is undoubtedly the fresher fighter, barring some overnight aging that could always be a possibility once the big 4-0 enters the equation. He has kept his body in perfect condition for years, rarely straying from the gym, and if anything, he may have gotten better as he’s gotten older. He’s far from an Arturo Gatti when the bell rings, but his smarts, old-school tricks, and ability to find a way to win by fighting when he wants to fight, has served him well.
Jones, on the other hand, has seen a steady decline from the time he beat John Ruiz and Antonio Tarver in back-to-back fights in 2003. Since then, Jones – voted Fighter of the Decade for the 1990’s by the Boxing Writers Association of America – has only managed to compile a paltry 5-5 record, with three of those losses coming by way of knockout. As his speed and reflexes slowed, Jones’ opponents found out that they could pressure and hurt him, and it has left him in a position many felt he would never be in – as the former great hanging on too long.
It’s this decline that has most fans and pundits looking at this bout as nothing more than a money grab to squeeze the last penny out of two superstars’ name recognition. And Hopkins is far from a naïve babe in the woods in this equation. He knows that there will be people who tune in just hoping for a glimpse of the past, and he will walk away from the bout with his wallet a little thicker than it was last week. But for him, it’s more than just another payday, and when asked if his stellar career would be missing something at the end of the day if he didn’t get the rematch with Jones, he doesn’t hesitate with his response.
“Absolutely. There was a lot of criticism behind this fight that’s been surfacing, then it would die down and then some people would say certain things, but yeah, to me, I’ve accomplished so much in spite of everything, and one thing that’s stayed in my mind is the Roy Jones fight. Even through the ups and downs of my career – many ups and not that many downs – and Roy Jones’ – many downs in the last five, six years – it’s still a fight that I wanted because of the history and because to show Roy Jones Jr. and the world that even five, six, seven years ago, the reason that he didn’t want to get back in the ring with Bernard Hopkins is that in 1993 he realized the type of champion I would be and what type of champion I became.”
It’s as personal as a fight can get for Hopkins, and would we really be out of line to suggest that ‘The Executioner’ is going to savor this one even more because he will have the opportunity to beat a fighter who is far from his best, with all the bragging rights that will come with scoring a decisive finish?
Hopkins, obviously knowing that he has to sell a fight, disagrees.
“It’s not like something where I want to pick on Roy because I’ve seen that he’s down,” he said. “Roy Jones is a dangerous, wounded animal. I don’t say that with disrespect, but any animal that’s wounded, they tell you don’t go close to it. I’m gonna have to go close to it to get this guy in the ring come April 3rd.”
He will have no problem getting close to Jones in the ring this Saturday, especially considering that he can cite chapter and verse on every aborted attempt to make the fight and every slight he has received from Jones over the years when Jones was the HBO darling holding all the cards.
“The back and forth, the HBO promotional split screen, you in one city, I’m in another city,” he recalls, revisiting the February 2002 night when Hopkins and Jones both fought (against Carl Daniels and Glen Kelly, respectively) and then were supposedly hash out a deal for the rematch. It didn’t happen. “Then I went on a plane down to Pensacola, Florida to speak with Roy after he had me sitting for six hours. That was well-documented, Roy will tell you when you ask him. ‘Hey, tell me about Bernard Hopkins coming down there five, six years ago to speak to you about doing a fight’, and then he turned around and used me to make another fight. It’s an ancient trick in boxing – you act like you’re fighting this person just to get this person that you’re really negotiating with to take the money that you’re trying to offer him – which is low. The bottom line is I even went on a plane and spent my money to go down to talk to Roy to say ‘look man, how can we get a deal?’ And I thought we had a deal. That’s how bad I wanted this fight.”
Hopkins takes a rare pause, as if to let all of this sink in once again.
“I might not get the full credit for the victory, but I will be at closure with me and my life.”
Then, just as quickly, Hopkins breaks from this moment of introspection and goes back into promoter mode, making sure that he gets to put his spin on the fight.
“Every time that things didn’t go my way, it seems that’s been my biggest motivator to keep pushing,” he said. “I want to win every time. But I understand that if I don’t put the work ethic into it, and believe mentally that I can win, then it’s all smoke and mirrors. When you run up against an athlete that has the mentality of a Michael Jordan, when Michael Jordan was the guy, or a Kobe Bryant or a LeBron James, look at their faces, look at their body language. They’re ruthless, ruthless executioners on that court, and they take no prisoners. And April 3rd is a historic fight with two 40-year old plus athletes; to me it’s Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson on the court. It’s Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns’ second fight, its Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier’s third fight. This is a fight that people are gonna say ‘there are two highly educated, smart fighters’; how many times are we gonna be blessed to see this?”
‘Blessed’ may not be the word most are using about the bout, but plenty will see it, even if they now claim to be staying away from the television remote around 9pm Saturday night. And if Hopkins – as expected – wins the fight, he will have achieved the one thing he wanted most for the last 17 years – to get even with Roy Jones Jr.
For a 45-year old fighter with nothing left to prove, it would be the perfect swan song.
Hopkins disagrees. And you just know that he’s got everything all planned out in his head.
“When I beat Roy Jones Jr. I won’t get the credit that I deserve, but nevertheless, it’s a feather in my cap, another chapter,” he said. “But then I want to do what Roy Jones did, but even better and against a better opponent. John Ruiz is fighting David Haye the same day in Manchester. To me, no disrespect to John Ruiz, even though the fight hasn’t happened yet, I’m looking for David Haye. He’s under our promotional contract in the States (ed note - so is Ruiz), and I’m hoping to get the winner. What a great story, and that’s a great ending.”
Hard to deny that.
“Let’s not forget, I am a promoter, and I can sell ice to an Eskimo,” he fires back. “Put it this way, I can’t guarantee I’ll sell it, but I will damn sure try.”
Then he’s off again.
“That’s the perfect exit. Not only to get Roy Jones back in the ring April 3rd, but to also become the third middleweight in history to make that attempt for the heavyweight title. Now there’s more incentive for me to execute Roy Jones Jr. and start immediately campaigning for the winner of John Ruiz and David Haye.”
So without him saying it, that’s Bernard Hopkins’ real master plan to get his payback from Jones - not only by beating him in the ring, but by getting his name above his in the record books.
Bob Fitzsimmons
Bernard Hopkins
Roy Jones Jr.
And that would be the sweetest victory.
Part One – The Executioner in Winter
https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=26146
Part Two – The Maverick
https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=26351
