by Rick Reeno
IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins spoke to BoxingScene.com about the upcoming fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, which takes place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The match takes place at a catchweight of 152-pounds - two pounds shy of the junior middleweight limit. Alvarez, the WBC/WBA champion, will have to cut two-pounds. Mayweather, the WBC's champion at 147, will come up in weight by five-pounds, but he also holds the WBA's "super title" at 154 and fought twice in the past at the full junior middleweight limit.
"I think he should have fought him where he feels that he's comfortable at, so if he's comfortable at 154 where he's fighting at, two-pounds maybe - but other than that I'm going to fight where I'm comfortable at. So he might have given up some edges there, but 152 - which I did read - was important in making this fight. If that's what Floyd wanted, then he won the battle on that," Hopkins told BoxingScene.com.
"At the end of the day, if I can get a guy to a weight class where I know he's not used to or hasn't been in - why wouldn't I take that advantage or take that chance. But personally myself, even though I said I would - if I'm thinking that way, I don't want nobody to have an excuse that I gave them a disadvantage to fight Bernard Hopkins."
"And that's the difference for me, and I'm not saying that nobody is doing it or nobody has ever done it. But if it comes out after the fact [the weight was a problem], then we know that ' A' - that was a factor, and ' B' - you can't complain about something you agreed to. If you wanted the fight and you were willing to cut your left leg off to get it - then that's on you. I'm not that type of guy. I can't do it because I don't want no excuses."
Hopkins is no stranger to accepting catch-weights. In order to secure some of his biggest fights, Hopkins was forced to come down in weight.
"To get the [Kelly] Pavlik fight I had to be 170. To get Winky Wright [I had to make 170], and I had the title and I was the champion. For [Oscar] De La Hoya I had to be 158 and I came in at 157 and I shocked everybody. I knew why they were doing it. This is the mindset of Bernard Hopkins. They looked at me like I was crazy when I made 157. I'll never forget it when I went on the scale in Vegas. And I made history as being the first fighter to have all four belts. The only way that fight was going to happen is that I had to come in at 158 and I came in 157 - and I blew everybody away that I came in at 157," Hopkins said.
