By Carlos Arias
LAS VEGAS --- There's only one way the ageless wonder Bernard Hopkins sees Floyd Mayweather losing to Marcos Maidana on Saturday night at the MGm Grand on Showtime PPV.
"The only chance that Maidana has is if the distractions and everything finally catch up with us with him or anybody, which there are not a lot of us on this level at this stage and on these big moments," Hopkins said after Thursday's Mayweather-Maidana undercard news conference.
"For him, it's bigger, obviously. But where I'm at in my career I understand that mentality whether you get $3 million to fight or $32 million. That's the level that you on. I think he's gonna rise to the occasion to use that which he probably needed anyway, because everyone's picking a cakewalk."
But this isn't just some regular distraction. It's pretty significant. Mayweather (or someone purporting to be him), who was apparently stung by being dumped by his former fiance Shantel Jackson, posted what they claimed to be a picture of her sonogram to Mayweather's official Facebook account insisting she had an abortion. Mayweather cut ties with her because he's pro-life. Golden Boy Promotions CEO was so concerned he reached out to Mayweather on Thursday to make sure his priorities were right.
Still, Hopkins believes Mayweather can use those distractions as motivation inside the ring.
"What I'm trying to say to you right now is this, any distraction is motivation for us," Hopkins said. "We need that. We got everything else. We done everything else. We use every little thing to motivate us. When we start, we got to get our momma a house. We gotta get a car. We gotta get things that are important to us, right? You get all these things and you're in the game, then you need other things to motivate you. You start looking for stuff. You break a window. I use to start arguments with people. I'd fire my cousin and then hire him back an hour later.
"These things that you don't actually plan and plot and premeditated stuff, but some of these things you want to happen. Some of these things you'd entertain. Like you got the biggest fight in the world coming up and you worried about a Tweet and you worried about this. I know what you talking about. You worried about this and you worried about that. That stuff don't mean ... what this is is saying look, don't be surprised if Maidana get cut and punished because of his style, right, and picked apart. But it ain't gonna be easy. That's what I believe Floyd can bring to the table with his skills compared to Maidana."
Even though Hopkins believes Mayweather will be victorious he said Maidana will give him a battle.
"Maidana's dangerous out of anybody he fought prior to getting that big contract (than) the last two guys," Hopkins said. "Why? First of all, I never seen a soft Argentine fighter from Carlos Monzon all the way up to now. Trust me. I'm old school. I love the sweet science. Second, this guy is wiry. His arms are longer. He's not the smallest out of the two guys he fought that is Mayweather. He is this awkward overhand right that caught Broner. That's gonna be his favorite punch that he try to land, because of the styles and the way as the fight goes on. The way Floyd leans back to avoid punches. To let him almost hit him and then counter. You gonna have those moments where you're like, 'Whoa, wait a minute.'"
Contact Carlos Arias on Twitter @PunchyMcGee.
