Bernard Hopkins: Like Manny Pacquiao, I defend my reputation

http://64.19.142.13/cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/profile_large/hash/7f/55/7f55941d443ade934d28a8ae4b704f4e.JPG Michael Marley Boxing Examiner May 26th, 2011 2:52 pm ET Let his former adversary Joe Calzaghe strut about with his OBE (Order of the British Empire, bestowed by the Queen Mother herself). Boxing legend Bernard Hopkins, currently on a sweet Manhattan victory lap after making ring history in Montreal Saturday night as he beat Jean Pascal for the WBC light heavyweight crown (making him, at age 46, the sport’s oldest world champ ever), has his own honorifics. The Throwback is one. Philly Old School Fighter is another. But the one BHop who won’t stop really likes best is one more often used by rap icons such as Snoop Dogg than by boxers. “I am the OG (Original Gangster) of boxing,” Hopkins told me on Thursday. “What is an OG? Good question. “I think an OG is a person who is highly respected both in the criminal world and in the other world, the successful world. Since I’m older than any of these other guys, then I have this status. I think it means I’m a guy who is still writing in my boxing history book, a Hall Of Famer but still on top at an advanced age,” Hopkins said. You wiseguys, please refrain from any cracks about OG standing for “Old Grandpa,” lest you get bamboozled like BHop did to 28 year old Pascal over 24 rounds in two title bouts in Quebec. Hopkins has spoken sparingly about his plans to defend his reputation from illusory prefight remarks made by the Montreal based Pascal. Pascal intimated that Hopkins may not be a medical marvel in the proper sense but could be a drug cheater, charges the Canadian boxer of Haitian origin backed off on later. BHop said he has hired a veteran Canadian litigator to clean up any shadow left by Pascal’s baseless comments. In this regard, defending his hard-earned professional reputation, Hopkins is doing what Pinoy Idol Manny Pacquiao is doing in a Nevada court against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Golden Boy Promotions and others who Pacman claims have unjustly accused him of cheating with banned substances. Hopkins acknowledges the similarity with Pacquiao’s reputational defense. He thinks Pascal crossed the line from prefight hype to slander. Advertisement “I can’t go into the details right now but, yeah, I will be represented on that. I will do what I have to do to defend and protect my reputation from any slander, any libel, anything like this. I worked too hard to get to this level and to stay here. My name, my reputation is, at the end of the day, the only thing I’ve got. “I’m taking my name, my reputation, to the grave, not money. So this cannot be comprised like that. I must challenge any allegations like this,” Hopkins said. The Graterford Prison graduate said that he gets why Pacquiao hired lawyers to clear his good name. As someone who wenth through the criminal justice meat grinder as a youngster, to BHop "innocent until proven guilty" are just merely words heard on a television police show. “I never accused him because I don’t know what Manny Pacquiao does, what he eats,” Hopkins said. “But you can’t let those things just slide. We lived in a world of reputation. Talk about my mother, my father, call me a liar or whatever…but you’ve got to draw the line at any defamation or slander.” I aked Hopkins what his thoughts of and/or message to his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, might be given the revelation that the Golden Boy is battling substance abuse problems in a California rehab facility. “Oscar is a fighter and for us fighters, when we get knocked down, we get back up. The first step to overcoming those problems is admitting that you have them so, in that sense, Oscar is going the right way. “As soon as they clear it for non-family members to visit Oscar, I will be there for him,” Hopkins said. “I’m a positive guy and I am positive that Oscar will bounce back from this. It takes time but he’ll bounce back.” The OG has spoken, attention must be paid.