Hopkins: Race to blame for lack of coverage

He's a boring fighter and boxing is a niche sport in America. If Hopkins were in another country he'd get more love.

Ali was hated during his prime by white corporate White corporate? Why do you black supremacists always throw words around you don't even know the meaning of?

I agree with B-Hop 100%. No other athlete in any sport is competing at such a high level at 50. If he was white He'd be Americas Darling the grandfather doing things no body thought possible. He's be gettig way more press and love from the mainstream. This old man is taking on what many believe is his biggest threat at 50 the press should be all over this. For me this one of the most anticipated fights this year along with Canelo/Lara and Manny/ Bradley. The Mayweather / SRL / Ali comparisons don't make sense to me at all. Ali was hated during his prime by white corporate and really never recisved to full liove he deserved till after his retirement. SRL was a house neg.ro saying all the right things. And Mayweather had to change his whole persona to being the heel and ignorant rap star approach to achieve his level. B-hops old school no flash, no coo.n tactics to try and draw people in. Cut from the same cloth as Hagler there's no act. Plus his style isn't going to draw people in. But the fact he's Still going strong at 50 in maybe the most physically demanding sport he should be getting way more press and accolades then he currently does. It doesn't matter though because hes cemented his legacy and in 50-100 years Hopkins name will still be brought up as the one of the greatest ever. Win or lose on Saturday

Respect BHOP, but gimme a ****in break bro.

I have to ask, what exactly has Algieri accomplished? He is so overrated that it's ridiculous. Pavlik beat some top fighters but he faded fast. Algieri on the other hand, is hyped for one questionable win over another overrated fighter. Another example of discrimination and racism, if Algieri were black he would be praised for his boxing skills, but since he is white he is overrated and barely won, and Ruslan a chinese white guy is overrated. If Algieri were white he would be the new erislandry lara, aka the new avoided slick boxer. White fighters get discriminated more in boxing, non blacks, black boxing fans call them bums, overrated, etc. and accuse them of ducking black boxers all the time. They also call MExican fighters flat foot with no defense just heart. I even seen some black power flowmos say Pacman has NO boxing skill and is nothing but a wild combo puncher, smh. Pac has really good skills, you need to have skills to get to his level. A white fighter gets called white hype, if you said black hype that is racist.

In a wider social context there's some validity in what Bernard is saying but he's overlooking the specifics. And it's the specifics that are the issue here. Boxing is a fringe sport and very few people outside of boxing's fan-base know who Hopkins is. Even less have heard of Kovalev. He also plies his trade in a widely overlooked weight division. All but one casual fan that I've put on to Hopkins has been severely disappointed, most don't like the way he fights and that's even before he starts to pull his more irksome stunts. And the man just isn't media friendly. He refuses to engage in sound-bites and can often be found giving long winded lectures to journalists on how they should do their jobs whilst simultaneously needing them to provide him with the statistics that he's using to highlight how little they know! Now I'm a a fan of Bernard, but the man certainly isn't to everyone's taste and that has less to do with the hue of his skin than it does his oppositional character. Pretty much.

It has nothing to do with being black. It's that he's boring. His personality isn't that entertaining either. If he was knocking guys out at 49 he'd be a bigger story. The fact his last KO was in 10 years makes people not want to watch. Is it the way it should be? No. but it's the simple truth.

Lol. Hopkins fight should not even be televised.

In a wider social context there's some validity in what Bernard is saying but he's overlooking the specifics. And it's the specifics that are the issue here. Boxing is a fringe sport and very few people outside of boxing's fan-base know who Hopkins is. Even less have heard of Kovalev. He also plies his trade in a widely overlooked weight division. All but one casual fan that I've put on to Hopkins has been severely disappointed, most don't like the way he fights and that's even before he starts to pull his more irksome stunts. And the man just isn't media friendly. He refuses to engage in sound-bites and can often be found giving long winded lectures to journalists on how they should do their jobs whilst simultaneously needing them to provide him with the statistics that he's using to highlight how little they know! Now I'm a a fan of Bernard, but the man certainly isn't to everyone's taste and that has less to do with the hue of his skin than it does his oppositional character.

If Hopkins were flashy n hip then ESPN would have him as top story every night. Hopkins just doesn't fit the bill, he's truly old school, wearing a mean mug of a face, which doesn't do anything for the nerd frat boy crowd over at ESPN.

LOL @ B-Hop playing the race card. Nobody gives a fuk because he's FUKING BORING to watch.

Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Floyd Mayweather, Ray Robinson, Ray Leonard, Joe Louis, Marvin Hagler, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, George Foreman etc etc These are other black boxers that were ignored throughout their career.

So the same could be said about any other racist as well? I mean its just the persona they impose right? So its fine. It is bull and Bernard pisses me off with how racist he is. I'm just saying in this case I give him a pass just because I think he deserves more respect in America for his upcoming challenge. As far as Bernard's inability to say anything good about Pac and obvious racist diatribes, I think they're wrong

Bro neither Pavlik nor Algieri are ATG's and most importantly ATG's taking a fight against a guy as good and dangerous as Kovalev AT 50 years old. It's not even comparable. I said a guy named Chip or Dick who is not just taking a dangerous fight but doing it at 50 years old and already being a ATG. Big difference. A white 50 year-old athlete at the top of his game is always going to draw more coverage then a black 50 year-old given that there are much more black athletes then white. Also the target market is white people because there the ones who will actually pay for the ppv

with a fight like this for Bernard Hopkins. He deserves more recognition in the sports world right now and I don't really care that he is stooping to this level in doing so. What you should really be mad at it is the fact that a atg like B-hop has to come up with a headline like this to get the mainstream media to take notice. B-hop can be a racist dumb@ss but I think that comes with the persona he imposes. So the same could be said about any other racist as well? I mean its just the persona they impose right? So its fine.

The racist ones are always the ones crying racism because that's how sh1t works in their minds. So they assume everyone else is like that. Hopkins is a f*cking idiot. Him being black has nothing to do with this fight not getting big coverage. Boxing isn't a sport that's get's crazy coverage to begin with outside of Mayweather and Pacquiao.

I was just pointing out that white American fighters do not get any attention either, just like every American fighter not named Mayweather. Pavlik won the lineal MW title with a brutal knockout, his 3 successful defenses did not come against remarkable opposition, but his rematch vs. Taylor, his fight vs. Hopkins, and his title loss to Martinez did not receive any American media hype or attention. Algieri has done very little, but his victory vs. a supposed killer in Provodnikov did not garner any American media attention and his upcoming fight vs. a superstar in Manny Pacquiao has failed to even register on the radar even though the fight is coming up in less than 3 weeks. Boxing only exists underground in America. On the internet, in boxing gyms, and in arenas. I wish it was different, but it doesn't have anything to do with race. Bro neither Pavlik nor Algieri are ATG's and most importantly ATG's taking a fight against a guy as good and dangerous as Kovalev AT 50 years old. It's not even comparable. I said a guy named Chip or Dick who is not just taking a dangerous fight but doing it at 50 years old and already being a ATG. Big difference.

I think race is probably a factor in the lack of interest in boxing generally alright. I do think the lack of white American champions undermines the mainstream impact of the sport. But there are lots of other reasons too. Relative to almost every other sport on the planet, boxing is terribly organised. It's just a whole load of factional interests undercutting each other and stabbing each other in the back. Meanwhile the sport gets steamrolled by the professionally organised mainstream sports. If you want to watch american football, soccer, baseball, or basketball, there's a regular schedule there for you to follow. The scheduling of boxing seems almost totally random to everyone except hardcore fans of the sport. And even then it's hugely unpredictable. Just look at 2014, and entire calendar year where next to nothing has actually happened. How on earth could a sport where that goes on possibly compete with FIFA, or the NFL or NBA. It can't, it gets crushed. The people who run this sport are a disorganised rabble. It's not entirely their fault, it's just the way things are. It would be tough enough for boxing to compete for column inches if it was brilliantly marketed and driven by a clear and effective strategy. But to expect widespread coverage of the sport as it is now is madness. It just won't happen.

You're an idiot. Pavlik and Algieri didn't receive any recognition for their accomplishments by mainstream American sports media. It doesn't have anything to do with race as Mayweather (African-American) and Pacquiao (Asian) are the faces of boxing in America. It also doesn't have anything to do with excitement as Mayweather (defensive fighter) draws millions of PPV buys. The reality is that boxing is not even a top 10 sport in America. Boxing may be popular in places like Canada, Mexico, Argentina, UK, Germany, Eastern Europe, and Asia, but it is a fringe/niche sport in America. Football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, college football, college basketball, NASCAR, golf, and tennis are all more popular than boxing in America. It is no one's fault and I wish it were different, but it is reality. The nature of boxing's brutality and the cognitive difficulties that great American fighters like Ali, Robinson, Frazier have experienced has lessened boxing's impact in America. This is why Americans largely do not box anymore. The same brutality and brain injuries that harmed boxing's popularity in America is now doing the same to the current most popular sport, football. good points

"Bernard Hopkins has caused a stir implying that Donovan Mcnabb is not black enough. The two men have decided to settle their difference with an old fashioned game of who cannot catch a cab" -Norm Macdonald i love norm