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Hopkins: You remember the Kelly Pavlik fight, right?
Q
Everybody remembers all of your fights.
B. Hopkins
Do you know how long I sat on the sideline after that fight?
Q
A log, long time.
B. Hopkins
Okay. That wasn't an accident. That was, I quote, "By design." That's why I stared. Listen, I knew; I got a heads up before I even beat the guy. I got my politics and I got my ears and eyes in boxing too. That's why I stared.
Don't you understand why I looked at everybody in that emotional night when I looked and said nothing? I didn't jump on the rope. I didn't say, "I did it." I didn't say, "I'm the greatest." I didn't do any of that. I stared because I knew that this was it. I knew that the powers that be and the mafia of boxing-yes, I said the mafia of boxing-was going to shut me down and hopefully, I'd get discouraged. Hopefully, I'd do something reckless and ******. Hopefully, I wouldn't have the patience and just go whatever But at the end of the day I held back and I held firm.
I held firm, like Gandhi. Gandhi used to go to prison and fast. He didn't eat for 30 days sometimes. He didn't eat. He just went to prison; sat there; didn't eat. He went on a hunger strike. You remember Gandhi, right?
Q
I hope so.
B. Hopkins
Okay.
Q
Which one is more motivating to you; is it more motivating with your last comments on who's trying to get you out, your age, the history? Which one is it?
B. Hopkins
Listen, politics is kind of being nice. I'm going to use the word mafia from now on. The mafia of this sport, that's our organization, more than one people that wants to dictate like they're God when you should do what they want you to do. That's never been me. You've been writing about boxing now; I'm pretty sure you've been writing about me for half of my career if not all of it. Don't you understand that you can't approach me with that crap? You've got to look at my history.
All of the sudden people think I got soft because I became affiliated with Golden Boy, like all of the sudden I'm going to be controlled like a puppet. That's not Bernard Hopkins. Don't you understand I'm going to go down the way I started? That was fighting, when I had no big entity behind me, when it was just little old me with the biggest heart, bigger than New York City. That is my spirit. That is me. That's what I'm going to leave, as my tombstone, I hope, will say; a man hath walked this land. These and what I've accomplished and what I stood up for will be echoed through history, whether through my kids, whether through my family, whether through my fans, whether it's through some media; whether it's through some history books. Just like we read about the old that came before me, we will read about me hopefully when that time comes.
Q
Everybody remembers all of your fights.
B. Hopkins
Do you know how long I sat on the sideline after that fight?
Q
A log, long time.
B. Hopkins
Okay. That wasn't an accident. That was, I quote, "By design." That's why I stared. Listen, I knew; I got a heads up before I even beat the guy. I got my politics and I got my ears and eyes in boxing too. That's why I stared.
Don't you understand why I looked at everybody in that emotional night when I looked and said nothing? I didn't jump on the rope. I didn't say, "I did it." I didn't say, "I'm the greatest." I didn't do any of that. I stared because I knew that this was it. I knew that the powers that be and the mafia of boxing-yes, I said the mafia of boxing-was going to shut me down and hopefully, I'd get discouraged. Hopefully, I'd do something reckless and ******. Hopefully, I wouldn't have the patience and just go whatever But at the end of the day I held back and I held firm.
I held firm, like Gandhi. Gandhi used to go to prison and fast. He didn't eat for 30 days sometimes. He didn't eat. He just went to prison; sat there; didn't eat. He went on a hunger strike. You remember Gandhi, right?
Q
I hope so.
B. Hopkins
Okay.
Q
Which one is more motivating to you; is it more motivating with your last comments on who's trying to get you out, your age, the history? Which one is it?
B. Hopkins
Listen, politics is kind of being nice. I'm going to use the word mafia from now on. The mafia of this sport, that's our organization, more than one people that wants to dictate like they're God when you should do what they want you to do. That's never been me. You've been writing about boxing now; I'm pretty sure you've been writing about me for half of my career if not all of it. Don't you understand that you can't approach me with that crap? You've got to look at my history.
All of the sudden people think I got soft because I became affiliated with Golden Boy, like all of the sudden I'm going to be controlled like a puppet. That's not Bernard Hopkins. Don't you understand I'm going to go down the way I started? That was fighting, when I had no big entity behind me, when it was just little old me with the biggest heart, bigger than New York City. That is my spirit. That is me. That's what I'm going to leave, as my tombstone, I hope, will say; a man hath walked this land. These and what I've accomplished and what I stood up for will be echoed through history, whether through my kids, whether through my family, whether through my fans, whether it's through some media; whether it's through some history books. Just like we read about the old that came before me, we will read about me hopefully when that time comes.
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