Comments Thread For: Hopkins: Sergio Martinez Would Have To Face Me at 175!

[-Kev-]

you know what, hopkins has self-respect. if anyone wants to fight him they have to move up. I wish sergio had that same kind of self-respect and said "fight me at MW or go to hell".

Martinez doesn't have nearly as much leverage to say that. Even being The Ring champ, he has little leverage to say that. You gotta be around as a top fighter for a long time to have that kind of negotiating attitude. Sergio just broke through the scene as a threat in like 2008. Hopkins brokethrough probably in 2001 when he beat Trinidad. And even then, he was already a top fighter before that, but that win got him a lot more respect than he had prior to 2001.

[KickAzz]

Martinez doesn't have nearly as much leverage to say that. Even being The Ring champ, he has little leverage to say that. You gotta be around as a top fighter for a long time to have that kind of negotiating attitude. Sergio just broke through the scene as a threat in like 2008. Hopkins brokethrough probably in 2001 when he beat Trinidad. And even then, he was already a top fighter before that, but that win got him a lot more respect than he had prior to 2001.

its not about leverage, it's about not selling out, not cashing out, not being desperate. hopkins has always been really proud of doing this his way and on his terms. martinez could learn a thing or two from hopkins.

hopefully martinez gets his payday, but not at the sacrifice of his health or dignity.

[mathed]

Hopkins didn't directly say Martinez would have to face him at 175, talkin' about putting words in peoples mouths

All he said was..."Whoever wants to face me has to come up to 175 pounds".

So basically, he is saying that if Martinez did want to fight him, he would have to come up to 175 to make it happen?

It could have been: "If Klitschko wants to fight me, then he'll have to drop to 175 to fight me" ..same thing

[DoktorSleepless]

Although, I'm not sure if he actually said those exact words in the title, he was referring to Martinez specifically. The quote is from a media conference call.

http://ring tv.craveonline.com/blog/169490-hopkins

On the potential for facing Martinez at 168 or 170 pounds:

"I didn't say that. You heard that? You didn't hear that from me. Maybe that's what certain groups out there want. Not that I mind fighting anybody that believes they can bring a challenge to me.

At the end of the day, after I take care of Chad Dawson on Oct. 15, anybody who wants to fight me has to fight me for my title. That's at the 175-pound ring belt and also the WBC belt.

There's no compromising when it comes to that, because I represent the light heavyweight division, and I mean there's no compromising. I'm 46 years old, four years from being 50.

I'm not in any position to give anybody any leeway, because I'm grandpa. Remember I'm the grandfather of the division. How can you ask a favor from grandpa when he's only 30-something.

Grandpa will fight anybody who wants to take the title belt, the RING belt, the WBC belt, and get any part of my legacy on their record. That's huge."

[edgarg]

Hopkins would probably struggle to get down to 170 pounds anyway. It's a good thing he won't accept going down and prefers to defend his title at the division limit.

Given that he beat Dawson, I wonder who he's going to fight if Bute is not willing to move up yet, awaiting the S6 winner.

That looks like the end of the Freddie Norwood and Smoke Gainer fight. I never saw such blatant fouling before, but there's no doubt that the ref was holding Norwood when Gainer badly fouled him. He was losing anyway. The ref had lost control of the fight before that. Like Joe Cortez and a few others I could name.

[gdub27]

At least B-Hop is knows that cutting weight is a young man game and old guys don't recover from it, EVER. If RJ and Oscar were realistic like him they might not have lost the way they did.

[chiguy91]

yeah, this ain't happening. there's the super six winner or bute, or bhops should try and unify, why not.....

[cupocity303]

Martinez doesn't have nearly as much leverage to say that. Even being The Ring champ, he has little leverage to say that. You gotta be around as a top fighter for a long time to have that kind of negotiating attitude. Sergio just broke through the scene as a threat in like 2008. Hopkins brokethrough probably in 2001 when he beat Trinidad. And even then, he was already a top fighter before that, but that win got him a lot more respect than he had prior to 2001.

Martinez is willing to be a sacrificial lamb for a paycheck. I don't think he would mind losing, from being over dehydrated like Oscar was, as long as he gets that career-high paycheck to retire on.

That's the difference between him and Hopkins. B-Hop cares about his legacy. He compromised for the Delahoya fight and fought at a catchweight below 160, but I don't think he would've dropped down two weight classes to get the paycheck.

[Slick561]

Sarcasm, guy. Relax. Pretty telling that you mention Pacquiao though. I didn't mention him, and this article isn't about him...

reason i mentioned him is now that he did it everyone seems to think if you wont do a catchweight you must be scared, i used pac as the example that people seem to think that all fighters should do it

[bose]

If these two were at middleweight Martinez would beat Hopkins. Hopkins knows this and this is why he is showing Martinez so much respect. Hopkins is great, but he should have never lost to Taylor who is a good fighter but Hopkins needed to beat Taylor to prove his greatness at middleweight. As it is Hopkins without a doubt is a great fighter, taking oppertunities as they come.

Hopkins is the lineal LH champion but imo, his toughtest test will be Chad Dawson if Hopkins can beat Dawson that another great win by Hopkins.

Sidenote, if Hopkins hadn't fought Keith Holmes dirty, it would have been a very tough fight for Hopkins to win.