Why does everyone try to rewrite history when it comes to Hopkins?

[djtmal]

imagine what they're gonna offer to fight William Joppy. What are they gonna do? Offer me $300,000?

i'd say thats about right for any of his fights....

[IMDAZED]

Regardless of P4P status, Roy has NEVER in his career been a draw no matter how good he was, it sucks, but it's the truth. ****, neither has Hopkins for that matter. For all the skill both possessed they could never draw flies to ****.

Compared to Hopkins, Roy was Oscar.

[Brother Jay]

Bernard Hopkins called out James Toney in 2003 after Toney defeated Vasili Jirov. Hopkins wanted to move up to light heavyweight and he wanted Toney to move down from cruiserweight.

HBO offered them $4 million to fight. Toney said fine. Hopkins turned it down. So Hopkins ended up defending against William Joppy and Toney moved up to heavyweight and knocked out Holyfield.

Hopkins Insulted By HBO's Offer

Hopkins: "The Toney fight probably won't happen!"

May 08, 2003; Undisputed middleweight champ, Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins informed **********.com that talks of a potential fight against IBF cruiserweight king, James "Lights-Out" Toney have taken a sudden turn for the worse.

This comes following HBO's offer for the fight, which according to Hopkins, is between $3-4 million for both combatants to split.

Hopkins feels this offer is an insult, and a blatant slap in the face, but it doesn't surprise him one bit.

The middleweight champ and his promoter Don King feel that HBO is passing on an opportunity to drag themselves out of the mud, obviously referring to the mismatches that the "heart and soul of boxing" has been punishing us with.

Read on to see how Hopkins feels about the Toney fight, HBO's offer, and more.

Bernard Hopkins: The fight probably won't happen. When they're (HBO) offering $2-3 million for Bernard Hopkins to fight a guy 30 lbs heavier, which I think is something that the world needs to know right away. I wanted to deal with this through the public to express what they say, so everyone could be abreast on it, and so Bernard Hopkins, the fighter, won't be the grass on the ground when two elephants get to fighting. Because when two elephants fight, the only thing that gets hurt is the grass. Since I'm the grass, the powers that be are trying to go at each other's wallets, pockets or throats. I don't want to be the guy that caused the fight not to happen, so as I sit here not with Don King, listening to me doing this interview with you, I'm telling you right now that the numbers that are being given to Don King are not even in the ballpark, I could tell you right now that I'm not an ass-kisser and I'm not a gopher, but this ain't Don King's fault. I heard the phone calls, and I listened, and I've been here (Florida). Forget all the things you might hear as days go on, and I'm not saying forget like that ain't true or not true, but that's why I wanted to have an open forum, through the media and through everybody, so I won't suffer the consequences of media bashing.

GL: HBO made that offer?

BH: Yes. HBO made the offer that there's no more than $3-4 million to split up between me and Toney. My thing is this, I'm going to go back home to my wife. Our daughter got asthma and she's sick. I want to get back as quickly as possible. And again, Don is doing what he has to do and I sat here and witnessed it. I'm saying right now that it's not going to get done. Do negotiations go through this? Yes. Could it be different tomorrow? Yes. But I'm not going to go through this and continue to fly out here and cut in to Don's time. I gotta life. I got things to do, but I don't know if I could take a vacation with my wife, who desperately needs one, because it's not easy dealing with Bernard Hopkins all the time.

I'm not dealing with this ****, I want to know where I'm going, and I want to know what my summers going to be. I'm willing to make the fight. I first put the challenge out with you, you went with the story. Don loves it, he's getting many feedbacks from it. With me and Toney, you got two of the toughest guys in the sport, both guys from inner cities, James Toney pulls out guns at press conferences, could you imagine what the press conferences would be like?

GL: Based on the fact that HBO has been broadcasting so many mismatches.

BH: (cutting me off) I know where you're getting at. Is it a slap in the face? Yes, Don brought that up. I'll repeat what Don told Mark (Taffet) and all of the guys at HBO. He told them that lately, they've not been putting good fights on PPV. And this is a chance to sort of drag themselves out of the mud, by giving the fans something they should've been getting a long time ago. They have a chance to redeem themselves and this how you do that without paying a ransom.

This isn't a ransom offer or proposal Don is giving these guys. I think it's personal, Kery (Davis) says it's not to my attorney. But I don't want to be left as the grass under the two elephants fighting. I don't want to be left as a scapegoat, and have the puppets sitting back saying, 'you see, he did it again." There are puppet reporters who will still come out and write that. But Greg, I'm glad your honest. I feel that it's a slap in my face, but what do I expect? I expected this.

GL: Since the Toney fight is not looking good, have you and Don discussed the Joppy fight?

BH: We didn't even get to the Joppy fight. I wanted to move right with this (Toney) fight, but we're gonna get to the Joppy fight now, because I think that should be most important right now because that's my mandatory. I want to get that done, and if they have offered this money to fight James Toney, I could imagine what they're gonna offer to fight William Joppy. What are they gonna do? Offer me $300,000?

None of that article excuses the 12 years Hopkins virtually did NOTHING in his prime.

[Dubblechin]

I didn't post it to excuse anything. I'm not a fan of Hopkins. I was responding to the person who seemed not to know that Toney and Hopkins came close to fighting. Toney accepted the offer. Hopkins declined because he wanted more money.

Hell, if Toney beats Lebedev, I'd like to see Toney and Hopkins fight next at cruiserweight. That's the only Hopkins fight that's ever interested me. And he backed out.

[bojangles1987]

Regardless of P4P status, Roy has NEVER in his career been a draw no matter how good he was, it sucks, but it's the truth. ****, neither has Hopkins for that matter. For all the skill both possessed they could never draw flies to ****.

Roy promoted his own fights, and did very well. He wasn't Oscar, but who was until Floyd and Manny came along?

[Khmelnytsky]

hopkins fanboys are without a doubt the most excuse ridden, delusional people on earth...

after fighting for years at the blue horizon for years to a capacity crowd of 20 people and a few stray animals, all of a sudden hopkins thinks he deserves a 50/50 fight with jones in 2001 because he beat trinidad? lol...did somebody bother to tell hopkins that trinidad was the cash cow in that middleweight tournament...

lol Green k for that.

[cupocity303]

I don't remember Hopkins ever being a fan favorite.

It's only after his most convincing victories, where he was perceived as the underdog (Vs Tito, Tarver, Kelly Pavlik), that he got respect for the time being.

Then after a little time passed, even those victories were ****ted on by Revisionist historians (this guy was too small, other guy weight drained, 6'2 Pavlik too small etc,.)

[cupocity303]

Not really. Because Roy was P4P no1. Roy was the draw. And Roy had already beat Bernard with 1 hand. So in what universe was Roy supposed to bend to fight Hopkins?

He was supposed to bend because that was the only guy around at that time, worth bending to.

Everyone else that Roy fought wasn't a Undisputed Champion of a Division, and they bent over backwards to get a shot at him. Second-rate contenders and Belt Holders at Light-Heavy. Even John Ruiz bent. And none of those guys had the status that Hopkins had after winning a Middleweight tournament. Why lump Hopkins in with these guys? All those guys took the smaller share, but Hopkins had more clout as a Champion/P4P Fighter.

I agree that it's both guys fault though. Hopkins could've easily taken the 60-40 deal, just as much as Roy could've taken 50-50. But again, what other BIG TIME fight was there available to P4P EMPEROR Roy? If all you wanna do is look down upon ALL your opponents and have your name overshadow the other guys on the billboard and posters, then ok. Which is what he did. There was no opponent that he was willing to treat like an equal in order to make the fight. It was always KING ROY vs some guy who I'm gonna make look like a nobody.

Hopkins was that one guy he should've treated like an equal, be the bigger man in order to make the fight happen. His 50% of the split would've been bigger than any of the 70% he took against lesser opponents. But he didn't. When you're at the top like Mayweather, I guess that's all that matters to these guys. But look how desperate he is now trying to make up for all the lost years. He isn't satisfied with his career, and wants more wins on his resume, but can't cut it like B-Hop. Even Kelly Pavlik would've taken him out at 175.

And Roy probably wants/needs more Money. He passed on a 50/50 deal Vs Hopkins. At least Hopkins cashed in big Vs Delahoya. Roy was too big to fight a PPV attraction like Oscar and besides Tyson at Heavyweight, there was nobody above 160 that drew money, for Roy to make a deal with.

[DiegoFuego]

Bottom line is all of Hopkins' current fan base probably didn't even watch boxing 10 years ago when he was the guy EVERYBODY in the sport hated.

[Mr. Philadel]

yea, the greatest ACTIVE fighter sucks big time!!!...smh

the Hopkins hate doesn't make sense imo....some dudes love them some
Money May but can't stand them some B.Hop...I never understood that one...I mean they respect Floyd to the fullest but disrespects and ****s on B.Hop like its nothing...reminds me of the Kessler fans who said Ward was juicing because he linked up with Conte.....but the Kessler fans are also Vitali fans....and big Vit tested positive for the juice back in the day...see what I mean?!?...the math is crazy around here...smh