B-Hop sounds off!
By Jeff Zimmerman
Fightnews.com® caught up with Hall of Fame champion Bernard Hopkins today and got a series of hot takes…
On the Canelo-Plant skirmish during their press conference face-off
The prefight stuff happens. I don’t pay too much attention to it. I did it with Winky Wright. Someone should have been up there with Canelo and Plant. The entourages are up there, and they are all getting paid, no one is there for free. If the fight doesn’t happen, no one gets paid including the entourages.
It may be a scratch (on Plant) but it could open from friction of the gloves. I don’t know.
Thoughts on celebrity fights
Nobody gives two shits about boxing. They only care about the money and whatever comes after that. They don’t care about the Muhammad Ali’s and the Joe Louis’ and the sweet science of the sport. Ali did his things after retirement. Ali was special in and out of the ring.
Mayweather and Jake Paul. Not everyone can pull that off. And they can’t.
More scrutiny now with the recent Holyfield fight
The writing is on the wall and the pot is hot. Someone got busted. There are eyeballs on the corner in that neighborhood (referring to the recent fights with YouTubers, celebrities and former fighters).
It’s the same thing in business and boxing, you can’t shove that down people’s throats. It’s entertainment and people will watch two people wrestling in the mud. There is an audience for buffoonery.
Holyfield doesn’t need my pity or anyone else’s. But you can’t mix gasoline and water.
Keep an eye on your money
I tell my comrades in the sport to be conscious of your money and who’s handling your money. It can be very stressful. You have an empire. How do you keep that? Things happened early in my career. But I caught it. I hired some advisors and didn’t have to give 40%.
Boxing has been having a pandemic for 50 years due to Ignorance.
We [fighters] are disadvantaged because we are on the labor side. Most handling business are way smarter than us, not in all cases. I’m going to watch my money. The craziness is never going to stop. I live this way, think this way, that’s the choice you make.
But exploiting fighters that don’t have the means, that’s when you need commissions to step up.
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