In this 4-part interview with Fightnews.com®, ring legend Bernard Hopkins pulls no punches as he prepares to embark on the biggest fight of his career outside the ring.

By Jeff Zimmerman

The legendary Bernard Hopkins is about to pick a fight with one of the heavyweights of boxing outside the ring and he’s not holding back.

Hopkins is no longer going to sit idly quiet. This is nothing new for him as fighting is in his blood and keeping quiet is not his forte.

And it started long before his amazing 28-year pro career where he won world titles at middleweight and light heavyweight that finally culminated as a first ballot Hall of Famer this past June in Canastota, NY.

He first laced up gloves at 9 as he had uncles that boxed, including Art McCloud, a decent middleweight and light heavyweight.

By 13, however, Hopkins was drawn to the tumultuous streets of Philadelphia and turned to crime, amassing 9 felonies by the age of 17. He started mugging people for their watches, and jackets and then transitioned to hard cash.

“I was mugging those with money – strong armed robbery it was called,” Hopkins told Fightnews.com®. “I was preying on big drug dealers for example.”

He eventually landed at Grateford Penitentiary where he served almost 5 years of a 15-year sentence. In his second year behind bars, Hopkins rediscovered boxing to let out some frustration that essentially saved his life. He became an amateur champion and highly respected by fellow inmates.

“Reputation is everything and your name is everything in that environment,” Hopkins told Fightnews.com in an interview earlier this year about his life in prison.

And although Hopkin’s legacy and reputation in boxing is secure and is now part of Golden Boy Promotions led by Oscar De La Hoya, he is ready to go toe-to-toe with one of the biggest names running the sport and let everyone know how he feels.

In this 4-part interview with Fightnews.com® just a few days after Golden Boy’s prized welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr. scored a ninth-round knockout in his comeback fight in Fort Worth, Texas, Hopkins pulled no punches and is ready to embark on the biggest fight of his career outside the ring.

“It’s time to start exposing, some will like it, some are not going to like it,” Hopkins said. “I’m ready for that. One thing about me, you can dish it out, you should be able to take it too. So, it’s another fight now, mine is over in that ring, but it ain’t over outside of it. I’m going to be pulling the covers off and again I don’t give the fighters a pass now that they have been put on notice.”

Hopkins squarely pointed the finger at Al Haymon, who serves as “advisor” to many of the sport’s biggest stars including unified welterweight champ Errol Spence Jr and heads up the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) banner.

“All these guys are hiding under advisors, consultants,” Hopkins said. “They are not even calling themselves managers, but they are doing all this stuff from their house, their attic or their basement or their office or whatever they call their office. It’s time to bring these people to the table. I am not afraid of any of them.

“I spoke when I was active, and I am going to speak now. I want to start from the top, who they are represented by. Let’s start with Al Haymon first, I’ll say names. We have to start with Al Haymon, the wizard behind the plan. And it has always been. Some call him a ghost that lives amongst us. But I know who we are dealing with. And I know basically their strategy. It’s the same behavior in the music business. Nothing has changed for years, except birthdays and time.”

Hopkins then took a jab at the fighters and does not give them a pass either.

“It’s not to say you can’t become profitable with that regime, PBC,” Hopkins continued. “So, the fighter is going to have to do an important thing, that I believe most came into this business for, to be great, but first to be a champion. Now if they came in for anything else, then they should listen to those who’s going to continue to do what they do way after they retire. Look at history. Look at the fighters they had before they came into the picture, whether it was through the amateurs or through the Olympics. I’m not saying the man doesn’t have the skill and experience, it’s their career, it’s the fighter’s career to be able to decide for themselves.”

Hopkins took it one step further on how he views Al Haymon and the fighters he represents.

“Jeff, let me tell you, when I sit back and watch from a landscape view and I see that there are fighters hiding, my impression is like a person that is wanted by every law enforcement agency that exists and their hiding behind those safety nets like a fugitive,” Hopkins explained. “And they are only waiting for Al Haymon to turn them in and say he’s due business. Those fighters that believe everything they hear are fools.

“They are fools and ignorant at the same time. The fool part comes in at they are not watching what is happening and listening and putting common sense to everything that comes by their ear, or the person that is close to them who is 9 out of 10 controlled by the masses. They have to take accountability.”

Hopkins is lending his Hall of Fame voice from the inside that will no doubt cause an uproar and in one swoop, he is putting the whole sport on notice.

“There is no more victim in this situation. The victim is someone that jacks your stuff without you knowing it. We are hearing back and forth not only through the boxing world but fans and non-fans to put an end to it, whether it is writers, announcers, or anyone else. This is nothing new, this has been going on for decades. But one thing about those other eras, the best fought the best. I’m not just talking about Vergil and people in our camp, under our promotion. I’m talking about everybody.”

Hopkins knows the business side of boxing all too well as he went to battle against promoters Don King and Lou DiBella in his fighting days.

“This is a call out from a Hall of Famer who did it all,” Hopkins stated. “This is your career. When it is all said and done, you can’t turn back the clock and undo wrong, because you put your whole life and faith into it. Even if 90% of that was positive and the business part where you’re normally not involved in, 90% are not involved, they are told, they are not asking, they are the receiver. I know this for a fact and facts.

“It’s time to call these dudes out. It’s time to call these “want to fight pretenders,” but don’t want to fight now. Negotiations are negotiations. Two firms get together like lawyers do. We have put out many phone calls to the other side. Now for some reason and there might be some truth in it, but not the whole truth, the only way we are going to survive is if we get these fights for that individual or this individual, that’s nonsense.

“Don’t you know boxing survived the Depression and other ailments that comes and plagues on history on corporate and athletics, business. This is really for the fighters that are going to read this. But I know who is going to tell them not to read it, don’t pay attention to it. Once they start asking questions, I challenge all of them to take the B-Hop questionnaire, test and present it to their advisor, consultant, manager, whatever. And I guarantee they will get a song and dance from them.”

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Part 2 of this exclusive interview with Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins will be published tomorrow.