In part three of this four-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
Bernard Hopkins is confident that the Spence-Crawford fight will take place, which would delay a title shot for Golden Boy’s rising star Vergil Ortiz Jr. Ortiz Jr. has been the WBO mandatory to Crawford’s title for quite some time.
“Let me tell you why that fight is not going to fall through,” Hopkins explained. First, Crawford is not dumb. He’s very, very intelligent and smart out of the ring just as well as in the ring. Second, they are going to ask too much from him to come to the PBC regime, Al Haymon. He doesn’t want to be a part of that, he just wants to fight. So, he doesn’t want to be a part of the PBC. ‘I am who I am. I got a title; I’m just coming with this.’ He doesn’t want to be locked in. I don’t blame him. He just got out of a situation. Why do you think he made that move to do that move?
“The only thing Terence Crawford needs for real, is a good mouthpiece that knows what the hell he’s doing and knows his worth like he knows it. He will save a whole lot of money and some headaches. So, to me and the way I know how they talk about the old bushy hair King, but a lot of them in there and want to be just like Don King in a different way. And they cover up by saying we pay our fighters a lot more than everybody and they keep all the money, that’s just a smoke screen. That’s a jab and then a right hand knocks you out. I know the game. I know the game.” Continue reading “Bernard Hopkins: No Punches Pulled, Part 3”