A Chilling Insight Into Hopkins’ Motivation

Bernard Hopkins was in fine form at Gleason’s Gym on Tuesday, during a media workout. He showed flashes of humor, as when he joked that he was an old man, and hobbled about the ring begging for water, during a get-a-sweat-up workout.

And he also showed flashes of the severe intensity which helps make him that physical and mental marvel, that alien in a homo sapiens outfit, an almost-50-year-old specimen who has no right, really, to be performing at the level he is, at his advanced age.

Hopkins’ bite showed up when he was talking about how there was another time people were saying he’d be knocked out by a younger power puncher. That time came in October 2008, and that boxer was Kelly Pavlik, he told the media.

“That was the first time I heard ‘knockout’ attached to my opponent. And I’m real keen on what people say…The good old American boy, who I wanted to destroy, in and out of the ring…and I accomplished both. I’m not God, but I know who’s on my side….I took his career that night in AC, and he ain’t the only fighter.”

Hopkins fights Sergey Kovalev in Atlantic City on Saturday, Nov. 8, and on HBO.

It was chilling to listen to, to digest that, and to get a better sense of how seriously the man takes all this. Does it make you lean harder toward Hopkins winning on Saturday night when you hear him talk about the depth of his motivation to beat the pride of Youngstown, and comprehend that he probably feels a similar level of motivation going in to this fight?

Follow Woods on Twitter. https://twitter.com/Woodsy1069

WATCH RELATED VIDEOS ON BOXINGCHANNEL.TV