Hopkins Thinks It’s 50-50 We See A Pacquiao-Mayweather Fight

Bernard Hopkins is thinking, hoping, that he set a precedent when he took on a task which proved to be too unwieldy to tame: the Krusher.

Kovalev, the Russian hamerfist, was too strong, too quick, too fast, and too on target with strategy for the master, who’d been testing the imminent nature of time, at age 49 plus. But even though Hopkins lost a wide UD12, his rep didn’t get muddied. In fact, it looked to me at Gleason’s on Wednesday that he was attracting more love, more folks asking for selfless, than I’d seen before.

A loss in a certain manner, to a certain personality, will do that sometimes. If and when Floyd Mayweather loses, and if he acts suitably humbled afterwards, watch the love which will flow his way. It will be something to behold…

Hey…on the subject of Mr. Mayweather. I asked Hopkins if he thinks maybe his role modeling, his decision to invite the stiffest of tests, and enter the ring an underdog in the eyes of Father Time, if not all the oddsmakers, might impact Floyd. Might his decision to tangle with Kovalev be part of a movement which will result in Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao coming to the table, and successfully negotiating a Super Fight?

“As far as with Pacquiao and Mayweather, I think smart business people with understanding will come to their minds to do what it takes to make the fight happen,” he said, while main eveners Gabriel Rosado and David Lemieux chatted with media. “I think it’s a lot at stake financially, and a lot at stake historically in boxing. Like anything else, the role playing, and the foreplay, has wound down, and now it’s real talk, and real business.  What’s it been, four or five years on whether they’re going to fight or not fight, I think it’s coming to a head, whether it’s going to be, or not,” he continued.

Hopkins brought up an element I have talked about, the power of the voice of the fan, amplified now with the growth of direct messaging, of social media. “One key thing is the fans have the power, know why, because at that level of pay per view, and you banking on getting certain numbers, so everybody is happy, first it’s the networks, they want to recoup some of their money, if not all, and they definitely want to make a profit, for the bonus…when you got people turning off those TVs, and not buying those pay per views, they’re sending a message.”

Yes, he might well have been thinking of the Pacquiao-Algieri PPV from Nov. 22…

“They’re sending a message that we’d rather see you fight this person than that person, then we’re going to show our power and our voice by not buying the fight. And so the fans are catching on. The fans should never be underestimated…even though some people in boxing do. I don’t…because I know that they really are the power brokers when it comes to whether you can sell a fight…and the fans are now saying to Floyd, and the boxers that call themselves the best, ‘Listen, you can fight whoever you want to fight, Amir Khan and anybody else, and all these good fighters working to be great…but we’re gonna show you, what you’re expecting to get 1.2, 1 million viewers, we’re not gonna give you that. So when you see a fight happens and you see they don’t run out put out the numbers, that tells you the fight didn’t do well.” Er, yes, he was I think thinking about the PacAlgieri deal..

“Breaking even is not doing well in business. I got over fifty properties in Philadelphia. I know about breaking even, it’s nothing you celebrate. You’re not totally bummed out, but you’re not celebrating.

So, will IT happen? “I believe the (Maywweather vs. Pacquiao) fight has a fifty fifty chance of happening,” Hopkins said, “based on some personal agendas that need to get cleared up, and just do the fight. Because I believe that Pacquiao wants the fight, to fight Mayweather, and I believe that Mayweather wants to fight Pacquiao, to prove that he could beat him now, and he could’ve beat him way before. I want to see the fight, I wanted to see the fight four years ago, three years ago, and I want to see the fight even now. And I really believe it’s gonna happen.”

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