Hopkins Aims To Get Satisfaction One More Time

Published

10 years ago

October 10, 2015

It was a seemingly innocuous question about musical preferences, but with Bernard “The Alien” Hopkins, every question he asks or answers in response to someone else’s question probably has a hidden meaning.

“What’s your favorite rock band?” he inquired in the most recent of the several hundred conversations we’ve had over the 27 years we’ve known each other.

“The Rolling Stones, I guess,” I replied, after momentarily weighing the merits of Mick and Keith against those of John, Paul, George and Ringo.

“Well, I’m the Rolling Stones of boxing,” said Hopkins, the former middleweight and light heavyweight champion who turns 51 on Jan. 15 but is not quite ready to exit stage right. “How many people would want to see the Rolling Stones in concert one more time before they shut it down?

“HBO holds an option on me to do one more fight. I didn’t get a `Dear John’ letter after the one with Sergey (Kovalev). That tells me they want to showcase Bernard Hopkins again, in his farewell fight. And it is going to be big. It’s going to be a real event, a celebration.”

If all goes according to plan – and, in boxing, that is always an iffy proposition – Hopkins’ departure from the ring, as least as an active boxer, will be a challenge of WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (43-4, 29 KOs) in late January, and probably somewhere in Abraham’s home country of Germany. If he can pull this off, and win, it would be another milestone in a Hall of Fame career for Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs), who moved up from middleweight to light heavyweight without a stopover in the 168-pound weight class.

“I want it (his last fight) to be at 168, the division I skipped over,” Hopkins explained. “The idea of becoming a champion in three divisions excites me. And fighting me is good for Abraham, too. He sees this as a chance to boost his own legacy, and what’s wrong with that?

“I have a very important meeting next week in New York City with Ken Hershman (president of HBO Sports) and Peter Nelson (vice president of programming for the premium-cable giant) when I go there for the `Triple G’ (Gennady Golovkin) fight. We’re going to hash out what needs to be hashed out and get it done.”

There are those – hey, you know who you are – who were ready to stick a fork in Hopkins and declare him done after his most recent attempt to add another layer to his legend, last Nov. 8 in a light heavyweight unification showdown with Sergey Kovalev in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall. Kovalev knocked Hopkins down in the first round and dominated throughout in winning a one-sided unanimous decision, but neither did B-Hop embarrass himself. At 49, the seemingly ageless wonder from Philadelphia had gone the distance with maybe the most devastating puncher in the light heavyweight division since Michael Moorer still could make 175, a Russian wrecking machine who had won 13 of his previous 14 bouts by knockout or TKO (there was one technical draw in there) and has since starched two more opponents. It says much about Hopkins’ unflinching belief in himself, and his willingness to keep testing himself at the highest levels, that he even considered swapping shots with the likes of Kovalev.

“I took the Sergey fight because I thought I could win,” Hopkins said. “He proved me wrong. But that’s the kind of guy I am, and will continue to be.”

Not wanting to take his leave on such a note, Hopkins figured he’d go after a super middle belt, making the procurement of such his swan song. For a time he thought he had something cooking with IBF champ James DeGale of England, but that didn’t work out. DeGale (21-1, 14 KOs) instead will defend his title against former IBF super middle champ Lucian Bute (32-2, 25 KOs) on Nov. 28 in Quebec City, a fight which will be televised by Showtime.

“You know how it goes,” Hopkins said of the failed negotiations with DeGale. “When people drop my name, they know I’m going to respond. And then things change quick when you call their bluff.”

It is Hopkins’ belief – well, at least his hope – that the Abraham camp is more intent on reaching a binding accord. If Hopkins must board a plane and go to Deutschland, where the 35-year-old Abraham, who was born in Armenia, moved to Germany when he was 15 and eventually become a naturalized citizen, is something of a national hero, he’s amenable to surrendering home-country advantage.

“Whatever makes sense,” he said of the selection of a venue. “I don’t mind eating at somebody else’s table if they give me enough food to satisfy me and it’s fair. I can go to Germany, no problem. It makes me even more motivated to beat a guy on his own turf.”

Hopkins has done the retirement cha-cha before. His unanimous-decision dethronement, as a 3-1 underdog, of IBO light heavyweight ruler Antonio Tarver on June 10, 2006, was supposed to be his finale. He was 41 then, a year past the deadline his mom, Shirley, had set for her son to walk away from his brutal sport. HBO executives even threw him a party to celebrate the occasion. But, 13 months later, Hopkins was back at his old stand and scoring another points nod over the crafty Winky Wright.

“I’m glad I came back,” he said. “Mama Shirley (now deceased) blessed me to go ahead and get 10 more years. I didn’t want to break my promise, but I had to satisfy myself. Can you imagine all that would have been missed if I really had quit at 40 or 41?

“Mama Shirley has been looking out for me these last 10 years, man. But now it’s time (to step away), or almost time. I’m ready. Age is age. This will be the last one, for sure. I know I’m not 35 or even 40 anymore. But I’m not like your normal 50-year-old, either.”

The trick is whether Hopkins, who treats his body as a sacred shrine and has never had a problem keeping his physique lean and chiseled, can get down to 168 without sacrificing strength and stamina. He’s convinced it won’t be a problem.

“I have to go to work, but then I always do in training,” he said. “I’d go down to Miami Beach, where I haven’t trained in years. I’m already near the light heavyweight limit. At 168, I’ll be as sharp and quick as I need to be.

“I was never the biggest light heavyweight anyway. I don’t have that kind of frame. My metabolism works different because of my clean lifestyle and my genetics. If I got to scratch and dig to take off another pound or two, it won’t take that much, if anything, out of me.

“The most I ever got up to since I’ve been boxing, not doing nothin’ for two or three weeks, probably was around 185. I might have been 190 after I got out of Graterford (a Pennsylvania prison), stopped eating that prison food and blowed up on starches. But then I started disciplining myself. The knowledge I have now, I didn’t have then.”

Regardless of what happens against Abraham, or even if nothing happens, Hopkins won’t regard the end of his long run as a fighter to be, well, the end of him as a person of substance. He says he is “at halftime” of his life, which must mean he expects to live to 100 or more. And however many years he has left, he does not intend to waste them staying home and reminiscing about past glories.

“I got a lot of things going on, with Golden Boy (his promotional company, with which he is an executive), with color commentating,” Hopkins noted. “You ain’t seen nothing yet, so buckle up.”

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Bernard Fernandez

Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Published

2 days ago

May 4, 2025

David A. Avila

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Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.

Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.

“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.

Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.

After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.

Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.

One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”

Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.

“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”

Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.

A real fight was happening.

Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.

Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.

In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.

“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”

Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.

In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.

“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”

Espinoza Wins

WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.

“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.

Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.

Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.

It was Espinoza’s third title defense.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

Published

2 days ago

May 4, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.

The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.

The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.

Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.

Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.

A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.

In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.

Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.

Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.

In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.

Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.

Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Canelo Alvarez Upends Dancing Machine William Scull in Saudi Arabia

Published

3 days ago

May 3, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who has acquired a new nickname – “The Face of Boxing” – is accustomed to fighting on Cinco De Mayo weekend, but this year was different. For the first time, Canelo was fighting outside the continent of North America and entering the ring at an awkward hour. His match with William Scull started at 6:30 on a Sunday morning in Riyadh.

In the opposite corner was 32-year-old William Scull, an undefeated (23-0) Cuban by way of Germany, whose performance was better suited to “Dancing With the Stars” than to a world title fight. Constantly bouncing from side to side but rarely letting his hands go, Scull frustrated Canelo who found it near-impossible to corner him, but one can’t win a fight solely on defense and the Mexican superstar was returned the rightful winner in a bout that was a fitting cap to a desultory two days of Saudi-promoted prizefighting. The scores were 115-113, 116-112, and 119-109. In winning, Canelo became a fully unified super middleweight champion twice over.

Terence Crawford was in attendance and HE Turki Alalshikh made it official: Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) will meet in the Fight of the Century (Alalshikh’s words) on Sept. 12 in Las Vegas at the home of the city’s NFL team, the Raiders. For whatever it’s worth, each of Canelo’s last seven fights has gone the full 12 rounds.

Semi-wind-up

In a match between the WBC world cruiserweight title-holder and the WBC world cruiserweight “champion in recess” (don’t ask), the former, Badou Jack, brought some clarity to the diadem by winning a narrow decision over Noel Mikaelian. One of the judges had it a draw (114-114), but the others gave the fight to “Jack the Ripper” by 115-113 scores.

A devout Muslim who is now a full-time resident of Saudi Arabia, the Sweden-born Jack, a three-division title-holder, had the crowd in his corner. Now 41 years old, he advanced his record to 29-3-3 (17). It was the first pro loss for Mikaelian (27-1), a Florida-based Armenian who was subbing for Ryan Rozicki.

The distracted CompuBox operator credited Mikaelian with throwing 300 more punches but there was no controversy.

Tijuana’s Jaime Munguia, a former junior middleweight title-holder, avenged his shocking loss to Bruno Sarace with a unanimous 12-round decision in their rematch. This was Munguia’s first fight with Eddy Reynoso in his corner. The scores were 117-111 and 116-112 twice.

Surace’s one-punch knockout of Munguia in mid-December in Tijuana was the runaway pick for the 2024 Upset of the Year. Heading in, Munguia was 44-1 with his lone defeat coming at the hands of Canelo Alvarez. Munguia had won every round against Surace before the roof fell in on him.

Surace won a few rounds tonight, but Munguia was the busier fighter and landed the cleaner shots. It was the first pro loss for Surace (26-1-2) and ended his 23-fight winning streak. The Frenchman hails for Marseilles.

Heavyweights

In a 10-round heavyweight match fought at a glacial pace, Martin Bakole (21-2-1) and Efe Ajagba (20-1-1) fought to a draw. One of the judges favored Ajagba 96-94 but he was outvoted by his cohorts who each had it 95-95.

Bakole, a 7/2 favorite, came in at 299 pounds, 15 more than he carried in his signature win over Jared Anderson, and looked sluggish. He was never able to effectively close off the ring against the elusive Ajagba who fought off his back foot and failed to build on his early lead.

The fight between the Scotch-Congolese campaigner Bakole and his Nigerian-American foe was informally contested for the heavyweight championship of Africa. That “title” remains vacant.

In a 6-rounder, heavy-handed Cuban light heavyweight Brayon Leon, a stablemate of Canelo Alvarez, was extended the distance for the first time while advancing his record to 7-0 at the expense of Mexico’s Aaron Roche (11-4-1). Leon knocked Roche to the canvas in the fourth round with a right-left combination, but the Mexican stayed the course while eating a lot of hard punches.

Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry Promotions

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