Bernard Hopkins: ‘I Never Ran from Kovalev, He Was the One Running from Me’

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    Hopkins-KovalevWe are now at a time in boxing where many big name fighters take the easy route to a title and once they get it, they look for opponents who pose the least amount of threat so they can hold on to that title for a long time and make the most money possible. This pattern seems to be the norm nowadays, but one fighter who stands out as the exception to the rule is IBF/WBA Light Heavyweight Champion Bernard Hopkins.

    Hopkins is definitely a throwback. Having a career that has spanned over three decades, Hopkins is definitely old school. He believes that there should be one champion in each weight class and he is trying to accomplish just that by attempting to be the first man in many years to become the Undisputed Light Heavyweight Champion of the World. Hopkins’ journey of unifying the title will continue on November 8 when he takes on WBO Champion Sergey Kovalev.

    Kovalev has been called one of the most feared men in boxing and supposedly one of the most avoided.

    Last year shortly after Hopkins won his IBF title in March, his mandatory challenger was Kovalev. Instead of exercising his right as the mandatory challenger, Kovalev fought WBO Champion Nathan Cleverly. Many people in the press as well as Kovalev’s promoter, Kathy Duva, tried to paint the picture that Hopkins was trying to avoid a fight with Kovalev. Duva had mentioned that she felt it would be difficult to make a fight with Hopkins and that’s why they went with Cleverly instead.

    Bernard Hopkins has a different version of the story. “Kathy Duva understood, through my information, that it was best and safe to fight Cleverly which became, I think, The Manager of the Year Award because it was a good strategic move because she understood by her estimation and her decision they went the route that made him the WBO Champion.”

    So, If this is true then why put it out there that it was Hopkins’ fault that the fight didn’t happen back then? “There’s an entity out there that’s called the system. The system or the tricknology of how can we paint an entity or a person as the blame and take away the real blame from the person that deserves to get the blame, so the tricknology and the lack of motivation and laziness of most human beings, they will believe more what they hear than more what they reach and open a book and find out the truth or even research or even use common sense. They want people to give them the knowledge, give them the news, give them the scoop, and most things that you are given are not actually what they want to give you,” Hopkins explained.

    Hopkins added prove to support his claim. “People forgot that there are letters out there from the IBF that were written to the IBF that said I am willing and able to defend my mandatory. I even put through my publicist Kelly Swanson, I put the letter out in the mass media to defuse the deceit of all the gods of this world with the pens and the computers and the whispers and the phone calls to defame me or make me seem like this coward or I was this cherry picker.”

    Once the letter was made public a lot of people that were criticizing Hopkins changed their tune. “I had reporters call me up and apologize when I put that letter out to the IBF that I’m willing and able. I had twenty defenses and some of those defenses I didn’t want to fight, but I wasn’t going to give up this title. You’re going to have to work for this. No one gave me anything, and I’m not going to give anyone anything for free,” Hopkins claimed.

    The way Hopkins sees it, now the tables have been turned. “Now here we are, now we are back at the drawing board with Kovalev because you didn’t get away from me buddy. They tried to make it sound like I was running away from him and now I caught him and it seems like that he is running from me. Once I put that letter out and people started saying, ‘I didn’t know. They were telling me that you didn’t want to fight him.’ They are supposed to tell you that.”

    The one person who is looking like the odd man out right now is WBC Light Heavyweight Champion Adnois Stevenson. Many thought he would be the one to fight Bernard Hopkins next. Stevenson originally turned down a fight with Kovalev thinking he would get to Hopkins first, but Hopkins, as he has been known to do over the years, upset the apple cart. “Stevenson and all the people that are representing him, thought they were smarter than me, OK, so now he’s sitting, and I want the guy the most people think that is the best light heavyweight and the most dangerous light heavyweight, so instead of running away from the guy with the gun, I’m running towards him. Let’s go.”