B-HOP SOUNDS OFF

GL: How have the first couple of weeks of semi-retirement been? "You hit it right on the head Greg, it's semi-retirement. The more they think they're f**king me, the bigger they make me. When the killing is not clean and it's a sloppy murder where they left the weapon, the gun, the evidence and a note saying it was premeditated, it makes me bigger. If I'm off the rocker maybe I can step out of the box and let somebody else analyze it. I'm telling you Greg this shit is going to all come back to Bernard Hopkins again and they're going to have to pay me double."

"Right now the key word is semi-retirement. It could stay full blown, because this don't really motivate me. Everywhere I go, white, black...they tried to paint me as a racist. In your mailbag, you seen it right away. You told them Bernard said it, is was for the promotion now lets move on to something else. I read the mailbag. When people say he should have done this or that, if a man wins the fight he wins the fight. I don't give a shit if he worships the devil, if you win, you win."

GL: A lot of people have been speculating that the Calzaghe-Jones fight won't happen, what's your take on it?

Bernard Hopkins: "I'm not surprised. That's not to say it's Roy's fault or anybody else's. But I know Roy put up a strong interest in showing up for my fight. He's never done that before. I know he was hoping Joe wins because it would be kind of hard for him to do a deal with me. I'm just being honest with you. But at the end of the day, I know Roy is going to be asking for a substantial amount of money and I know in dealing with Frank Warren that it's not going to be easy. I know I can help both situations by putting it out there and telling people like yo I might could make this fight happen because...

GL: (cutting in) God forbid Bernard Hopkins said he'd fight Roy Jones on a 50-50 split, we'd see how fast that fight would get done.

BH: "I don't have to offer Roy 50-50. He hasn't done enough lately to get 50-50 from me. Last time I got a deal from Roy it was for 80-20 and I was the undisputed middleweight champion of the world. I'm not giving money away. I might be generous, but I'm not a fool. At the end of the day this is a business. You're advising fighters now and I'm pretty sure you shouldn't or you're not doing it because you like or dislike a guy, business is business. I believe their making the right choice because you know boxing, you see the in's and out's and you know what it is. When you're do something you should get compensated for it on that level. I don't have no dislike for Roy, I just think he's in denial of what his status is and what's it's been for the last three or four years. Roy's got cleaning up to do. He's got business to take care of with Glen Johnson, who I thought won against Dawson, but nevertheless, he lost. Tarver looked like a shell of himself and if I was Roy, I'd be looking to fight Tarver right now. But economically, Roy wants money. He wants to grab the money and wants somebody to pay him like he should have been paying people a long time ago. There's a fine line between being a businessman and just being straight up selfish dog.

"I'm going to go on record and let you know that everything will come back to Bernard Hopkins. Everything will come back to me because the covers have been pulled off of Joe Calzaghe. If writers out there are non-bias and don't have no envelopes coming under the table for certain situations to put agendas out there thinking the fans are idiots are just playing themselves. They have that option, but the covers have been pulled off of him like the covers have been pulled off Jermain Taylor when they gave him the middleweight title. Look where he's at now weighing about two hundred something pounds. He's made money and that's your main objective, but I'm not going to entertain that nonsense man. If Joe Calzaghe is going to fight, it's going to be in Wales. He'll never come to the United States again. Roy is going to fight him, but he's not going to want to fight Roy. It will be a money issue. That's the first of everything. Roy ain't going there for short money.

"How many days does this take? I was offering them 50% and it took weeks to negotiate that. I was the champion offering them half and it took weeks to make that. I know Roy Jones doesn't have that power, I know they're going be trying to put his you know what in the dirt. It took weeks to negotiate our fight and we were offering him half as the champion. Basically have a lot of patience with that and make sure you've got something else to write about. Because when the summer goes by and it's still nothing you're going to say wait a minute, there's only so many dates HBO got. Trying to get those dates is like trying to find a blue diamond in the Bronx. I think Roy should not waste his time too much. Things happen and they might chance their minds next week but I doubt it. Roy Jones and Joe Calzaghe will not fight."

GL: Will Bernard Hopkins fight again this year?

BH: "Maybe, maybe not."

GL: Will Bernard Hopkins entertain a second fight with Roy Jones for later this year?

BH: "It's not worth my while and there's nothing there for me. What do I accomplish?"

GL: You avenge the last time you really feel you lost."

BH: "It was 1993 though."

GL: But it would still be a nice cherry on your sundae.

BH: "Maybe, but to me it's more about economics than just getting in there to fight. It's about what motivates me to fight. I've been to table with him so many time. What could change now? I could imagine what kind of negotiation that's going to be. I honestly believe that Glen Johnson, who I knocked out when he was 34-0 and they don't like giving that promo, they don't show me beating Glen Johnson's ass when he was undefeated and a young killer. Roy Jones should go beat the two guys who I easily beat, one of them I knocked out. Then there would be more hype then. If he gets one of them under his belt he'll have his credibility. Then we could start dreaming about it because that's all it's been since 93. His mentality is I'm Roy Jones and I still got what I had ten years ago when I was the prince of HBO. You can't fall in love with nobody in this industry, but he did. I'm just going to sit back with this promotional thing, stay in shape and handle my business. If something happens, fine. If not, fine. I ain't give Richard no instructions to talk to nobody or lock in a date. If something comes up bring it to me and we'll talk about it."

M

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