Bernard Hopkins says he wants to be the "savior" of the heavyweight division, says he wants to fight Oleg Maskaev for his WBC heavyweight title. Says he wants to be "Apollo Creed with a victory." Bernard Hopkins has always had plenty to say even when he’s talking from both sides of his mouth. Never mind all that retirement stuff. That’s what he tells us now. Just kiddin’. My bad I’m back. After all the build up, all the hype, and all the vows, his “retirement” was shorter than a Don King press conference.
I guess we’re supposed to forget the promise he made to his now deceased mother not to fight beyond the age of 40. We only know because he told us about it over and over again. He’ll be 42 in January. Promise made. Promise broken. After all, there is a reason he must come back. America needs him.
"I want to sacrifice and risk a lot of things in my life to become not only the savior of the heavyweight division from the American side but be the Apollo Creed in this era with a victory." That's what Hopkins said recently.
So ends one of the shortest retirements in boxing history. It was only last June when Hopkins defeated Antonio Tarver to capture the light heavyweight championship in a fight billed as the last of his career. Now Hopkins wants back in.
I can understand him missing the spotlight and wanting to get back in the flow of all those millions of dollars from HBO pay-per-view. It’s easy money these days.
Remember fame and fortune came late in his career. He was 36 when he beat Tito Trinidad; 39 when he stopped Oscar De La Hoya. The reality of retirement is the checks stop coming when you stop fighting. It has to be especially tough working at Golden Boy where partners Oscar de la Hoya and Shane Mosley are active and looking ahead to big fights in 2007. I’m not surprised the future Hall of Famer couldn’t stay away.
But I wish Ex had remained an ex-fighter. I liked how that story ended. Record-setting middleweight champ goes from prison to boxing’s penthouse, ending his career by capturing the undisputed light heavyweight championship.
Beating Tarver was Michael Jordan’s last shot against the Jazz, John Elway and Jerome Bettis winning the Super Bowl. It was the perfect ending.
"I'm done," Hopkins said that night at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. "I don't need to risk anything else. There's nothing else to do. I want to see my daughter and I want to know who her teachers are."
He was a role model for ex-cons and boxers. He went from inmate to millionaire; pugilist to businessman That’s the legacy that would have stood out. That legacy would have been unique. Now he’s just another retired fighter who wants back in the ring.
“Let’s have him fight first then see where he’s at,” his long-trainer Nazim Richardson said to me this week. There was some resignation in his voice. Then he offered, “I’d like to see him happy and fulfill all the aspirations he chases.”
If Hopkins wants to chase Maskaev, fine. What’s phony is attempting to drape himself in the American flag, and say it’s his duty to save the heavyweight division from foreigners.
Never mind Shannon Briggs of Brooklyn, U.S.A, already broke the Soviet sweep of the titles by dethroning Serguei Liakhovich last November for the WBO crown. Plus, if Hopkins wanted to truly represent as a heavyweight, he’d call out 6-foot-6 Wladimir Klitschko, the IBF champ, or maybe 7-foot Nikolay Valuev, the WBA title holder. But Hopkins, 185 pounds soaking wet, wants Maskaev, who just happens to be the oldest and smallest of the four heavyweight belt-holders. Problem is Maskaev isn’t interested.
"You can't take anything away from Bernard. He has accomplished a lot of great things," said Maskaev's manager Fred Kesch. "But he's never been hit by a heavyweight and especially someone who punches as hard as Oleg. It's like a different end of the earth"
Maskaev is making his own legacy. He won his title with a 12th-round knockout of Hasim Rahman last August. Now he’ll make his first defense on Sunday night in Moscow against Peter Okhello of Japan, in what has been a homecoming of sorts for the new WBC champion. Born in Kazakhstan and now living in Sacramento, he is returning to his native land in what is billed as the first ever heavyweight championship fight held in Russia. The last thing he cares about is Hopkins.
"He's so proud to be defending his title in his homeland," Kesch said from Moscow. "And the people here are treating him like a rock star." Among the expected crowd of 15,000 will be Maskaev's father, who has never seen his son in the ring. There have also been visits from aunts and uncles. Now that’s a patriotic story.
Maskaev wants to fight Klitschko next or the winner of the Samuel Peter-James Toney rematch set for Jan 6 in Florida. That’s where the heavyweight focus needs to be. Not on Hopkins trying give us another Roy Jones-John Ruiz.
If Hopkins wants to be the next forty-something Evander Holyfield, that's his prerogative. If he wants to ruin his fairytale ending, fine. But to say he’s doing it to save the heavyweight division for America is promoter talk.
Is it Apollo Creed or Apollo Greed?
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