Hopkins Gives Himself Until June for a Final Fight to take Place

Boxingtalk caught up with world light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Hopkins was all too quick to discuss Joe Calzaghe, Jones-Trinidad and ton of other possibilities.  "I will put on my Uncle Sam suit, become the taxman and have Colonial drummers follow me around and I will tell everyone the British are coming, the British are Coming.  It will be a great promotion."  Hopkins also discussed retiring if the Jow Calzaghe fight does not come to fruitition.  The ring legend made it clear that Calzaghe is the only fight for him and the only fight that matters.  "All they have to do is cross the Red Sea." 

BOXINGTALK: Joe Calzaghe has made it known that he wants to fight you and he has said that he is willing to come over to America and fight you.  What is it going to take for you to get in the ring with him?

Hopkins: What will it take?  For him to cross the red sea and let me know when he’s here.  It don’t take much for me to get in the ring. 

BT: Joe Calzaghe threw over 1000 punches in his fight against Kessler, how do you deal with such a difficult style? 

Hopkins: You hit him enough to where he doesn’t throw punches anymore.  It’s not rocket science.  I’m not trying to throw 200 punches in one minute. 

BT: Do you think the fact that he’s a southpaw will give you an advantage considering you have been so successful against southpaws in the past?

Hopkins: I’m 11-0 against southpaws with 8 knockouts. 

BT: If the Calzaghe fight does not come to fruition, what about fighting the winner of Trinidad-Jones Jr.? 

Hopkins: I have no interest in that fight.  I think that fight is going to be a great fight.  They are going to make history.

BT: What if they offered you $5 million? 

Hopkins: (Pause) You’re not going to go past five? 

BT: Is there anyone else you have interest in fighting other than Joe Calzaghe? 

Hopkins: No.  To be honest with you, it’s a thing where I have fun doing the politics, I have fun doing the promoting, speaking engagements and trying to guide careers of young people and guide boxing careers to super stardom.  I have my daughter and my wife of 14 years.  I’m good.  I still have that desire to fight but I don’t know how much longer I will have it.  I will be 43 in January and my thing is that I want to be in a position to fight if I can but between now and June, if that does not happen, a half a year into 44 it becomes why.  Why are you doing this?  If the fight can happen, and Joe is really serious and his promoter Frank Warren are really serious about calling me out on TV, which they did, I will be glad to give them a free face lift over here in the United States.  He is a nice looking kid, he is a nice looking guy.  I would like to be the first one to give him a free American face lift. 

BT: Do you think it’s realistic for this fight to land in Yankee Stadium as you talked about before? 

Hopkins: It could be Yankee Stadium, it could be the Garden, it could be in Giant Stadium.  They said he gets 50K in his stadium but that’s if you go over to Whales. 

BT: You could get 30K here.

Hopkins: You could get 30-35K here.  I would love to have the fight close to the 4th of July.  I can polish up on my history and put my Uncle Sam suit on, become the tax man and you know, have a couple of drummers and tell everyone “The British are Coming, the British are Coming.”  It would be a great promotion. 

BT: Is there anything you’d like to say to boxing fans around the world? 

Hopkins: Continue to support the fight and the big fights that have been happening in the last year and hopefully 2008.  Golden Boy can give boxing fans great fights.  This year we are nominated and should win promoter of the year.  If you look at the track record, Golden Boy has put on some great promotions this year, starting with Flyd Mayweather Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya, Barerra-Pacquaio….

BT: Cotto-Mosley, Hatton-Mayweather…

Hopkins: Yeah, so Golden Boy has been involved in promoting 80% of the quality PPV fights which have done great numbers.  Ya know, Floyd and Oscar did 2 million-

BT: 2.5 million… 

Hopkins: Yes. 2 and ½ million buys at $60 a piece and made hundreds of millions of dollars. So I say that to the fans.  Continue to support boxing and send a message that you are not buying junk.  Buy quality fights whether it’s our fights, Don King’s fights or Arum’s fights.  Fighters and promoters understand that the fans pay our bills, keep us out there and the life of super stardom.  But you can’t feed them junk.  I will not feed them junk in 2008 and I will be apart of that year to do a big fight with Joe Calzaghe.

BT: Thank you…

Hopkins: Thanks.      

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