Last weekâ€s 105th edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with former undisputed Middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins (51-5-2, 32 KOs), who is coming off a controversial draw against WBC Light Heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-1-1, 16 KOs ). Had Hopkins been awarded the victory as most observers believe he deserved, he would have become the oldest boxer in history to win a major world title. Boxing fans are already eager to see a Pascal-Hopkins rematch early next year. Hopkins spoke about the fight and expressed his interest in an immediate rematch among other things in the interview
Our last guest of this yearâ€s final show is one of the boxingâ€s living legends coming off an amazing performance this past weekend. Howâ€s everything going tonight Bernard?
Everything is great.
I really have to congratulate you. I thought you performed above and beyond for a man of your age or any age the way you fought against Pascal. How did you see the fight?
Well first, I appreciate what you said and I also appreciate the love that I got, especially after a win even though I didnâ€t get it from the judges. The referee and judes from Canada set a bad precedent of honesty and integrity among the boxing world. But I feel like a champion today because I am, and the love and the respect that Iâ€m getting right now—this is a blessing in disguise. Itâ€s the best thing that could have happened.
Yes, I would have loved to have the belts right now knowing that I deserved it and I won it. But when you look at the scheme of things, and I donâ€t want to get religious and fanatic on you, but guys who pay attention will see what heâ€s doing. I expose what Iâ€ve always said many times about a sport that I love. There are things in this sport that would make corporate America never embrace it, it would make casual boxing fans always have that taste in their mouth that boxing is still living in the 1950s and 60s, where things are handled differently, that somewhere down the line the mafia of this world still exists high and well.
I can walk around with my head so high. You can look at the tape before the decision was made, I had my hands up walking proudly knowing that I won the fight and he had his hands down and his head to the canvas in shame. If pictures could speak a thousand words you can see a guilty face and a face of whoâ€s winning and whoâ€s losing. Iâ€ve been doing interviews the last 48-72 hours. Iâ€m heading to ESPN-Europe tomorrow, not my request but their request.
Bernard, you fought a little bit differently than weâ€re accustomed to seeing from you. Can you tell us why you chose to fight Pascal the way you did?
I admit I fought out of character, and what I mean by that is it wasnâ€t safety first. I had a long career because I didnâ€t fight like that my whole career. That doesnâ€t mean Iâ€m not a Hall of Famer because Iâ€ve been a Hall of Famer. What I wanted to prove is that I had a lot riding in this fight and I was written off at the end of the Roy Jones fight. I wanted to show you all that I still have greatness in me. Iâ€ll say it with honesty and Iâ€ll say it with sincerity—Iâ€m cut from a different cloth. Iâ€m not of this world of boxers today.
Not that theyâ€re bad, not that theyâ€re not tough, but Iâ€m from the old school. Iâ€m from the old school of boxing.People got to stop complaining how long I can do it and when Iâ€m going to look old. The bottom line is what people had seen on Saturday, forget the injustice.
Well Bernard, you certainly are a special fighter and one thatâ€s often underappreciated for the things heâ€s done in boxing?
I thank you for saying that. I wish there was somebody else that would say the same thing I said this passionately, but nobody is going to say it and nobody is going to represent me better than me. So unfortunately for some reason, or fortunately, I have to be the one to say it because Iâ€m passionate about it . I trained my ass off for this fight. I trained my for this, no short cuts. I never take them. I left my family, I left the dog, I was answering no phones, and everybody was saying I had an attitude. I wasnâ€t mean, but I wasnâ€t laughing, I wasnâ€t joking—some people took offence to that. I was on my game.
Pascal is bigger than me. Heâ€s definitely stronger than me. Heâ€s younger than me. There is no way in the world that I was supposed to be able to handle that at 45 years old. What I did is just expose Pascal and ruin the Chad Dawson and Pascal fight because TV isnâ€t going to want to buy that mess.
If Pascal doesnâ€t want to have a rematch, are there any legal avenues you can pursue to try and get him back in the ring?
If somehow it doesnâ€t happen or whatever, Richard Schaefer has already been on it, letters have already been sent out from my lawyers, Golden Boy lawyers. My promotional company is stepping in and at the end of the day maybe we sue the WBC and  make them make some kind of judgment to strip him from the WBC title and do what we got to do from there and Iâ€ll move on, because Iâ€m going to be the oldest champion beating George Foremanâ€s record.
Iâ€ll just have to be 46 instead of 45, but itâ€s definitely going to happen. So either way, Pascal has to go around with his head down. He has an ego. Heâ€s young and if he needs to clean up his name he has to fight Bernard Hopkins again.
I mean itâ€s basically really plain and simple. Iâ€m not trying to be sarcastic but it is what it is. I know if a 45 year old man or anybody beat my ass like that in my home town and I couldnâ€t get a victory, they donâ€t have to tell me once or twice who Iâ€m fighting. I donâ€t give a damn whether Iâ€m fighting Chad Dawson or not, I got to get Bernard Hopkins because I am not satisfied with my win. He couldnâ€t say I was dirty. He couldnâ€t say I did anything wrong.
When we talked to Pascal earlier in the show, he said that you should stop acting like a baby and that youâ€re a 45 year old man and you should stop crying. What do you have to say to those comments?
What heâ€s doing now is taking orders from his master, but people arenâ€t buying that.His brother, and his family members, and his wife, and his kids probably buy it. They got to be biased to him, but at the end of the day they are going to tell him what to say because heâ€s not a guy who thinks for himself.
When he walks around Canada l and they tell him look you didnâ€t beat Bernard Hopkins, he will look like a big shit. They know that he had his head down with his body language. You had all seen the tape. You had all seen his reaction. You had all seen the body language. You know he lost.
