I am only gonna say this once, and hope that I can dodge all the tomatoes. A week or so ago, someone questioned whether there was such a thing as a “Bernard Hopkins fan.” I am that fan.

It’s not because I grew up in Philly either. Mel Tayor grew up there, and I was rooting loudly for JCC in that fight. And to be technically accurate, Nard isn’t even from Philly. He’s from Germantown, which, if you drew a map of Hell, would be right next to the port-o-potties behind the box office.

I’m not making apologies for him either. He is who he is, and sometimes that amounts to “kind of an asshole.” But I’m a normal guy who’s been “kind of an asshole” every now and then in my life, and I didn’t even have a camera on me. I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. If anything. it seems overblown in Hopkins’ case: after all the man is selling fights, not cotton candy. And, to me, anyone who didn’t catch the historical Hagler-Minter reference in Bernard’s Calzaghe sales pitch seemed very naive and sensitive to me. Despite what anyone says, Hopkin’s has always seemed to be a friend of the boxing nerd to me.

Okay, he’s not an “ambassador” for the sport, everyone seems to say. But isn’t he? He isn’t the first guy to pull his life around with boxing, but he is one of the greatest champions to ever do so. He wasn’t a perfect technician of violence, but he was a crafty, diligent, frustrating enemy to anyone man was in the ring against. In my favorite division, Hopkins showed the greatest attribute of any champion for me: staying power.

He had a great run, and still has one of the boxing brains in the sport for my money. His comments about Kelly Pavlik aren’t a surprise to me. In fact, when Pavlik took down Taylor, the Executioner was one of the first to chime in with his card. He said: “It’s a good thing Pavlik knocked Taylor out. The judges were out to rob Pavilk.”

I’m not naive. I know at least part of that was sour grapes from Hopkins own cards with Taylor. But the fact is, I also know Hopkins rightly gave Pavlik rounds that the judges didn’t, particularly the first and the sixth. Bernard knows his sport, and isn’t one to spit shine. He also gave me my most memorable live fight I’ve ever seen. Short of him freaking out and shootin/biting/stabbing someone, Hop has got a fan for life in me.

Yeah he was great. Like I said, it would be tough dismiss for the quality of competition. After all this is a man who stole five rounds from a young, prime RJJ.

That said, this fight is a horrible disgrace. Honestly, fighting a guy half your age with a pair of wrecking balls for hands is just stupid and short-sighted. I don’t think it will be a good fight, and Hop is seriously playing dice games with his health now.

Not that I think Pavlik will totally destroy him, but I can pretty easily see a 9-3 UD, with Hopkins losing every one of the final six rounds on all three cards. He would probably DQ himself or retire on his stool to prevent a KO, and I’m not ruling that out either. Why would people pay to see him get butchered?

Oh yeah…