Video: Bernard Hopkins Bashes McNabb Again, Compares Himself to Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.
by Scott Christ on May 16, 2011 1:13 AM EDT
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Bernard Hopkins recently spoke to CBS Sports about his upcoming fight with Jean Pascal for the light heavyweight championship, and his recent comments about Donovan McNabb. These comments could definitely spark some more controversy, which I guess is his way of building the fight, but, well...Bernard's Bernard. You know that by now. And he says what he feels, constantly, good or bad by public opinion.
Hopkins on McNabb comments: "I ran him out of the town. I said McNabb was a corporate guy. Everybody knows what that means. He's a corporate guy, and he's always gonna be a corporate guy. It doesn't mean he's a bad guy. It just means that it played out in his heart, it played out in his game as a quarterback and as a leader. And it played out in the locker room with T.O. ... If it was Jim Brown, fine. If it was Bill Russell when he played with Boston, fine. If it was Satchel Paige -- those guys have credibility, man. But it can't be a guy who was in the house and never outside, with the guys picking cotton and corn. ... I don't care [what he thinks about the comments]. It doesn't matter, it's just my comments and my opinion. And I answered the way I feel. And you gotta understand that a lot of people don't have courage to say certain things that they feel that they should say.
"It takes courage for Rosa Parks to sit in the front of the bus. It takes courage for somebody to be a leader against something that's wrong and bad and get assassinated. That takes courage, man. It takes courage for Bernard Hopkins to go down to New York City in 1999 and speak in front of the Senate hearings about the exploitation of the fighters in the business of boxing ... it took courage for me to do that. Racism is alive and well in this great country."
He also said plenty about boxing, including an amusing story about having Jean Pascal's belts right now, but I get the feeling the other part is just a little heavier than the usual boxing build-up that he offers here.
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ive always been a big fan of bernard
But I think he’s outta line here and he needs to hear about it.
"That was very funny about the old man basketball skills. One is lucky to escape injury when playing against those crafty, crusty sumbitches. And it’s just demoralizing when they demonstrate yet again how to use the backboard from range." - Charlie Custer
by SmittytheCutman on May 16, 2011 1:38 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
The only thing Bernard and MLKhave in common
Is their birthdates
"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer"
---- Muhammed Ali
Bernard musta forgot
"Occasionally, there is a boxing match that, in its demonstration of skill, courage, intelligence, hope, seems to redeem the sport - almost. Perhaps boxing has always been a sport in crisis, a sport of crisis."
by Oli Goldstein on May 16, 2011 2:57 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
I once again feel this fits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3dUfykR-_g
And yes – this is going to be a go-to video from now on.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
Well this is the same guy who called Australia “Europe” after hearing Danny Green KTFO’d the corpse of Roy Jones Jr. So I’m just gonna not put any value into these words….
Bernard--
His world vision seems pretty negatively skewed to me, but I think it really is his world vision, based on a past that can’t help but skew it some. So I think he’s out of touch (but maybe not quite as much as a lot of US white people think), and it doesn’t do him any favors in terms of public perception. I wish it weren’t so for him. But having at least some idea of what his life’s been like—the past that he lived through even though things are improved—I can see how it would nonetheless be so for him, and can’t hate on him for it.
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else--James Thurber, 1939
by BoxAnne on May 16, 2011 7:33 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Well Hopkins is mostly unloading venom into McNabb for not growing up in the ghetto. I’m not sure how the existence of racism excuses that argument at all, or has anything to do with it. It’s purely idiotic and the only mitigating factor is that Bernard is just running his mouth for the fun of it.
Comparing a Senate hearing with taking a bullet? If that’s really his ‘world vision’ then the guy belongs in a nut house. So you have to look at it either in that light, or that he’s just full of crap. Real social issues are not part of the equation here.
by drivlikejehu on May 16, 2011 8:50 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
I agree
Since when did being a convicted armed robber make you a hero and some kind of champion of race issues?
He talks about prison as if he was wrongly done to, as if it’s something to be proud of.
To compare himself to Rosa Parks is at the same time laughable and disrespectful to her and to black people in general, imo.
Bernard only cares about Bernard from what i’ve seen through the years.
by Matt Mosley on May 16, 2011 10:33 AM EDT up reply actions
I've never heard him speak of prison as a badge of honor
Most of the time he talks about it being a blessing. It allowed him to get back into boxing and really turn his life around.
I’ve never heard him speak of prison as a badge of honor
He does it all the time.
by Matt Mosley on May 16, 2011 11:44 AM EDT up reply actions
But your right, he does talk about it in the context that it saved him from continuing down the bad path.
He has also talked in interviews about knocking the teeth out of the toughest guy on his cell block…Whether that’s true or not only Bernard knows but he has been known to exaggerate a bit. :)
The way he talks sometimes though makes it sound to me like he definitely sees it as some kind of badge of honour, especially when he ’s promoting how tough he is and/or his next fight.
by Matt Mosley on May 16, 2011 11:52 AM EDT up reply actions
Not suggestng the guy’s a hero, or even right. Am suggesting that life experiences are harder for some people to get over than others, seems almost impossible for him, He makes a mess of expressing himself, so what? He’s just mouthing off.
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else--James Thurber, 1939
by BoxAnne on May 16, 2011 11:40 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
I don’t disagree with what you say, Boxanne..i was just agree more with what the guy below you said.
I thought he hit the nail on the head.
by Matt Mosley on May 16, 2011 11:47 AM EDT up reply actions
I'm with you BoxAnne
I get what you are saying completely.
Courage
I don’t think it takes courage to talk shit about an NFL quarterback. People do it every Monday when their QB stinks up the joint the previous day.
Every time I try to warm up to Bernard, he manages to do or say something stupid like this. Of course, as a suburban white guy, it seems pretty clear that he would prefer for me to not like him, so I guess he’s happy with that.The house/field thing is so noxious and completely horrendous that it makes me ill.
Interestingly, IIRC, Bernard is pretty good with his money. I don’t know if he has kids or not, but if he does…does that mean that they’ll deserve the same “house/field” attack because they now enjoy (or will enjoy in the future) the benefits of his financial success?
by The Boxer Rebellion on May 16, 2011 10:52 AM EDT reply actions
What a toe rag.
I lost what little respect I had for him when Steve Bunce interviewed him over here and he made a huge deal out of the fact that he was cold and didn’t deserve to be treated so poorly blah blah blah…… He came across light a silly spoilt brat.
RE: Bernard's stupid comments about McNabb's upbringing
Muhammad Ali was born in a suburban environment and not from the ghetto and he was/is more of a man and a black icon than Bernard could ever dream of being.
Don’t get me wrong though, Ali had his faults and was by no means perfect.
I mean, Ali stupidly called Joe Frazier an “uncle Tom” IIRC…I think that’s the main reason why Frazier still hates him.
My point in the comment above though was that just because you’re not from the ghetto doesn’t mean your soft.
by Matt Mosley on May 16, 2011 12:11 PM EDT up reply actions
McNabb is from my hometown and grew up in the tough South Side area. He was a great HS
FOOTBALL , BASKETBALL AND TRACK star. His HS team, Mt. Carmel, is legendary in Chicago HS annals.
"Luck is when preparation meets opportunity." - Mike Quarry
Bernard Hopkins, like other people, is conflating race and class. Apparently, in order for a Black man to be a REAL Black man, he has to grow up in the ghetto and face jail time. I guess according to that world view, I’m not a real Latin American because I come from a middle to upper class home and I’m on my way to get my Ph.D.
I also find it interesting that Bernard Hopkins talks about Donovan McNabb as being a “corporate” man when he himself is partner in Golden Boy Promotions. Yeah, he may speak his mind and shit, but in the end, he’s probably more of a corporate man than McNabb in that sense. I don’t see Hopkins working towards breaking up the monopoly of promoters in boxing. I don’t see him working towards eliminating the disparities between journeymen boxers and stars. I don’t see him working towards creating a fair system that allows for boxers to have health coverage for life…. When he does those things, then he can compare himself to influential political activists.
Bob Arum would promote Lucifer himself if he could put asses in the seats.
by Apprentice on May 16, 2011 12:13 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Well to be fair..
When he mentions testifying to the Senate, he was working exactly towards many of those things. I don’t know what he has done lately, if anything, but I rely on news orgs to provide that type of news. Either he’s not doing that stuff anymore, or they fail to cover it. It’s more newsworthy to quote Bernard Hopkins calling McNabb an uncle tom, then to show Bernard Hopkins testifying in front of Congress.
Okay, but a couple of things. In 1999 Golden Boy promotions didn’t exist, so he wasn’t yet part of the problem. Two, one hearing a career does not make. You are correct in pointing out that we would need to find out if he’s been active in pursuing these things ever since. If he has, then my apologies. But, in that case, I would still stand by my assertion about conflating race and class.
Bob Arum would promote Lucifer himself if he could put asses in the seats.
I’m with you on this one Apprentice. In addition to what you mention about BHop being a corporate man hismself nowadays, his original rant did not make much sense to me. He criticized McNabb for not being though enough and being too cozy with his team management (I’m assuming that’s what he meant by saying he felt he was in the house), yet then he goes on to use TO and Vick as examples of true black men who were in the field. I don’t know any details about either one of them with regards to their upbringing (whether they struggled with poverty, violence, etc. or not), however, I do know however that once they made it to the NFL both of them became two of the most pampered players by their respective teams (TO in SF, Philly, and Dallas before things went sour with each team respectively), and especially Vick during his time in Atlanta, where at one time even the team owner was pushing Vick’s wheelchair after an injury.
It’s all personal for Hopkins. He’s a big Eagles fan, and McNabb gave him the brush-off in the locker room once. So, Hop lets his usual dogs off the chain.
It’s as simple as that, and I doubt McNabb will lose any sleep over it. He’s taken a lot of heat over the years, and I doubt he’s eager to get in a verbal sparring contest with a rich boxer who compares himself to Rosa Parks.
Bad Left Hook
"My God, kids today think that the laces are for tying up the gloves."
-- Fritzie Zivic
I hope Pascal schools him. I'm sick of this jerk's predictable and frequent racial comments. This is 2011, not 1962.
We have an African American President or has Bernard missed that. Many of us were fighting the good battle in Miss trying to get people eligible to vote back then. I not being judgmental, but this jerk really needs to study some history and/or stfu. The next generation hopefully will ignore dinosaurs like this. I will no longer pay any attention to him. I will not write about him even if he beats Wlad or Vitali on the same night. I will not watch him fight. He makes me want to puke and this will be my last post (on any site) that involves this instigating attention-grabbing chip on the shoulder dolt.
"Luck is when preparation meets opportunity." - Mike Quarry
by Boss Man on May 16, 2011 3:37 PM EDT reply actions 2 recs
Rec'd, Ted
Coming from someone who has been around and lived through different generations, very well said.
Hey. He's bad-mouthing Donavan McNabb
Not beating up women.
"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer"
---- Muhammed Ali
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