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47-year-old former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins has never been one to mince words, hide his true feelings, or miss a chance to grab some attention when he can. Tonight he took to Twitter and made brief comments about both Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and Sergio Martinez.
Stop asking me about chavez jr. He aint nothing but a gimmick.. he dont that this serious..
On Wednesday, it was reported that Chavez Jr had failed his Nevada drug test, which came back positive for marijuana following last Saturday's loss to Martinez at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
It's no exaggeration to say that over his boxing career, Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KO) has indeed taken things very seriously, staying in immaculate physical condition over the years, which has allowed him to stay a top contender and champion well past a normal expiration date for a fighter's relevant career. It's also what has allowed him to be successful at all at 175 pounds, where he's a fairly small fighter, having spent the vast bulk of his career at 160. He's been able to hang with bigger men and often dominate quality fighters well into his 40s.
But he didn't stop with Chavez Jr, and seemed to be possibly angling for a fight with Martinez:
Martinez style is very easy to beat.. trust me tito, palvik, tarvor he just like them.
Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KO) isn't going to fight Hopkins unless Bernard made a crazy attempt to come back all the way to 160, which isn't going to happen. Martinez has even balked at moving up to 168 pounds, so even a super middleweight -- effectively a catchweight for them -- clash wouldn't work, and would still be a crazy move by Bernard (though he's pulled crazier off in the past).
Of course, Martinez isn't really much like Trinidad, Pavlik, or Tarver in terms of style, but Bernard can say just about whatever he wants, taken with grains of salt.
Hopkins hasn't fought since April, when he dropped a clear 12-round decision to Chad Dawson in Atlantic City on HBO. He has one fight left on his HBO deal, and has said many times he does not intend to retire, and will fight on. He has reportedly recently been offered a fight with Nathan Cleverly, which their side says Hopkins turned down.