During this conversation with Fight Hype, Golden Boy promoter Bernard Hopkins gives his take on the next biggest fight out there for Canelo Alvarez. Hopkins of course is no longer involved in promoting Canelo, but still has his own opinion as a fan. Check out what he had to say below.
Hopkins on the fight he most wants to see Canelo in:
“There’s one fight I want to see him fight...Jermall Charlo. Let me tell you, nothing else matters to me right now. I wanted that fight before the Golden Boy split, I want that fight now. I want that fight in the next year-and-a-half or earlier. The reason I say year-and-a-half is not because neither guy isn’t ready, fix the politics first. See the politics gotta get on the same page first and then the fight happens.
“So hopefully the politics don’t take too long between both sides and we can see one of those throwback Roberto Duran and [Sugar Ray Leonard].”
On if he would favor Canelo to beat Charlo:
“When you going up against the young whippersnapper in a respectful way, that can fight his ass off in many ways, and hungry, on paper you gotta give this fight as a close, razor-edge thin (advantage) to Canelo on paper. But there’s always that suspicions of oddmakers and reporters and experts looking at Jermall Charlo’s learning process...his confidence, you’ve seen him grow, I’ve seen him grow.
“There’s mental and there’s physical, and that’s why Jermall Charlo and Canelo Alvarez is so even up to a point. The experience has to go to Canelo, the achievements up to now has to go to Canelo. You can’t even dispute that — it is what it is. But I’m telling you as a fighter, as an active fighter that’s used to being active, this year a lot of people are going to be blaming (their inactivity) on ‘20. When they get to ‘21, ‘22, they’re going to be blaming 2020 for some of their defeats. And after a while we’re not gonna buy that, but it’s something you can sympathize with because we all digging ourselves out a hole.
“A lot of guys that you assume (will win), they ain’t gonna be able to start that engine, man. They ain’t gonna be able to start that engine and perform they way they used to perform prior to being sat down for nine to ten months out of this year if they didn’t do nothing but one fight in 2020. That’s not good, man. And that’s nobody’s fault, but that’s gonna play in the hands of a lot of big fights that going to come up, and a lot of who’s supposed to win won’t win.”