Bernard Hopkins Avoids Andre Ward, Writes own Stay of Execution

Tavoris Cloud deserves an assist for his performance Saturday night; he did what his style dictated he would do and allowed us to once again marvel at Bernard Hopkins. It was one thing to be my cynical self but it was completely another to enjoy watching a fellow old guy defy the odds; I got caught up in the moment just like you. Bernard was the quicker man, and he showed why he is a marvel to us all, the ride was historic and I loved being on it-until he opened his mouth. Immediately afterwards Hopkins, one of the most calculating figures in the sport went to Andre Ward (ironically subbing for Roy Jones Jr.) and pronounced his undying respect and the “fact” that no amount of money would put the two in the ring together. 15 million Dollars to a man who is hell-bent on getting every penny he believed was denied him in his prime is not enough to step in the ring with a Golden Boy of Wards credentials- a kid who in Bernard’s youth represents everything that kept him obscured. A young man in his prime, a young man too skilled and poised to fall for any of what Bernard put on Cloud and will put on Nathan Cleverly of Wales. The kid who dismantled Chad Dawson, who let’s face it gave Hopkins the heebie geebies despite his fragile mental make-up. For someone who made his brand on authenticity we seem to give him a pass when he isn’t necessarily keeping it real, because he is doing something we won’t ever see again.

And that’s OK, because that’s where I get an opportunity to keep it real with boxing fans.

Bernard Hopkins WANTS NO PART OF ANDRE WARD

I remember growing up there was a bully named “Stacy” who liked to beat up guys he knew had zero chance of defending themselves; he also liked to bark a challenge to the bystanders and anybody else who “wanted some”. One night, in rare form he beat up another lamb and went into his act when my cousin Troy ( a real tough guy) happened to be walking by, when he asked the crowd if anybody wanted “some” Troy spoke up; “I want some” and without missing a beat Stacy replied “I’m not talking to you”. Bernard Hopkins beat a tough, limited, straight ahead Champion (I won’t short him) and announced that he knew Cloud would be Champ again, and then seconds later contradicted and crowed “ I destroy young fighters” via the microphone. Clearly, like the bully from my childhood he wasn’t talking to Ward, he was talking to Nathan Cleverly and his ilk because Ward would end his career if they ever met. That is why 15 Million Dollars isn’t enough, because that money would represent more than a Payday, it would represent a retirement package and a lifetime bloody images on the Internet. Yes I know, “Hard Nard” isn’t “scurd” of nobody but understand this, “Real Recognize Real” and Bernard has decided it’s best to Love Ward than to put himself in a situation that could end very badly. Kobe likes to say “these young boys can’t fuck with me” but ask yourself something; do you think he’s talking about LeBron? and if so how has that worked out for him over the last 4 years?.

I'll give you a few minutes.

The Sad Part is “Love” won’t pay Wards Bills

Lennox Lewis made a lot of “step aside” money in his day but Ward is the man in another division (168 lbs.) who happens to be the best Light Heavyweight in the world. Clearly “SOG” can take Roy Jones’s job (sorry Roy) at HBO tomorrow but he’s still in his athletic prime with a lot of fighting ahead of him. The kind of “love” Bernard is showing is the kind that starts in his mirror, it says I love “me” so much that I won’t allow this kid to put me on his resume, I most certainly don’t love Boxing enough to facilitate the coronation of the next “guy”. Bernard loves history when it suits his mythology, being only the “Archie Moore” who beats Yvon Durelle not the one cooked in harsh light of exposure provided by young Cassius Clay. He’s no longer the rebel, and like most rebels he became a part of the establishment that kept him in obscurity and he’ll do no favors for Andre Ward. Post-Fight he made everything about upending a Dictator ( Don King) who was long faded much like he kicked over the urn of what was Roy Jones-anything to make you think he’s still the Che’ Guevara of Boxing. 15 Million Is a grandiose figure, and if you’re a macro thinker not really a lot of money to a notoriously thrifty guy who can see the cost of a brand identity lost. Remember, his “brand” isn’t about winning but the inability of the next generation to kick his ass- Andre Ward can do that for him and he knows it. 5 Million Is a lot to a young Champion who deserves to break through to the PPV bracket and I’m sure HBO is itching to get Ward exposed to a larger audience in light of the Mayweather defection. Hopkins likes to say “the ring retires fighters”, this is true but part of this axiom is smoke and mirrors if you know who not to get in the “ring” with.

The same thing is going on with Adrien Broner and Floyd Mayweather, & hopefully Broner's jump to Welterweight can expose the class subjugation that threatens to slow the natural evolution of a great sport. Hopkins is using political power, false admiration and financial deprivation to make Andre Wards life as a Boxer that much harder because he can-and his track record as a warrior allows him to get away with it. Reputation is everything in Boxing, and now older fighters are leveraging it to commit infanticide on a generation of young studs who I believe can take them RIGHT NOW. No other sport allows this manipulation of the narrative (Brett Favre came close); every other sport forces older athletes to exist on merit alone or be overtaken by young lions. Boxing used to have that kind of ecosystem despite historic corruption, even the greatest fighters we’ve ever seen had to suffer the indignity of a newer (sometimes inferior) lion pushing them over the cliff. But back then it was the old guy that needed the money, not the other way around- in ways this resembles our current economy where old financial masters get richer and college grads move in with mom. Hopkins is no worse than the 4^th (I think Lucian Bute beats him) Light Heavyweight in the World! And that is a huge accomplishment, but anything that detracts from Andre Wards development as a “name” in our sport is a detriment to our sport. I don’t care about Bernard’s “respect” for Ward, if he respected him and his own #15 Pound for Pound ranking he would make the fight- and if he respected our intelligence he wouldn’t bullshit us about his reasons for not fighting Ward.

When he was a hard young man he overcame politics and dished out executions, now that he is “the man” he can use politics and PR to issue out his own stay of Execution- and that’s mighty “Golden” of him.

Bernard Hopkins: Fight or Filibuster?

Boxing fans are cynics by nature; we want to believe the worst because well…we see the worst most of the time. When we make the decision to sit down and watch a fighter we consider the match-up and that fighters past history in the ring because ultimately most of us have lives to lead. Veteran fighters not only give us the perception they will handle themselves consistently, they also give us the guarantee that will see a skill set they’ve honed over the course of a lifetime in Boxing. Predictability drives ratings, and those who have been around for a long time who have been schizophrenic in behavior will never be Ratings Kingpins-so if they want to stick around the alternative is political power. At the Barclays Center Bernard Hopkins will enter the ring against Tavoris Cloud at the age of 48 to try and make history and I’m not that sure what we’ll get. For you see Hopkins is a unique study in schizophrenia in the ring, and I’m not complimenting him on his profound completeness as a fighter-I’m pointing out that like most great “pure” actors his performances tend to be all over the place. I do see a Co Star (Cloud) who can bring out the virtuosity in the old man; shorter, basic, looking for the KO but you never know when Father Time starts working on a mind steeled in the Cellblock so many years ago. 

And the instinct to survive sets in.

Bernard Hopkins like any great old warrior has taken the liberty to moving the goalpost whenever he sees fit. Like Holyfield he tells anyone who will listen that he’ll leave when someone beats him up, but the catch is he’s so skilled he can make even fights he’s losing muddy unwatchable eyesores. He will wait all day long to throw counter shots, clinch, inexplicably find himself in some of the most bizarre falls and spills and leave the ring with his role as elite fighter and compelling figure intact. Hopkins like most Hall of Famers can boast a highlight reel of destruction but he can also boast a highlight reel of obstruction, Saturday night he will add to one depending on what Father Time and Tavoris Cloud decide to do. Chad Dawson fell to Bernard’s Fistic Filibuster twice if you ask me, psyched into losing his cool in the first fight and psyched into imposing his clear dominance fully in the second bout. He’s brilliantly nerve-wracking in that way, he can make you marvel at his deep reservoir of Boxing IQ (See Both Pascal Bouts) or leave you anticipating just what he will say about the god-awful thing you just witnessed. Even his “Revenge” against a washed up Roy Jones turned into a foul fest, only Hopkins in rare form can reduce a harmless Jones, a career “good guy” into a dirty fighter. He can give you a Master class like the Thesis he authored against Antonio Tarver in 2006 or the Winky Wright calamity, which felt like a traffic jam that ends with your car getting dinged.

Like Rand Paul on the floor of Congress earlier this week Hopkins can make 36 minutes feel like an hour and a half with constant anti fistic tactics. When he’s made up his mind to divert and impede the process of a fight to give off the illusion of skill we’re all in for a long night. One can forgive Ishe Smith and Cornelius Bundrage because the skill they exhibited was honestly all they had; Bundrage makes everyone look that way because he’s an honest fighter with a remedial skill set. Hopkins can fight, but you have to make him, and nobody outside of Andre Ward is skilled enough to make him and therein lays his platform-you can’t beat him up. He’s like that when promoting a fight, he takes his resume and filibuster’s, threatens and implies violence until you believe him. If you don’t believe him he’ll say something that will make you run to your laptop to editorialize on his ill words-but rarely a “fight”.

Hopefully I’m wrong Saturday and we see the old Philly Bernard perfectly comfortable with making putting an ass-whipping on a strong aggressive kid like Cloud. If not, I’ll take check in early and tune in for the post fight interview In the morning because it will be more entertaining than watching Hopkins use his experience to do everything but fight.

Not a Word on This Fight in relation to this time in Boxing History

I find it suspicious that the PED cloud is thicker than it’s ever been in our sport and yet we are all eyes in on a 48 year old Light Heavyweight. The “haves” clearly seem to have the money and access to stay clean while the middle class fighters are getting popped with positive results as of late. Bernard Hopkins and his Promotional Firm are members or Boxing’s Aristocracy and yet we are supposed to believe the mythology and narrative surrounding the legend. Hey, it’s clear the man is a monolith of clean living and blue collar work ethic but I also believe he likes money and will lose a portion of his identity once this ride is over. I still don’t believe how naïve we can be about PED’s considering the number of us who run to the GNC…merely to look good when we take our shirts off! These are competitive men, and I’ll say this AGAIN the average age of Boxing’s Top Ten Pound for Pound Ranked fighters is 37! Remember it was only a few weeks ago that Michael Jordan put out hints that he has a "team" of people “exploring” what it would take to get him down to 218 lbs., and your crazy if you don’t think part of that “list” would include Germany- a place Hopkins can afford to go. I blinked on my skepticism about Adrian Peterson's Robotic performance this past year and left my post in the chamber only to see Ray Lewis’s old ass bring Deer Antler to the Super Bowl so I won’t hesitate anymore. I don’t believe Kobe is on Mamba Juice and "Hard Work and Dedication" won’t see Floyd Mayweather through the end of this Showtime/CBS deal. If Hopkins brings out a performance for the ages and looks like the Hopkins who took Trinidad apart 12 years ago will you fight? Or will you sit by numbly and accept Boxing’s Filibuster.

Evolution is something that allows us to pat ourselves on the back, because it's natural to want to believe the time your living in is when man is at his optimum-it's a YOU thing. We should change our egotistical mindset from "Bigger, Faster,Stronger" to "Richer, Slicker, and Greedier".

David Price vs Tony Thompson - Full Knockout Video

W.W.F.D; Broner should ask, What Would Floyd Do?

It’s been a long time since Floyd Mayweather was 23, but I think it’s safe to say he wasn’t the kind of puncher to attract the 1.5 million viewers that tuned in to see Adrien Broner last weekend. I do remember an ill-fated stab at repackaging Boxing for the “Hip Hop Generation” called KO Nation back in 2000 that fell flat despite a “then” Emanuel Burton actually giving Floyd his toughest fight to date. Back then Floyd was only known to the Boxing heads and insiders despite winning his first belt 16 fights in against a much more respected foe than Antonio Demarco. By the time he started receiving the treatment Adrien Broner is getting from ESPN he was pushing 30; which lent an authenticity to his unlikeability-he was pissed off because he was finally in the money. For the last week we’ve seen and heard Adrien Broner everywhere and he’s promising he too will be in the big money category, not because he’s a great young talent, nor because there’s a big named Mexican rival out there, but because Floyd (his mentor) told him so. Well that’s real nice of him to promise the kid that the financial realities of the business that he exploited will still be there if he would just use the “how to become rich and unlikable in Boxing” template he designed , but it aint that easy.

Boxing is different, this isn’t like LeBron and Kobe benefiting financially from the marketplace created by Michael Jordan- each fighter is a unique case and subject to the landscape and timing. Just watching the Lightweight Champion do the media rounds I can tell he isn’t the personality that Floyd was, he’s a lot younger and not as compelling a subject. He tries too hard to come off as the next Floyd; something he should know isn’t respected no matter how polarizing the original article was during his career. He’s much more offensive than Floyd and even told him he’d have kicked his ass (when Floyd was 23) but when asked about the possibility of doing it in real life he demurs- and this could cost him millions. Boxing is a blood sport, and one of the oldest traditions is the old being eaten by the young-because that is the way nature intended it to be. There are no sacred cows, and you can’t be a young Lion, see that old Lion sitting on the hill with all of the food and let him get away. Watching this dynamic play out is unsettling to me because Broner won’t be what he thinks he’s going to be without Mayweathers head on his mantle, and Mayweather is shrewd enough to know it.

It’s the worst kept secret in Boxing, even Max Kellerman gets asked in the street if Broner will fight Floyd but “The Problem” is too caught up in idol worship to take any talk of this seriously. Sugar Ray Robinson is the greatest fighter to draw breath, you can stack Broner on top of Mayweather and still not equal him, but even he was young once-his idol was Henry Armstrong. He loved “Hurricane Hank” so much that he beat Fritzie Zivic to avenge his idol; he stated as much in every account of his young career. Boxing in the 1940’s was run differently than it is now, and Armstrong needed the money, so soon after beating Zivic for his “idol” Robinson beat the man he wanted to be like. Adrien Broner loves Floyd no more than Larry Holmes loved Muhammad Ali, the only difference is Larry was a mature family man with priorities-he loved his wife and newborn daughter more than his former boss. Rocky Marciano cried after knocking Joe Louis through the ropes but he was told the public wouldn’t accept him if he did not desecrate the sacred cow. It was cruel, but Boxing is cruel, if friendships “mattered” ask Floyd if he would switch places with Zab Judah-a friend who he meticulously exposed as a mentally fragile frontrunner back in 2006. A much better question for Broner to ask himself is: what would happen if he was a 36 year old “Money” Broner and Floyd Mayweather was a young lion?

Given Broner just signed a 30 month, 6 fight deal with Showtime, a deal that may get into the 250 Million dollar “sphere” Mayweather would tell everyone the old man isn’t worth that kind of money. Mayweather would also point out “correctly” that old man Broner won’t finish that deal, and the only way he could is to fight a bum after Guerrero and a bum after Alvarez. Floyd would tell everyone Adrien is like a Big Brother to him but he’s no longer a “Problem” that it’s time for him to step up and fight the REAL best fighter in the world. Broner could try to ignore him, but Floyd would only persist; “if he loved me, he’d give me an opportunity to feed my family”. If the bigger Broner said he was too big for the kid brother Mayweather wouldn’t be fazed, remember Mayweather and Broner are closer in size and more conceivable that Floyd and Oscar were back in 2007. Even Floyds own father thought he was too small for a De La Hoya who was younger than Floyd is today. Floyd would crash Broner's press conferences as he did when Acelino Freitas and Joel Casamayor faught back in 2002 and he would tell the world all of the things Broner hinted at during his media blitz last week. When Floyd was a Problem he even told Prince Naseem Hamed he’d go to Featherweight to beat him, all for the almighty dollar- and we knew then he was the real deal.

Mentorship, appreciation from an older champion towards a phenom in his division or vicinity is a sham- a psychological layer to keep that younger lion from putting the older fighter on notice. I knew Andre Ward was “the goods” before the Super 6 Tourney ended, but I really knew he was special when Bernard Hopkins “endorsed” him and claimed he wouldn’t fight him because he liked him too much. Right, you can ruin a young, flat footed Kelly Pavlik with no problem but a man who made his bones being an iconoclast wouldn’t want to touch a church boy with a Gold Medal around his neck?. How convenient. Hopkins knew; and he used Boxing’s current political state to avoid the natural process of the young stud letting you know your time is up- so Chad Dawson took the beating. Adrien Broner is not guaranteed riches that equal his talent, Floyd Mayweather knew this and lived it-would he be what he is today had he not caught De La Hoya going out the door?. There’s no guarantee a cash cow of Floyds magnitude will magically be there when Broner is 27 and in case he needs a little Boxing history… most of them ride in on the back of the previous cash cow.

This kid has 30 months or less to become what he will become or he may be looking at Super Fights with the likes of Lucas Matthysse and Danny Garcia. Floyd Mayweather is a master of the psyche job; he isn’t going to just come to Broner because he knows what the kid can do-Broner’s going to have to make himself a problem to ignore. That’s how Floyd became a legend, the highest paid athlete in sports and a role model for Adrien Broner, “making it happen”. The Showtime deal has stipulations, and Broner should be putting out feelers to see if he can get on one of the undercards to showcase himself as a superior product. HBO won’t mind loaning him out, nor be sensitive to the friendship; they have the younger guy so they would love to do business with Showtime as they did when Lennox Lewis ended the Mike Tyson/Showtime farce. It’s dirty, messy, uncomfortable shit, but Boxing is that kind of business- Broner being a veteran of the streets should know this by now. He just may have to do something that he really don’t want to do for money, but it beats what he was doing before and it will be more money than he’s ever seen-besides Floyd would do the same damned thing.

“I hate when people say I only fight for money, of course I do! that’s why they call it Prizefighting you stupid mothafucka”                                          Floyd Mayweather 

NBA Should Give Bosh a "Hall Pass" to Handle Lil Wayne

I’m a Basketball fan, I think they’re the greatest athletes in the world and I love watching them do what they do. To be objective I am neither a Miami Heat nor a Chris Bosh fan, I prefer "bigs" who can eat a little with their backs to the basket, he’s an All Star but not my cup of tea-maybe that’s a sign of my age. However I’ve always loved the way Chris Bosh handled himself as a Black man, I’ve found him to be intelligent, introspective and dignified- something that is unfortunately at a premium today. Watching TV can be a cringe inducing experience for Black folks who think in more broad cultural terms, it can be lonely too because in today’s world as long as your “paid” acting like a debased version of “us” is not only accepted but encouraged. The “Coonery” and willingness to act like animals for the entertainment of whites is lost on the young black and rich, and if anyone points out that the conduct reaffirms racist’s theories about us written over 100 years ago they’ll be called a “Hater”. Myself, I’ve never been scared of being painted by that broad brush because there’s usually nothing fortifying it, ignorance is never prepared to debate merely to defend and deflect- the word “hater” is now used as a slur meant to shame you enough to stop looking. Hip Hop is rife with the word, young black men saying things of no relevance use it to defend ignorance and socialize our people to a culture of lawlessness amongst and against ourselves.

Aliester Crowley the Greatest Satanist wrote: “Do as thou Wilt will be the whole of the Law”.

Jay Z, Hip Hops #1 Sponsor/Warlock/ Freemason transcribed that theory of Moral anarchy on his "Roca wear" brand T shirt to read “Do What Thou Wilt”. I take this to mean Rappers of A List Caliber head no laws, not even the unspoken laws from one brotha to another, the kind of laws that back in the day (if broken) used to get your ass kicked.

Lil Wayne felt blackballed by the Miami Heat Organization because he was banned from NBA Arena’s; instead of using his wealth and influence to go through backroom channels to reinstatement he broke one of man's “laws”. He did “What Thou Wilt” and to hell with basic law, not just moral law but street law. Chris Bosh may be famous, may be in the public eye and may play for the team Wayne believes is responsible for his “ban” but he should not have been violated the way he was over All Star weekend. His wife won’t even be named here out of respect but I’ll say this, her conduct and her past as a single woman was washed away by the vow she took to Chris in front of church and community. We fought so hard to have our marriages respected as people and yet Lil Wayne’s conduct is supported because now we don’t respect ourselves. It’s been building up to this for a while, actually building up to this point when I was young, when we didn’t respect ourselves enough to not exacerbate what was happening between Biggie and Pac either. 

That too escalated because one black man spoke ill of another’s wife, we lost the two greatest Rappers of All-time behind this evil and “Lil Wayne” is what we were left with. By then we’d learned to embrace the disgusting habit of not loving yourself or your brotha enough to pull them aside, by then everybody had 20 nigga’s around them that weren’t exactly there to keep the peace. Diplomacy was a sign of weakness, even though the true rulers of the world use it every day. What Lil Wayne did won’t get the 10,000$ back rumors say Mrs. Bosh “got” him for back when he knew her, and if he were wise he’d have seen it as a fee to get her out of his life. The Hip Hop World believe it or not is filled with a lot of “family men” and guys over 30 and I can’t imagine any of them being married to church girls so it would be hypocritical of them to support this childish bullshit from a man over 30 who call himself “Lil”.

Chances are, if Wayne marries he too will marry someone who once dated an athlete or fellow rapper (because they all date from the same pool) so tell me would it be OK to convict her publicly for her past behavior? Would it be fair for some of the men who’ve "known" Wayne’s “babies’ mama’s” intimately to call up TMZ to tell them “I crushed that”. It is clear from his lyrics lately he isn’t man enough to take care of his own dignity let alone the dignity of black and brown women-should we just shrug and say ‘oh well, I guess that’s’ just hip hop’. Is it OK that a league that makes Billions from a 76% African American workforce to do business with someone stupid enough to spit lyrics like “I beat that pussy up like Emmitt Till” during Black History Month?. Why would LeBron, a man who hangs with the kind of guys who buy Rappers accept an apology from a fast fading clown? A clown so desperate he’d dress up like Satan (symbolically selling his soul) in his latest video to cling to whatever’s left of the shiny things Corporate conglomerates throw at coons like him. What does “Lil” Wayne owe Chris Bosh man to man? And what does he deserve? and are the two mutually exclusive?.

A Reinstatement Plan for “Lil Wayne”

Pat Riley brought this group together on the concept of family and if he is who I’ve heard he is he has to be as pissed off about this as anyone. He also has to look at Mrs. Bosh at functions and ceremonies just like Chris has to look at her when he comes home at night. The High Road is a hard road but there are times you have to let someone know you are willing to roll off into the gutter to make a point. Riley should invite Lil Wayne to the Miami Heat facilities and air out any grievances man to man, no homies, none of the clowns that make Rappers do things they would never do by themselves. Show him how it’s done, how honorable men communicate with one another even when they don’t agree because no matter how big Hip Hop is it will never take the place of mature discussion. Negotiate a public apology and allow Wayne to have full input in the wording so that he can save face to the few miscreants who actually consider him a man. Predictably Wayne will broach the topic of tickets and access; and Riley should be open to this because this “person’ is a celebrity worthy of consideration. Make the tickets conditional, and walk Wayne over to a training area (well padded) where no one is, nobody but Chris Bosh fresh off of bench pressing Wayne’s bodyweight. Tell him, “what you felt comfortable saying in front of people you should say in front of this man all alone”. Lock the door, tell him “Wayne, you can come out of here anyway you choose, but you’re going to have to deal with Chris if you want access to this franchise and EVERYTHING that comes with it”. It’s only fair, Bosh didn’t ban him but Bosh should be the one to let him back in, and if the punk comes out of that room busted up then you can say Bosh did “as thou wilt”. Besides, he’s a sicko he’d find some way to rap about the ass whoopin and sell it because that’s the kind of person he is.

I Can Dream, can’t I? I mean I’m only “doing me” Right?