Bernard Hopkins opened a few eyes with his comments to Lem Satterfield of Fanhouse.com (http://fanhouse.com) that basically stated that Pacquiao had yet to face and defeat at top-notch boxer that was African-American.
On the surface, those comments have merit. But here’s the thing; from the period of time that Pacquiao was rampaging through the junior featherweight division all the way up to junior welterweight class, to paraphrase Rick Pitino (again), Kennedy McKinney, Junior Jones, Kevin Kelley, Pernell Whitaker, Meldrick Taylor, Roger Mayweather and Aaron Pryor weren’t exactly walking through that door.
So in essence, Pacquiao ?ducked? the likes of Zahir Raheem, Nate Campbell and Vivian Harris.
“I don’t know who those guys are. I’ve heard those names before,” half-joked Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, who was rather bemused by Hopkins’ blather. “Bernard, after his last fight, he has no room to talk about anybody.”
The reality is, there really weren’t that many black boxers for Pacquiao to face during much of his ascension. And the elephant in the room is that many of today’s African-American boxers aren’t exactly crowd-pleasers and couldn’t fill a phone booth. That is also a key factor in why he hasn’t ever been matched with one.
What I felt was the most interesting comment from Hopkins- who once stated unequivocally that a ?white boy? would never defeat him and then got promptly beat by Joe Calzaghe- was that Sugar Ray Leonard would give Pacquiao trouble. No arguments from Roach, who is a huge fan of his.
“Sugar Ray Leonard might have been better than Sugar Ray Robinson. Six-time world champion, Olympic gold medalist, one of the greatest fighters of his era. I mean, he had great competition too. Tommy Hearns, at the same time, he had Marvin Hagler. He beat everybody. He’s one of the greatest fighters of all time, I think.”
The bottom line is Leonard gives ANYBODY trouble because, well, he was kinda?y’ know, great.
“Mayweather might also; he’s a good fighter,” conceded Roach, “but he just chose not to fight. We offered to sign a contract; we’re not ducking him; he’s ducking us. Bernard put the blame on your guy.”
And please, let’s hope this nonsense is going to be used to justify a fight with Shane Mosley. Roach agrees.
“Shane, he’s a great fighter in his day and so forth. He had great wins against Oscar De La Hoya and he’s a very respectful guy. But at this point, I don’t see the interest.”.
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