When he was a teenaged thug on the mean streets of Philadelphia, Bernard Hopkins was anything but a solid citizen.
Robbery was Hopkins crime of choice and he wound up getting a five year prison stint for this vocation.
In all the years since, even though he has broken the hearts (?) and minds (??) and of various and sundry fight promoters, Hopkins has been a model citizen in his chosen sport/business.
By all accounts, the Delaware resident has never even been ticketed for littering in or around his mansion.
Many call him disloyal for his well publicized falling out with Butch Lewis, then with Lou DiBella and with others along the way through a Hall Of Fame career but he’s been more than loyal to Oscar De La Hoya and his Golden Boy outfit.
It was his fellow president in charge of vice, oops I mean vice president Sugar Shane Mosley who shed his Golden Boy executive blazer so he could cash in with Manny Pacquiao and Bob Arum.
Hopkins, meanwhile, has stayed put on the GBP, Golden Boy Plantation. (Here I give a fond salute to boxing muckraker Malcolm ?Flash? Gordon, who always made reference to Arum’s company as the Top Rank Plantation.)
I don’t hear any of the BHop Haters, and they are legion in the fistic industry, commenting on how Bernie has been a royal loyal partner with GBP.
Now Hopkins is taking a mudbath in the most unfair of all courts, the court of public opinion, because of his May 21 rematch foe Jean Pascal’s allegations that, because Hopkins is age 46 but fights better than most fighters 10 to 15 years younger, he must be cheating, must be using HGH or other illegal drugs which make him fighter better than his chronological age.
In other words, his driver’s license reads 46 but, inside the ring, Hopkins can look, at times, two decades younger than that.
I guess no one ever informed Pascal about Ponce de Leon and his Fountain of Youth (this Ponce is no relation to the Golden Boy liege of the same exact name).
Standing thus accused, justly or unjustly we shall likely never know, now Hopkins know how badly Pacquiao has felt with these same sans proof or even a shred of critical evidence charges carelessly hurled at him by Floyd Mayweather, Floyd Mayweather Sr., Roger Mayweather and others.
Pacquiuao does more than say he’s no drug cheater. Pacquiao’s defamation suit just jumped the motion to dismiss hurdle and moves on in the court so the Pinoy Idol has, in this instance, put his money where his mouth is.
Hopkins was quick to respond that he will abide by any test required by the Quebec commission for his May 21 Montreal second bout against Pascal.
I doubt we’ll be seeing Hopkins instituting a defamation action against Pascal as the Canadian boxer’s comments came in the context of prefight blather, fodder at a press conference.
Again, maybe both Pacman and Hopkins have been unjustly accused.
Or, maybe, they both cheat like so many athletes in other sports do.
For all I know, all you know, all anyone knows, Mayweather might be a cheater also.
?It ain’t cheating if you never get caught,? one former world champion told me Tuesday. ?Why would boxers be more or less moral than bicycle riders, track stars, golfers or other jocks? Where there is big money to be made, athletes will do whatever they can if they do not think they will get caught.?
The lingering allegations against Pacman have labeled some haters to refer to him as ?Pacroid.?
Will BHop haters now start refererring to his as BHoproid or just plain Hoproid?
I don’t know but the whole topic has turned into a hemorrhoid.
All we’ve got now is people throwing rocks at each other.
I wonder how many of the rocktossers live in glass houses?
Stonewalls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a tomb…but in the court of public opinion, there are many who feel once you’ve been accused, you are indeed guilty.
Pacquiao and Hopkins make unlikely bedfellows, to be sure, but they’re in the same bunk now.
