Got to admit it. The Ripley’s Believe It Or Not sideshow freak (“Albert Cadabra,” yeah, sure, pal) who hammered a nail into his face was imprerssive but, when it came to speechmaking at the Tuesday press conference at BB King’s in Times Square, everybody but ring legend Bernard BHop Hopkins was just wasting their breath.
Hopkins, who continues his 23 year pro career, with a light heavyweight title defense against the talented but underachieving Chad Dawson at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on HBO PPV TV on Oct. 15, could have given guys named Obama, Boehner, Cantor and Reid some tips on how to keep an audience’s interest from the speaker’s podium.
Without futher adieu the wit, the wisdom and the “psyche job” that “Ole Popkins” laid on the soft-spoken Dawson for the second day in succession. (Dawson had to listen to a similar spiel in LA on Monday).
Hopkins is age 46 while New Haven resident Dawson is 17 years his junior.
Referring to how he picks the right opponent at the right time: “That’s my fox mentality.”
Fighting a lefthander: “I love fighting southpaws because I am unorthodox myself. I am 12-2 against southpaws with a split decision loss to Joe Calzaghe ands most people say that I won that fight.?
Comparing and contrasting his Hall Of Fame resume (52-5-2, 32 KOs) against that of Dawson (30-1, 17 KOs): ?It?s like two guys going for a job. You look at their resumes and one is Harvard, the other is a community college. With my resume, I still have the fire and the desire. I?ve got a Ph.d.?
