BERNARD HOPKINS | Turning Losses into Lessons and Being in Competition with Yourself
Full Episode
Show Notes

Bernard Hopkins (@bhopdaalien) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2016. He's one of the most successful boxers of the past three decades, having held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the undisputed middleweight title from 2001 to 2005, and the lineal light heavyweight title from 2011 to 2012, and probably most notably, he was known as the guy that finally beat Oscar de La Hoya and what's interesting now is that he actually works with Oscar at his company, Golden Boy Promotions.
What Travis and Bernard discussed:

- Growing up in a family where boxing was everyone's passion
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How Bernard got a second chance in life to change his behavior and set the foundation for his success later in life
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The turning point in Bernard's life after his brother passed away and how his own life was at risk
- How Bernard turned every loss into a lesson
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The one word that changed everything: Different
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Bernard shares the story of one of his most challenging fights: Defeating Oscar de la Hoya
- The difference between entertainment boxing and REAL boxing

Step into the ring and join us for a riveting conversation with Bernard Hopkins, one of the greatest boxers of our time, as he shares his inspiring journey from a troubled past to becoming a world champion. Listen as he reveals the turning point in his life, the lessons he learned from every loss and the one word that changed everything for him. Discover the behind-the-scenes story of his legendary fight against Oscar de la Hoya and the difference between entertainment boxing and real boxing. Don't miss out on this knockout episode with a true champion!
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Transcript

Bernard Hopkins: Everything that I didn't know, what I know now was a lesson. It wasn't a loss. Those lessons kept me from putting that loss in the backseat of the lesson. I didn't feel like it was a loss. I wasn't in denial that this says a L on my record. But guess what? If you see what I've done after that in the ring and broke records, I wouldn't surpass even with that. It was a lesson. If you take any loss as a lesson, you don't look at it as if you got fired. Even if you were wrong, it's still a lesson to you not to be wrong. Again,​
[00:00:39] Travis Chappell
What's going on everybody? Welcome back to the show. Today I'm making friends with Bernard Hopkins. Bernard is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2016. He's one of the most successful boxers of the past three decades, having held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the undisputed middleweight title from 2001 to 2005, and the lineal light heavyweight title from 2011 2012, and probably most notably, he was known as the guy that finally beat Oscar de La Hoya and what's interesting now is that he actually works with Oscar at his company, Golden Boy Promotions. And so, Bernard and I get to talk about the mind of a champion, what it's like, growing up, having nothing, and then having the world at your fingertips. And then transitioning into being in business with somebody who was your toughest and most fierce competitor, just years prior. So, this was a really fun and interesting conversation with Bernard. It's not a typical interview for me, but it's somebody who I have a lot of respect for, as an athlete and really just as a man in the way that he's shown up, for his family and the people around him. So please enjoy this conversation with the executioner Bernard Hopkins. What's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the show. Today I am sitting down with Bernard Hopkins. Thank you so much for joining me, man. I appreciate you.
[00:02:29] Bernard Hopkins
Hey, thanks for having me, brother. Appreciate you so, World Champion Boxer, obviously prestigious career now in the entrepreneurial sector, partnering up with Oscar de la Hoya, Golden Boy, promotions, working on a bunch of stuff, but I want to talk a little bit about what brought you to that point.
[00:02:45] Travis Chappell
So, let's rewind the clock here. Talk about an 11-year- old. 12-year-old Bernard, take us all the way back, set the scene. Where'd you grow up? What were your parents doing? You know, stuff like that.
[00:02:57] Bernard Hopkins
Well, my parents were caring for seven siblings. I'm the second oldest. Jesus of the seven. But my sister Bernadette had a great left hook,
[00:03:07] Travis Chappell
Oh, did she?
[00:03:07] Bernard Hopkins
She was a year older than me.
[00:03:08] Travis Chappell
She practiced on you?
[00:03:09] Bernard Hopkins
Yeah. There were fights in the house, so I don't know how many siblings you had, but you, if you had fights, had fights in the, I just had many fights, but, but not at all. Right. Boxing is in my family on both sides. Mother and father.  They had brothers that fought, which is my uncles. They were local, they were Philadelphia, tri-state, you know, respected, middleweight. The weight I started off at, and also light heavyweight, but I took her to a level no doubt. I took a tour of the Hall of Fame as of June 12th of this year.
[00:03:39] Travis Chappell Congrats.
[00:03:39] Bernard Hopkins Thank you. 20 Defenses, broke records. Set records at defending the title for 12 years with a 20 defense Yeah. Of, of that title. And then becoming the oldest today surpassing George Foreman record at 50, I think he was 47. I was a champion, at 51, 52 and defending my champion in the late forties, going back.  But, a lot of that stuff, a lot of that, that, you know, I had a lot of energy in Philadelphia, got in some trouble. Did time. I did juvenile time and I did. state time.
[00:04:12] Travis Chappell Oh, really? Okay.
[00:04:12] Bernard Hopkins Yeah. I’m the artist, this documentary's going to be awesome, but I am not gonna give you all of it, but I'm, I'm going to tease, you're going to gimme some of, I'm just going to tease you enough.  But we all people watching this to go watch that the, these artists, these are the, it'll be completed about 20, 24. It's going to be real strategic, but, but the right thing and the right, contents and, . And it's a lot of work that needs to be done. The fighting has always been in our blood in the Hopkins family because of those two parents that had brothers that were locally respected in a tri-state area.
[00:04:44] Travis Chappell To have it on both sides of the family.
[00:04:46] Bernard Hopkins So, so I, I didn't miss far as getting the DNA.  And yeah. Of those 2 siblings and to take it to where I., you know, for 20, say three decades, 28 years, three decades of the sweet science. And, like I said, breaking records, setting records and, and, and always, being ready and not getting ready. I fought a lot to not slip up one or twice and say, oh my, you know, I couldn't get the weight off. I just had a fight two months ago. I went out and went on vacation. Good stuff. And boom, you got to fight when you get those titles, you got to defend those titles. You have mandates that every organization wants your blood.To be able to represent their title at the right and appropriate time. So, it took a lot of discipline. I missed a lot of weddings. I missed a lot; I missed a lot of being at the emergency room when the baby's ready to be delivered. missed a lot of great things that you can't get back. But I, I listen, I am secure of their life.  I'll say that the oldest daughter is, you know, graduated from PACE University. I'm going to get a master's here. Going to stay another year, never. and I look at all these things that I accomplished through boxing after coming out of the juvenile institution and the state prison institution for fighting, strong armed robbery.  My skills have always been respected. But to get the second or third chance of life by changing my act and my behavior. Look, this is what you are sitting here having this interview. And it took time. It wasn't overnight.
[00:06:23] Travis Chappell When you were younger, did you think that it was possible for you to turn it into a profession? Or were you just a fighter?
[00:06:29] Bernard Hopkins Always.
[00:06:30] Travis Chappell You always thought, I'm going to be a professional boxer.
[00:06:31] Bernard Hopkins Always. Always. I always kept on boxing magazines, all boxing pitchers. Marvin Hale was my hero. Ali was like a god to me. We talk trash in the city of Philadelphia. You, you talk trash and you, you dance, you did the alley shuffle. Joe Frazier, as you know, if you don't, you know now with some Philadelphia Oh, Philadelphia's a fighting city. Yeah. I mean, y'all, y'all, y'all know about that here and know whether there's a football team, basketball team. You, you're going to get a rumble out of Philly. That's how we are. We boost Hannah Claus.I mean, come on. Who Boo Hannah said we look like. Right? Come on man. But once I understood. As time went on, and I was always told by older people, that's still in my life today. Old referee. Old teachers old. Like when I say old, I'm talking about my sixth, seventh grade coming into my hall of fame crying. They kept me in my life even when I was, you know, running around in the streets. So, I had a hard look at myself.
[00:07:30] Travis Chappell Yeah. What pulled you back into the mindsets you have now? Cause obviously, like that was a, that was a period of time if you went to a bad TV and then you came out and then you went back after being, after turning 18 and stuff.
[00:07:40] Bernard Hopkins That was a period of time that lasted for a few years.
[00:07:43] Travis Chappell What eventually made you just go, I can't do that stuff anymore. I gotta focus
[00:07:47] Bernard Hopkins What made me switch? Click in and say I'm done. It wasn't what was going on in jail. I know that sound kind of. because I knew half of the people that were there.Either from neighborhoods or being in jail at one time in the juveniles and you see each other. But it was more of what, it was more of My brother getting killed. Michael Derrick Hopkins, a year under me. I told you my mother had three kids every year. We are a year apart. The first three are a year apart.Bernadette, Bernard, which is me and Michael, my brother Michael, who would be 56. Right. and Bernadette is 58 and I'm 57. He had got, uh, shot. He got shot. Wow. And, I was still in the penitentiary when that happened. And I was called to, administrative building of. They call him your social worker or your counselor, somebody you talk to if you have a problem. If you're thinking about this, thinking about that, something bad to yourself or whatever, you have to get a slip. They go, you, well, I didn't put a slip in. They called me up. They ask me if I know of certain individuals? Uh, I'm waiting for this guy to come up there. I'm already, what we call dug in means.I've been there for maybe a year and a half off my five year sentence. I'm still calling home to find out what's going on. My brother's deceased. He had to come here and he did, but he came there and said, as they asked you, do you have any enemies or anyone here that might want to do something? They ask every inmate that comes from the county to the state, because they gotta protect you in spite of you being an inmate.I was Y-41-45. I knew that number better than I knew my social status. So they came and the social worker asked me, I said, no I don't. Well do you brother. Yeah, but I don't. So, I denied it. I knew they were coming. I didn't know that quickly that night. They call it crack the biscuit, the cell. They were coming in.Ride a flashlight, come. Up. No, we packed your stuff. 90% of my stuff didn't get there. Half of my stuff got there. When the guards packed your stuff, you're not there, and they got you in the van taking you two and a half hours, two and a half hours up to Dallas, pa, which is literally almost, I said two and a half, close to three hours.It's right outside, is right on the hills, on the line of Binghamton, New York. But you're still on the Pennsylvania side. As you know, Pennsylvania's big Philly is in Pennsylvania. Right. It saved me as much as I wanted to stay down there. Just imagine for revenge, for whatever, it's your brother. Right. If I wouldn't have got out of there, how would I be here? How would I have got 20 defenses? How would I have become the oldest champion in boxing to today? Yeah. Hold that. How would I have been a Golden boy?Not only a partner, but part owner. Of a company that's two decades and some days or months old. It's a lot of ifs. If we say, if that, and that's part of my documentary we should just call it If , because there's so many things that I collected that I kept, that I have for 80% of my career.I had a guy just come to my camp and that's all he did was video everything. And after a while anybody would know that, you'll forget he's even there. He got some good stuff. because eventually, like I said, you in your moment, you are in your moment, you're training, you are having fights there.You're having real fights there because the spawn partner didn't do what he's supposed to do. And there's some feelings and the ring gets out. Hey man, there's some, you've been to gyms. There are breakouts that happen. You have been to Freddie Ro gym. Go to Freddie Rose gym up in, I believe it's Hollywood with Fred, the famous Freddy Roach.I just knew I was gonna be here. I said it boldly. I have content, I have articles, interviews. I have tapes. I have so much stuff that we can look and go through it and then ask me questions later. That's gold to a person that understands. that you knew you were gonna be where you were, and not only you knew you showed us and now we're going to ask you nothing. What do you ask a guy like that? . If a guy tells you that he's gonna win eight n b championships and he's 13 years old. I mean, you like his spirit. Because you're not a spirit killer.
[00:12:28] Travis Chappell: It's a show after, at that point. Yeah.
[00:12:30] Bernard Hopkins: And then if you are around long enough and that happens. You, you just like looking like these sort of things that I live by and I stand by to the day. I wasn't gonna be wild. 41 45 for the rest of my life. And before we get to the next thing, this is so important to tell you how. challenging and difficult to. Overcome it for most of us. I gave him nine years of parole on the street without a violation, and I lost my first professional fight, which was a four round fight in Atlantic City, which is our Vegas. You tell me by statistics I shouldn't have been back. I don't give a damn.If you live in the West, uh, the West coast, east coast, the Midwest, the dirty south. I'm telling you right now to walk off those nine years and get that certificate that's in my office in the frame put together by that woman over there. My fiancé, Joy, who put that together and said, you got all this stuff you collect in boxes and crates.Let's start taking this stuff out. This stuff is gold. That slipped from the Pennsylvania and the badge on top of it, telling me that my time on parole has expired and they typed in the date and they wished me well in the. It and that, along with a lot of other good things that happened in between those years are in my office in Delaware on that wall. Where I can say that little paper, that paper that's literal to somebody with those eight lines on there.
[00:14:18] Travis Chappell: Yeah, I mean, that's exactly why we do the show, man. It's like, for every story like yours, there's a hundred other ones that ended the opposite way that yours did, right?  Where somebody had a circumstance that they let get the better of them. You came out on the other side of that. You went through a lot of stuff in your childhood. You went through a lot of stuff in your young adulthood. You lost your brother. And then you came out of that saying, I'm done with all of it. I'm gonna move in this direction. Do you attribute that to anything?Do you look at anything, anything that happened in your life? Like, besides, obviously everything that happened with your brother. Was it something that was just like,
[00:14:53] Bernard Hopkins: My mother. My mom was a hard worker. She was a saint. She always threatened not to come to the prison because I stayed locked up all the time and she used to try to do everything and everything and say everything and everything.So I believe it and don't get in trouble, and she was always there. Has she not come in a week or two yet? But has she never come? No. She was always there and I got a chance to experience her being on a plane. A private jet or, or a commercial in first class for the first time. She never did this stuff.You know, both of my parents passed away at the age that I am now. Roundabout, my mother didn't see 60, my father didn't see 60. Now I say this is really profound for a God that I'm talking to. I'm being you for a second. that seems to be in good shape. That works out to be 58 in a few months, well, more than a few.  January 15th, I still get my run in front of my five, sometimes three miles. So I am still the same, like I'm fighting. That's what they say. But my parents didn't live until 60. They lived before they even hit 60. They died before they even hit 60. My mother passed away at 58. My dad passed away at 59.  Liver disease. He was a heroin addict, but he had never displayed that in front of us unless we looked for it. And I used to look for stuff that I know that he used to hide because you see him go in his. and I used to go in there and take this to my mom and show her. And next thing I know, they had a big fight in the argument and I stopped doing it.Cuz, I realized I was the problem. After about two or three times you realize that, oh, okay, so now you start, not, you don't, you, you don't do that anymore because you don't want the fight. So I learned that, early on, and then I, then I started saying to myself, um, as you asked earlier, I said, I can look you right in your face and tell you I knew I was gonna be here. I gave myself no chance. I did another interview before I came here. And everybody was in that room. That's next door. You gonna Ming with those people for the next two days?I said, it wasn't a loss. It was a lesson. Everything that I didn't know, what I know now was a lesson. It wasn't a loss. It's not a loss. It's a lesson. So those lessons kept me from putting that loss in the backseat of the lesson. I didn't feel like it was a loss. I wasn't in denial that this says a L on my record. But guess what? If you see what I've done after that in the ring and broke records, I wouldn't surpass even with that. It was a lesson. If you take any loss as a lesson, you don't look at it as if you got fired. Even if you were wrong, it's still a lesson to you not to be wrong. Again, it's the same thing I saw.It's the same thing that I took. It's not a loss, it's a lesson. Oh, it's okay. You want to keep thinking it's a loss. Go ahead. You do what makes you feel good. You keep thinking it's a loss. I'm looking at it as a lesson that doesn't mean the loss is going anywhere. But how do you deal with that now?How do you survive that? It happened. because you can't do anything about it. That it happened, it happened. It's past tense. Now let's look at the future. . Let's look at now first. So before we look at the future, you gotta look at now. You can't wait. Go to sleep. And then the future is here.  The future starts now. Time is now. Now the future looks bright when you start today.
[00:18:42] Travis Chappell: Gotta be some deep roots of commitment on your end,
[00:18:46] Bernard Hopkins: Life or death.
[00:18:47] Travis Chappell You look at the confidence that you came into that with, to go from this kid in Philly who, by all intensive purposes was not supposed to end up where you are now.
[00:18:56] Bernard Hopkins: I'm supposed to be dead at 18.
[00:18:57] Travis Chappell: That's what, yeah. Right, So like to get from that to where you are. Through all of the, the trials, the obstacles, including the actual losses on your record, and then flip that into the career that you've been able to have being in the Hall of Fame and, all the wins and, and title defenses and everything else that you've done.  I feel like that has to be just like this level, this next level of commitment, because every, most people, like, they go into something and they, there's always an if like
[00:19:25] Bernard Hopkins: One word.
[00:19:26] Travis Chappell: If it doesn't go well, then I'll go do this. other thing,
[00:19:28] Bernard Hopkins : one. If a dawon go, well, they jump on another bandwagon. They had that bandwagon waiting. See that was their security. That was that. That escape if yeah. Right, right. They would always fail. Yeah. And that's not saying never have a plan B. Yeah. One word: different. This guy that sat here and talked. For one word to answer your question. Different. When you walk around with something different on your shirt and you say something different, and you are that based on them asking you what was made. There are too many events that happen in your life where you should have missed the it factor. Yeah, different.
[00:20:18] Travis Chappell: I love that answer, man,
[00:20:19] Bernard Hopkins :Michael Jordan is different. Tiger Woods, different Serena, we are different.
[00:20:26] Travis Chappell: Every single one of 'em.
[00:20:27] Bernard Hopkins: The oldest quarterback, I don't wanna rub it into you. Brady is different. You gotta be different. Every time doing what you do, he has to be different. And would he do, if that's what he does, he'd be different. What's different about what he does than with John or Earl or Benny? Do let him show in this work. His achievements after work and where he's at the moment.We'll separate him from the good. Hmm. From the great. Do you want to be good or do you want to be great? Can I tell you something? It's not a secret, but I'm talking like it is, right?. It feels great to be great. It feels great to be called. Great. Good. Is second in this generation. Okay.
[00:21:25] Travis Chappell
It's the barrier to entry.
[00:21:26] Bernard Hopkins:There's a lot of good out there. There's a lot of good players. They line in the hub cause you couldn't even come in third. You did a good job, right? No, you didn't. You did. Third grade job. That's being brutally honest. Depending on who you're talking to, this has to be the mentality of a person like myself.Different. What makes him different? Well, what makes him different from the other fighters? Okay, let's see it. This ain't me saying it. Look at them, then they get to a certain point. These, you gotta . Every, every time you see my acting just now. Fantastic. I'm getting ready LA Without places The spirit, .
[00:22:19] Travis Chappell
Yeah, dude, it's, I love that answer because one, one of the best kind of phrases that, that I heard when I was starting in, in business and stuff, . If you want to live a life that nobody else can live, then you have to do the things that nobody else will do.
[00:22:33] Bernard Hopkins
I agree.
[00:22:34] Travis Chappell
And that's essentially what you're saying, right? Is like if you want to be at the top, not just the top 1%, but you're like, like your career is the top 1% of the top 1%, like you're the top 0.1%.
[00:22:45] Bernard Hopkins
I kept chasing it different,
[00:22:48] Travis Chappell
Yes. Exactly. That's my point, is like, you were, you already worked yourself into being world-class level, and then you took it another step further than that because you continued to, to work differently than it else.
[00:22:57] Bernard Hopkins
Yes. Yes, yes. And, and then I had, you know, they were legit. People like, like top reporters like Bernard, um, , we know how you are with your business. We know what they mean. My money. Yeah. They know. If I'd rather go, I gotta go to the bathroom. The bill came like, I'm one of those dudes. I mean, I changed a little bit.I don't have to use it, I don't have to go to the bathroom all the time. The bill came, you know, all of a sudden I gotta go run to the restroom. They quote on to me, and now that they see this, the ones that. They know now. Yeah. Yeah. But I always wanted to be in competition with me in history because I know it.  I always wanted to be in competition with myself in history, myself in history.
[00:23:38] Travis Chappell
I love that.
[00:23:39] Bernard Hopkins
I always want to be in competition with myself in history because I know one thing for sure, we are all going to leave this earth one day. So, there's a time in the expiration date and a limited time you can do certain things in life.
[00:23:57] Travis Chappell
And one of them is sports , especially boxing. And the great gods of the gods gave me 30 years of boxing, not 10-15, which is normally the case. That's a good career.
[00:24:12] Bernard Hopkins
But to get 28 years, and to be up here to understand that we are doing an interview and I'm in LA and not Chicago. This is, to me, different. It is totally different. This interview is different. Different.
[00:24:32] Travis Chappell
And everything you do is that way, which is why we're sitting here again today cuz it's not just about this one area. It's not just about this one activity of boxing,
[00:24:39] Bernard Hopkins
You won 20 boxes. Now if you look at me that way, you're cheating yourself. This interview, we get cheaty.
[00:24:43] Travis Chappell
It's who you are. It's not just boxing
[00:24:46] Bernard Hopkins
it's who I became. That's who I. . Yes. It's who? I'm who? Who am I now? Yes, it's, I'm on. But it's what I became. I became that. Now when, cuz words are important, that little twist I just put on what you just said. I just added on that little what I became. What I became. Let's go through the story.
[00:25:05] Travis Chappell
That means it's achievable.
[00:25:06] Bernard Hopkins
Yes. Yeah. That means that it was some climbing. There was some turbulence. Right. You know, you on the plane hold, you hold the plane, you hold, or going through the clouds.
[00:25:16] Travis Chappell
It means somebody else can do it if they're willing to.
[00:25:18] Bernard Hopkins
I'ma say without even knowing your story, cuz we all got one and I respect yours without even knowing it.  If you tell me, I will listen. Cause outta respect you do have one too. And everybody in this building has one. The ones in the rooms I don't even know. Yeah. Now that we got that story and the story really doesn't end cuz life is still going. How are you? , those positive lessons that you overcame and you are still here to be able to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly and in between, you better watch out What I'm gonna do for the second half of my life.I told you about numbers earlier. Numbers are numbers to some, but they are a factor and they all lessened to me that word lessons keep coming in. I know it is. I'm gonna keep dropping those jewels and those lessons. because the foundation, the way I think you see, I always had a plan even to come home from the penitentiary.Look at this plan. I plan to be doing something. Before I retired at 52, I was already involved with Golden Boy and also at one time I was still boxing. For almost six years in that golden boy early relationship, cuz it's 20 something years now. We've been in existence. I was the promoter and the fighter of the promoter by being part owner and partners with Oscar.I'm still active at 52, who's doing my fights? Golden boy. Yeah, that was. that I have to mention cuz it doesn't get mentioned. Not for a bad reason, it's just, nobody really dawned on them. like, wait a minute, be hop, you got three brands, you know that right? I'm like, what are you talking about? This was like eight years ago.I said, what you talking about? My, one of my, financial attorneys in New York. She got three brands and I could talk about every brand and what fight you fought that stood out to me and all those brands, everybody knows the execution. You just come on from the penitentiary, you got a hood, you put a hood on black.He had the X-Men from Gold's Gym. Y'all walking down there, you're scaring the hell out of the goddamn opponent and you're going in. You're not the guy who caught the executioner. You lived up to the name like Rick Flair back then, you made a career out of that. That's a hall of famer, one ballot. But you didn't stop.At 40, because I started at 25. I turned poor at 25. I beat Tito Trinidad at 35. I was a 15 one underdog. Nine 11. I was in nine 11. I was down nine 11. I was in that history at nine 11. My guys were there at nine 11. I was at Long Manhattan in St. Regis. That's part of my history too. Flight was canceled from the 15th to the 29th.The biggest event that went on in New York City in oh one was what? Bernard Hopkins, 23,000 people at Madison Square Garden. Look it up. Wow. See, this is history. I've been too much part of history where you can't even be a hater and say it was the right time at the right place.
[00:28:32] Travis Chappell
Yeah. How old were you when you beat Oscar?
[00:28:35] Bernard Hopkins
42
[00:28:36] Travis Chappell
How old was he?
[00:28:37] Bernard Hopkins
Oscar? Gotta be about that time. Mid-thirties.
[00:28:41] Travis Chappell
Wow. This was Oscar in his-
[00:28:46] Bernard Hopkins
Fast. I'll tell you what took me 10 rounds to catch him. No, seriously. The fights up there. Right. Just don't tell him I told you, but the fights there. I'm this serious when I leave this and this here be time.  Hey please, for me, I, I'll sleep well that night if you don't , because you'll tell me tomorrow. I saw it. It was the liver shot, but he probably already knew. Look, Oscar's the golden boy. I'm a renegade. I don't have a manager. I self-managed. That's in the books.Bernard Hopkins and George Foreman are the only boxers that have been self-managing a hundred years of boxing. I actually looked at, I got so many nuggets to look up, but, but it is there. I'm going against Oscar de La Hoya. I fought all the promoters in boxing. I caught everybody corrupt. I kept winning.I kept winning. I, my fight is, I've been a fighter all my life. It seems right. if I don't not Oscar out. Even through the press conference, I was banging, I was trying to intimidate him. I said, Adam, we talk about it now, LA Yes, he's, he's throwing his documentary. Matter of fact, it's done. This ain't been, it ain't on HBO yet. I said, he's the golden boy.I'm an urban boy. I had to tell myself that I had to make it. A cultural war. He's the gold medal winner. He's Oscar de la Hoya. Bernard Hopkins is the excon. Don't get along with the promoters. Proved to be right later, but I had to go through a whole bunch of stuff that could have killed me here. Now.I'm being showered with a lot of love. And a lot of Hall of Famers. One in canister New York, one in Vegas, you know, after a big one, then everybody else starts doing them and I pick and choose which one I want, wanna go to? These are the testimonies. That I share, not just with you on this interview, but I share every time I go.  And I know I get a little long-winded and little pa little, little passionate. But it, it is, is, is, is good. It's, listen, it's not memorized. It's life. Just like you have one.
[00:30:43] Travis Chappell
You sit down with somebody who's passionate about doing it. You can always, it always rubs off on you, man.  So, dude, this has been awesome. This has been a lot of fun. Congrats to you and all the success. Congrats on, you know, documentaries, the Hall of Fame, I mean, partnering with a former opponent, even like with Oscar and, and squash.
[00:30:58] Bernard Hopkins
Can you imagine if we had a disagreement? Like you can imagine the advantage I have.  Do you manage the advantage? Can you imagine like, That'd be an awkward situation. Like you might not want to be there or you might want to be there. It's like that. Wait a minute. Like wait a minute.They look like they are disagreeing with each other. We just disagree. Y'all just slowly back out the, the room. Exactly. Leave my camera there. Exactly. But we have been, listen, we like, like, like you man, like if I need my church poor, like, yo, we gotta get, we got, let's motivate these fighters. Let's be an example.Keep before we wrap it. an example. We are, they know us. They gave us credibility. They understand us more than they understand. Not saying that the people that didn't box are not good people. Some are and some are not. I'll leave it like that. To be fair, right. But one thing about us, two Hall of Famers, definitely two Hall of Famers and put our work out there and did our own business inbox at the same time. And while we are still active. Why wouldn't they not listen to us? Why would they not be led by us? So we have to be conscious about what we say to them, how we treat them. So, we won't be like the ones we despise if there is. That's the line that you have to walk and not talk. Yeah.
[00:32:31] Travis Chappell
Is there anybody that's right now that you.  Not you and your prime, like you right now. If you were like, I, I could still, like, I could fight that guy. I could fight that guy. I would want to fight that guy. If there's anybody that's like active right now that you're,
[00:32:43] Bernard Hopkins
I bald assed nobody. I can't find one name. Not, not one name. No. Totally.
[00:32:49] Travis Chappell
What about the Paul Brothers?
[00:32:50] Bernard Hopkins
The who? Brothers ,
[00:32:52] Travis Chappell
Jake Paul, Logan Paul, what do you think about them and what they're doing with boxing?
[00:32:56] Bernard Hopkins
They'd be in Miami. They'd be in Florida a lot. You know, they'd be in Florida a lot of the time. Yeah. It's not a boxing man. It's an entertainment exhibition. It's fun. It's a market out there. And guess what? Let 'em have fun, but don't mix it up with boxing. Yeah.
[00:33:11] Travis Chappell
Don't put 'em in the ring with you.
[00:33:12] Bernard Hopkins
Boxing is a sport that needs to be respected and when you start doing things that mimic boxing. And try to give it credibility like boxing. That's when I always say that I think that is a fine line and is a real danger to cross. Because that's entertainment. This is boxing. There's a difference between entertainment. Now you can get entertaining boxing. Yeah.Right. But entertainment. See, the mint changes it. Sure. So, when you talk about J Paul and you're talking about things like, I'm not saying they're not athletes. Yeah. Yeah. I believe wrestlers are athletes cuz they can jump off the rope and they wear 3 35 and 4 35 and they don't break. That's an athlete.I look at a lot of things as being athletically capable of doing it, but to say somebody's an athlete, you gotta prove to me who boxed for 28 years. Who won and broke and set records. You can't convince me, and I'm no hater that j Paul is a bonafide certified professional fighter, and two, he. Mo at least three, three to four people that have some legit legitimacy to 'em.Like you gotta go do something. Like if you are going to go ahead, don't like it, you gotta go ahead and fight somebody that we know. First of all, you gotta get rated. So before you get rated in boxing on a top 10, you gotta fight somebody in the top 10. But I'm not going to hate on nobody's hustle. Do your thing.Sure. Yeah. Have fun. People have been down for Covid for two and a half years. They will, they will watch two turtles. Race and be happy. So, my thing is, I don't be a hater. Everybody burst out laughing. They, they, they crazy said, I said, yeah, people want to, they want content from anywhere. Yeah. That covid then changed the world of how they think they will watch, they will pay money to watch two turtles race and, and no, that's going to take a week. Right. But they would do that because they are trying to find something to fill that void. And, and, and, but I ain't gonna go for it though because I respect the game too much.
[00:35:14] Travis Chappell
Dude, this has been a lot of fun. Bernard. Thank you so much for going on the show.
[00:35:16] Bernard Hopkins
Dude. This is awesome.

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