Bernard Hopkins BoxingInsider.com Exclusive Biofile Published by Scoop Malinowski Last Updated on March 19th, 2009

Options:  Print This Post  Email This Post  RSS

Status: Former undisputed world Middleweight champion. Made a record 20 consecutive world title defenses from 1996-2005. Record is 49-5-1 (32 KO’s).

Ht: 6-1 Wt: 175

DOB: January 15, 1965 In: Philadelphia, PA

Age started boxing: I started at seven as a youth. Then I went to Graterford (prison) for five years and I picked it back up in there. But (I started) as a pro in ‘88. So I started at seven.

First boxing memory: Winning the Philadelphia Golden Gloves.

Inspiration: Marvin Hagler, Ali and Ray Robinson.

Childhood Hero: Muhammad Ali. I met him in Ecuador when Don King brought him down for my fight with Segundo Mercardo. He still has the humor with him. I had goose bumps. I never thought I’d be next to guys like that. Me and his birthdays are a few days apart. We’re both Capricorns.

Nicknames: The Executioner, B-Hops.

Early Boxing Memory: Winning Pennsylvania Junior Olympics when I was nine. Won a trophy which had to be two-feet tall! When I won that I was the baby in the gym. We had guys like Robert Hines. I got my butt kicked 95% of the time in the gym by guys who were bigger and older than me. But I was too advanced for my level. I beat a guy named ‘Bunchie’ Williams, a good, good amateur who went 12-1 as a pro but then I think drugs got him. I still see him all the time. He says, ‘You didn’t really beat me that night, you had the politics with you.’ But I knocked him down three times! There was no politics then. We joke. Good connection there. He says Roy Jones is afraid of me.

Childhood Dream: To always be a fighter. Always wanted to be champion. Started getting my reputation as a fighter in the streets. I used my talent the wrong way at first.

Pre-Fight Feeling: I think about all the hard training. Nine weeks. Concentrate on what I’ve been doing to get ready for the fight. I look at him. I look for fear. See if he’s looking the other way or if he’s looking down. Are his lips moving or is his ear twitching? One thing that helped me in my life is that I’d seen intimidation growing up. You cannot intimidate Bernard Hopkins.

Favorite Movies: Scarface. Westerns, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies, Dirty Harry, Roman gladiator movies, Hercules movies, science fiction.

Musical Tastes: Jazz, Miles Davis, soul music, Sade – me and my wife like her. The O’Jays, Patti LaBelle, soft music, some rap. If there’s a good message in there.

First Job: Cook at Penn Tower Hotel in Philadelphia. In 1988 when I got out of the penitentiary. I was a great worker. When I first started boxing pro, the manager used to read about me in the paper.

Greatest Sports Moment: I don’t know. I got so many great moments, man. I can’t tell you the greatest – you don’t got enough tape, man. Everything’s been a great sports moment for me.

Most Painful Moment: Can’t answer that. Plead the Fifth, man [smiles].

Worst Inury: When I got stabbed in ‘79 going to the movies with a female (age 13). On the subway. (Suffered) a collapsed lung, a scar above the heart. I was in the hospital for six months.

Favorite Meal: Chicken or baked fish, pasta, linguini. But when you’re a boxer you can’t have a favorite meal. You gotta live healthy.

Funny Boxing Memory: Nothing funny in this business, man. Know what I mean?
Last book you read: The last book…I read a lot of magazines…the last boxing book was Bert Sugar The 100 All-Time Greatest Fighters.

Current Car: Range Rover (gray).

Where do you train: Upper Darby, PA.

Training routine: Just regular stuff, like regular what I’ve been doing.

Toughest man faced: Quito, Ecuador, Segundo Mercado. (Why him?) It was about the whole process – the country, the flight, the fight. Mike Marley (DKP’s former PR man who is with us during this interview) was there, he knows. He could tell you better than me. The whole surrounding was adverse. My toughest fight? I had (Antwun) Echols, a lot of tough fights, but that was vicious. (They didn’t bring Bernard down to win, says Marley).

What supplements do you take: Whey protein.

What would you be if you weren’t a boxer: A promoter.

Last vacation: If you want to add in doing the promotion in Miami, the NBA All-Star weekend in Las Vegas, media tour for three cities – I went to the Super Bowl in Miami and also the All-Star game, so I had a pretty good year.

People Qualities Most Admired: People who overcome adversity. George Foreman, Tyson, Iran Barkley, people who you know where they came from. Anybody that comes from the inner-city and rises from that situation. James Toney. I could go on and on. Anybody that comes from adversity. I’ll read it and know it’s true. Because it’s so easy to lay down. Lay down and say, I’m gonna rob a bank. That’s an easy cop-out. But to say, I’m not gonna be like that…it takes a lot to do that when you have nothing in the refrigerator. It takes a lot. That’s adversity. It’s so easy to take the easy way out. It’s so easy to lay down. It’s so hard to get up.

Scoop is the author of “Heavyweight Armageddon: The Tyson-Lewis Championship Battle.”