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Hopkins talking un-retirement
By Don Steinberg
The Philadelphia Inquirer
(MCT)
PHILADELPHIA - Joe Frazier once retired from boxing, privately, for a night. Back at the hotel after he had lost the "Thrilla in Manila" to Muhammad Ali in 1975, Frazier let his family talk him into quitting.
In the morning, he changed his mind. Eight months later, he was destroyed in the ring by George Foreman. Then he retired again. Then he came back again, fighting Floyd "Jumbo" Cummings in 1981.
"A retirement promise from a hard-core fighter is right up there with `the check is in the mail' for industrial-strength bull," Frazier writes in his autobiography.
Bernard Hopkins seemed different. His exit from boxing after his last fight, 139 days ago in Atlantic City against Antonio Tarver, was not a spur-of-the-moment concession. He had such a calculated and presold retirement plan, Merrill Lynch would be jealous. Now Hopkins is talking about challenging for the heavyweight championship, and the boxing announcers on HBO last weekend were talking about Hopkins' potential next fight as if the network's presentation of his long goodbye never happened.
Hopkins, 41, had been telling everyone for years how he promised his mother, who passed away in 2002, that he would stop boxing by age 40. When he lost to Jermain Taylor in 2005 and took an unplanned rematch, the extra fight put his retirement behind schedule, but he said it would be all right. Just one more in 2006.
"All my trainers and people who work with me, I told them, `If you don't have a job, get one,' " Hopkins said days before the Tarver fight.
HBO billed Tarver-Hopkins as the "Fight to the Finish." The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a six-day series, "Hopkins: the Final Rounds." Everybody was along for the ride. When Hopkins beat Tarver at light heavyweight, after a career fighting at middleweight, it was a final blaze of glory.
"I'm done. There's nothing else to do," Hopkins said, with his wife and daughter beside him. "I'll flirt with conversations about this and that. But let's keep it real, y'all. ... I told my mom, who's been deceased four years, that I'd retire at 40. ... I want to be able to see my daughter. I want to know who her teachers are. She'll be 7 in two weeks. I missed about three or four of those years in training. ... I'm done. I'm done. I don't need to risk it anymore. What am I going to do? Go to cruiserweight? Heavyweight?"
Maybe. About two months after the extraordinary send-off, Hopkins watched Oleg Maskaev beat Hasim Rahman for the WBC heavyweight title and decided, "Bernard Hopkins is the only boxer who can bring the title back."
"I was watching that fight and when it was over, it hit me," Hopkins told Tim Smith of the New York Daily News. "Rahman was supposed to be the last line of defense for the American heavyweights. He couldn't do it. But I was inspired to come back and do it."
Maskaev's promoter, Dennis Rappaport, confirmed that Hopkins' promoter, Golden Boy, has made inquiries about a fight, though scheduling would be an issue. Hopkins would be 42 before it could happen.
Saturday in England, super-middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe said he'd like to fight Hopkins, too. HBO's announcers thought that would be fine.
We don't know what Hopkins planning or thinking; he has been avoiding speaking to The Inquirer.
It's his prerogative to fight again, just as Evander Holyfield punches on, just as Mike Tyson, after saying he was done last year, has a four-round exhibition on Friday night in Ohio, because he needs the money. But, let's get real. After a final act that included everything but Porky Pig saying "Th-that's all, folks,'' Hopkins' unretiring so soon seems like a pretty big bite of "never mind" for boxing fans to swallow.
Punch lines. Kassim Ouma, who just began serious training for his Dec. 9 challenge to middleweight champion Jermain Taylor, will lead the Philadelphia GuluWalk on Saturday at noon, from the Art Museum to LOVE Park. Marchers around the world will highlight the plight of children in war-torn Uganda who have been forced to walk miles for safe places to sleep. ... There's boxing tonight at the Blue Horizon. Other shows coming: Dan Mullarkey vs. Jamie Campbell, Oct. 27 at the Tri-State Sports Complex in Aston; and Chuck Mussachio vs. Tony Pope, Oct. 28 at Crest Pier in Wildwood, N.J. ... Jimmy Binns and Damon Feldman have a new company bringing boxing shows to the Wachovia Spectrum. The first, Nov. 8, will feature local favorites Harry Yorgey and Chuck Cavallo. Feldman, known for occasionally promoting mud wrestling and midgets, promises real boxing: "No more Tonya Harding," he says.
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