Early Bernard Hopkins was largely a guy who I enjoyed because he was taking punishment and then dishing it. Hopkins was really tough, i remember his fights with Jones Jr and Toney and genuinely thoght he was a very good gate keeper/contender. I largely lost track of his career until, well, the trinidad fight, the thing is, i didint get to see this fight until 2003 (the military again, shuttered alot of great fights for me for almost a year and a half i didint get to see alot). I watched it probably around 2003 i cant remember, but hearing about the loss shocked me, I had heard how he grabbed the flag. Now i that think about it, someone on sohh posted this, on new york radio some puerto rican cat, i know
@Tuaminator might remember, this is before the Calzhage fight, Bernard spoke about how he had to be rushed out the spot, and got about 2-3 knock outs on the way out (lmao) and some puerto rican cat was real booty tickled and tight about it. It was funny as hell. Anyhow, I saw hopkins again against William Joppy on this don king card that featured Spinks promptly removing the title off Mayorga. Hopkins did all the little thing, forearming, elbowing, all the dirty shyt you supposed to do when the ref doesn thave a good angle, his ring awareness, footwork, as well as his lead hand were sneaky as hell. Hopkins was so well schooled, he was very very difficult to beat, I feel he won the Calzhage fight, i still thought he was funny when he beat tarver whom i already expressed my hate for in this thread, and dropped him (i dont care if it was just a glove, fukk tarver) he also had milk cartons for trinidad and wright for the calzhage fight (again lol). His fights werent always the most exciting but with Hopkins you knew what you were getting and for him to have been linear champion at his age (or title holder i cant rmeember) is nuts. My favorite fight is still the trinidad fight, that nikka not only sent him into retirement but humiliation unseen, i know ricans in MSG had to be hurt. I know the feeling, watching our only real world champ acelino freitas on some ho shyt for half his career was humiliating on its own, but i never idolized him, i leaned more twowards tyson, jones jr, mayweather etc.
I know some puerto ricans i served with were mad as fukk in particular, this early dipset loving cat named Colon (i dont rmember nobodies first name from then let alone 2001), one thing i gotta thank colon for was playing "come home with me" which is honestly one of the Cam songs i ever liked, and what puzzled me was that on my shytty buletproof wallets cd (half the songs i liked werent on it, and that shytty rendition of flowerz without "welcome to mardi gras" is particularly garbage) ghost had a song called "ice". And come home with me nor ghosts shyt were just mixtapes, that shyt puzzles me to this day, can any of yall answer that?
" I got 50 Jose's on my block..." Classic Hopkins. I never liked Monse either