“Most people remember the ending of the book more than the beginning and the middle.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I don’t react and think off emotions – that gets you in a bad situation.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“If you don’t know your own value, somebody will tell you your value, and it’ll be less than you’re worth.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“If I was a bad guy, I probably would be incarcerated.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“When you get to a certain age in society, they want to dictate to you when you should pack it in and that you should mentally grab a cane, a box of Depends, Geritol, listen to the oldies, and not eat spicy food after 9 o’clock.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“If you get your body right, you get your mind right, whatever you do, you have a fighting chance, and you have a chance to be victorious.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I’m so glad that I didn’t give up on myself and there were people who didn’t give up on me.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I’m tired of proving myself.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“It’s two sides to everybody. I’m a manager – I’m a promoter – and I’m a fighter, so it is two sides to me. That’s a balance there.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“That materialistic life, that’s not my god.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I understand and I don’t understand human beings.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“If you smoke, plain and simple, stop smoking. If you drink, plain and simple, stop.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I have to constantly work on my reflexes and hand-eye coordination. I do a lot of puzzles. I play chess.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“You cannot go into combat without putting the work in.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“A body that doesn’t move mentally or physically dies.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I have already bent time to my will.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I’m not downplaying my age – because humankind is such that people run away from their age. Especially women. Guys pretend not to care, but they do. Age is not a good thing to most human beings. But, being an alien, I embrace it.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“We want to give you the roses when you’re dead. That’s how human beings think. I try not to think like a human.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Ninety percent of the media picked Pavlik, and I always appreciate naysayers. That’s what motivates me.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I learned a lot from being in hell. I learned discipline. I learned that I choose what to put in my body.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“When you grow up hard, when you grow up surviving, unfortunately, it helps.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“The young is always there to replace what we call the old. That’s the process, even in nature.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I’m amongst you all, but I’m not one of you all.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Always have to think like a guy with no food in his refrigerator.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I don’t drink occasionally. I don’t drink on the holidays. I don’t drink alcohol, period. Not wine, not nothing.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Some people might think they’re invincible, but I don’t.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I would love to play with the Flyers. I got the two front teeth missing, so I can look the part. I’m ready cosmetically. I could fit right in.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I looked up to Marvin Hagler, Ali.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Yes, we have to look at our opponents and study our opponents. But you have to look at you first and know you can do it.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I say the sweet science is to hit and not get hit.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I say the sweet science is to understand not only how to fight coming forward, how to be a big puncher, but also understand, if you run into a guy who can take your punch for the first time, how to react.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Boxing is the sweet science. You hit and not get hit. There’s no reward for you to hit me more than I hit you other than on the scorecards.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Age is not a problem. It becomes a problem when people try and make us think old.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“No one’s kicking down the door to fight Bernard Hopkins.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I’ve had a hard life. I smell and sense fear. I didn’t get that from Catholic school; I know what fear is.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Boxing is a small world where the same thing that goes on, goes on in corporate America.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“If I can create an atmosphere to make my job easier and your confidence less, why not?”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Ninety-nine percent of getting over a problem is mental.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Any UFC fighter, and any fighter going into the boxing ring and can do what they do in the UFC, nine out of 10 won’t be victorious and vice-versa, with a boxer coming from – even myself – coming over to that field will be a fish trying to be in a jungle and survive. It’s not going to happen.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I’ve shown, for twenty-plus years, with a legacy that will be talked about way after I’m gone, that I am different.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“My whole career, I got a lot of credit for not taking punches.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Most of my fights are intelligent.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Protect yourself at all times. It’s what I talk to school kids and college kids about when I do my seminars. I’m not just talking about in the ring. Protect yourself at all times.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“You do a deal – business deal, real estate deal, stock deal – protect yourself at all times. I got that from boxing. That’s from A to Z: that covers everything in life. And it started when I heard it in the ring. They don’t say that in basketball or football or any other sport that I know of but boxing.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I love fighting big guys because I’m fast. I’m not a big, light heavyweight. I can move. I can get inside on them. I’m inside, I’m wrestling with them, and they’re just wrestling, but all the time, I’m chopping; I’m slapping.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“They had to debate whether Joe Frazier should be in the Boxing Hall of Fame or not. I’m making sure that it would be a felony to sit down and debate whether or not Bernard Hopkins deserves to be in the hall of fame.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I’m the guy still driving a Nissan.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Age is not an enemy to me.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I am a proud man and never takes things for granted in my life.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I want to be the spokesman for the 40-and-older crowd, inspiring people to believe that no matter their age, they can be healthy and save their lives.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I am not going to eat something that I have been told is not good for my system, and I do what I can to eat energy food, such as lean meats, whole grains, and lots of fruit and vegetables. Without this daily habit, my body would have given up a long time ago. There is no magic pill, no magic drink, no magic food.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I do much less sparring and always with the purpose of working on something in particular.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“There is nothing more important than staying alert, reading your opponent, that counts for both inside and outside the ring.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I think being 50 and being me is different than any other fighter in any era.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I’m special, in a way that is good. I don’t have to explain ‘special.’ There is no definition for special. Special speaks for itself.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I am a great champion.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Money is great, but history is something that you can never get rid of and act like it didn’t happen.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“One thing I want people to know before I leave this game is I gave it my all.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I have to be smarter than my opponents. I have to figure out their styles in the ring. I have to be three or four steps ahead of them. So my mind has to be sharp.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I avoid processed food.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“If you notice, in every fight, I always have something to get into their head.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I’m a health-awareness guy, and all of that includes how I eat, how much I rest, and how I keep my skin good. Any kind of maintenance that I would do on a car, I do on myself.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I’m a guy that likes to work in the spa and get on the elliptical.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I like to do things that are noncombat- or boxing-related. So I jump rope a lot, and then I run a lot.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Boxing should not let – we should not let – the people in business of boxing should not let a person to just walk right in and get the grand prize of boxing. You can’t do it in basketball, football, hockey.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“If you really look at it, I have done the ‘American Dream’ that people have died on boats to come here to live.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Oscar De La Hoya is unique. Even Ray Leonard didn’t have the star power Oscar has.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I don’t think I can get Jack Nicholson to come out and watch me fight.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“You look at De La Hoya, and you think that he is an actor or a singer. I’d like to rearrange a couple of things on his face so the pretty boy becomes just another boxer.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins is an event where actors and actresses will come out, and I give all credit to Oscar for that.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Just because you started off one way don’t mean the ending of the book has to be the way you started.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I have an orthodox style that a southpaw is confused with me.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Father Time is whether you’re an athlete or not an athlete. Father Time is always around. I think I’m just special.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I respect people’s opinion. Everybody has they own ‘pound for pound’ list.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“The worst damage a person – a fighter or even a person that’s just everyday living – is shorten your life by your lifestyle.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Hagler was a puncher-slugger. He’d box sometimes, but boxing wasn’t his forte. His thing was relentless punishment and ‘beat you.’”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I like the old school, then I add the new school, and I got a concoction of greatness. I can’t miss; you can’t miss with that.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I think I got the ability to speak the truth, and that gets in peoples’ heads.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“When guys say at the press conference, ‘I’m not scared’ – now, for a guy to tell me he’s not scared of me means that you are scared.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“There’s more to life than having things: a Rolls-Royce, a big house, bling bling.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“When they say you can’t, show them you can.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I feel like I was blacklisted in 1965.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I saw worse stuff inside prison than I ever saw in the streets.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I don’t have a diet. Jenny Craig got a diet. Seriously. I eat to live, not to die.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Being able to do what I do in the ring and out of the ring is evidence that I’m not from this world.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“If you read Bernard Hopkins’ name in the dictionary, the definition would be ‘discipline.’”
― Bernard Hopkins
“If I can convince you that I’m going to beat you up, and you believe me, that’s your fault.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“It’s the inner that produces the outer.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Soda is the worst thing.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“The majority of fighters and athletes live double lives.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“My personal feeling is that Bernard Hopkins has never been an industry boy.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I don’t rest in my business interests, I don’t rest being a husband, I don’t rest being a father, and I don’t rest doing none of these things because when you rest, you get comfortable.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“When you get older, the first thing that starts to go is reflexes, and reflexes are important for any person, especially an athlete – to react to something in a time when something is going on, and you can’t be a second or two behind.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“Hand-eye coordination and reflexes is something I work on more than anything.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“When I left the penitentiary, I learned to stay away from the Philly cheesesteaks, the pizza, the junk that clogs your arteries and kills you.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“If your car takes 95 and you put 87 in it, it’s gonna run sluggish, right? A lot of people don’t realize what you put in your body affects your mechanics, and you’re gonna run sluggish.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“I don’t really look toward the future. I only look at the present.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“If I go to a restaurant, which I do often, I know what I want, and it’s not on the menu half the time. Half the time, they have to adjust the menu or what they got in the back, and they’ll make it for me.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“To me, you can be young in your mind, in the way you think, but if your body don’t come with that, then it’s wishful thinking.”
― Bernard Hopkins
“UFC is street fighting in a cage. Boxing is a controlled, skilled talent. There’s no comparison.”
― Bernard Hopkins
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