Animosity can fuel both Jones and Hopkins
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Both men want to punctuate their career with a final defining win, and each stews whenever the other has been placed higher in any respected pound-for-pound ranking.
Bernard Hopkins lost a decision to the faster Roy Jones Jr. in their first fight 17 years ago, on the undercard of a Riddick Bowe-headlined bout at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.
Jones Jr., 41, has lost five of his last 10 fights, including a first-round technical-knockout loss to Danny Green in Australia in December.
Either the 45-year-old former longtime world middleweight champion Hopkins (50-5-1, 32 KOs) or the record-breaking former light-heavyweight and heavyweight champ Jones (54-6, 40 KOs) is capable of walking away from the sport at any moment.
Perhaps both will, as soon as their long-delayed rematch, a 175-pound, light-heavyweight bout, occurs April 3 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
‘The experience I got from the Roy Jones loss shows on my resume,’ Hopkins said Wednesday, promoting the pay-per-view fight during an appearance at the Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles. ‘That fight took me to another place, I benefited from that loss, and as I’ve proven in my life, I’m good at undoing what I didn’t do good the first time.’
Jones let Hopkins ramble on about common opponents that he defeated, then asked, ‘Is that not jealousy?’
Hopkins undoubtedly used that defeat to push him to greatness that has continued into recent years with his 2008 stunning victory over then-unbeaten middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik, and a routine drubbing of Enrique Ornelas in December.
‘It’s personal, that I get this man back in the ring to send him on his way to the Hall of Fame with the last man on his mind being ‘The Executioner,’ ‘ Hopkins said in reference to his nickname.
Jones, too, has major incentive to ‘salvage his career and what people think of him right now,’ as Hopkins put it. He can re-stamp the authenticity of his superiority over Hopkins, and display that age hasn’t fatally zapped him of his speed-based skills.
Jones accused Hopkins of taking this fight only because Hopkins ‘thinks he can now dodge my bullets ... thinks that I’m weak.’
The dislike is genuine. When the pair were assigned to sign gloves for the promotion Wednesday, Jones signed first and drew his autograph so big over the middle of the glove there was little room for Hopkins to squeeze in his signature.
Jones contends he’ll use the motivation of the rivalry to finally re-charge from not only his advanced age, but the ’25 pounds of muscle’ he claims he lost after moving back down in weight from becoming the first man in 100 years to add a heavyweight championship atop a former middleweight belt.
‘I don’t regret it, I wanted to do something no other man has done,’ Jones said. ‘I love this, it turns me on again to have this man before me. I’m not as hateful as him. I know he’s coming, and that excites me.’
-- Lance Pugmire
Photo: Boxers Bernard Hopkins, third from left, and Roy Jones Jr., third from right, are separated by fight promoters while posing for photographers during a news conference Feb. 9. Credit: Mary Altaffer, AP.
