Filed under: Other Sports, News/ Sports
Unless there's a big marquee name like Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, Oscar de la Hoya or Bernard Hopkins, boxing has been relegated to a niche sport for only hardcore fans.
When I was growing up, I could watch a marquee fight with Marvin Hagler or Sugar Ray Leonard on my black-and-white television on prime time on any of the major networks. That's how I became a boxing fan.
Back then, anyone could be a fight fan -- even a skinny, little 10-year-old girl.
When 'The Fighter' came out, starring Mark Wahlberg as struggling fighter Micky Ward, audiences were reminded of the hardscrabble beginnings of most professional boxers. The film followed the real-life struggles and gritty aspects of the sweet science of boxing, not the bright lights of the Vegas showcases we see now.
Bernard Hopkins reminds us of that everyday-man aspect of the sport. At age 46, he may become the oldest professional athlete to win a significant title if he wins on May 21 against Jean Pascal in Canada.
Hopkins isn't just fighting for money anymore -- he has earned a significant amount of money in his 23 years in the sport -- but he's not necessarily fighting for the fame either. Instead, he fights because he loves the sport.
He was one of the last fighters to appear on prime-time television on the Wide World of Sports, when he fought against Joe Lispey in 1996."When those networks embrace boxing again, you'll be able to see the youth built back up to the pay-per-view numbers promoters want to have," Hopkins said during a press conference about his upcoming bout.
Before promoters got greedy and realized people would pay big money for fights on television, boxing used to be accessible to everybody. Joe Louis' bouts - broadcast on the radio - were events.
During the Depression era, Louis represented hope for thousands of black people (and whites too, especially when he fought Max Schmeling). People would crowd around the radio and pour in to the streets to celebrate his victories. Louis and Muhammad Ali were superstars, and not just to hardcore boxing fans.
Hopkins comes from that time period when boxing used to be intertwined with America's vision of itself - Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, regular blue-collar guys pulling themselves up by their bootstraps in true rags-to-riches fashion.
"Corporate Amercia is saying this is a sport that's been around longer than many others. It takes the right people, it takes the right marketing, it takes the right personality, to find that special athlete to be able to draw those people like Oscar de la Hoya did," Hopkins said, "Muhammad Ali was the same type of guy."
Hopkins, who at 17 was sentenced to 18 years in prison for committing nine felonies, took up boxing in prison, and when he came out, cleaned up his life and never looked back.
Since then, Hopkins has adhered to a strict regimen of no alcohol or drugs and getting a full night's sleep:
"This is a way of life for me. I've learned how to eat the right things in my life. I've learned a lot of things being in the situations in my life, some are good, some are not, and I think that it was easy for me to live a life-clean living, no drinking, no smoking, go to sleep early, up early, I think all that comes in my lifestyle. Boxing plays personally a part of my life."
Hopkins isn't concerned about going out of his routine for his rematch with Pascal. His training worked for his last bout, he says, which ended in a controversial draw:
Hopkins isn't concerned about going out of his routine for his rematch with Pascal. His training worked for his last bout, he says, which ended in a controversial draw:
"I'm coming in the ring with the same ammunition, same training, why change something that worked the first time, I just didn't get the decision. There are some things I should do more of and that's going to the body early."
In his upcoming match with Pasqual, Hopkins promises to put on another memorable show, and maybe another 10-year-old girl will flip through the channels for cartoons and be able to catch him during prime time, creating a new generation of boxing fans.