Top 30 Greatest Bernard Hopkins Quotes

Legendary is the word that best describes Bernard Hopkins. He’s one of the greatest middleweights of all time having defended his titles a record of 20 times, and the oldest man to ever win a world title at 46. Here are some of the greatest Bernard Hopkins quotes.

1 “I was told I would be back in 90 days. If I listened to people, I would be back where I came from - the penitentiary.”

2 “The powers that be don’t want athletes or boxers to become as smart as they are.”

3 “When you have somebody that’s smart and you’re not so smart, to me that’s modern day slavery because you’re being dictated to.”

4 “The NBA has a voice that’s why they have a lockout. The NFL has a voice that’s why they had a lockout. Boxing is the only sport that’s individually represented the individual people – Managers, Promoters and Boxers.”

5 “I function better when my back is to the wall.”

6 “You’re hated by some, loved by others, but that’s what’s great about being different. If everybody loved you, that means you’re not doing the right thing most of the time.”

7 “I’d rather be an adviser. I don’t wanna become a trainer because I think with the knowledge and the business sense that I’ve accomplished through my career and have credibility, why would I reduce myself down to being in a gym with a bunch of training which is not a bad thing to give advice, but I can do that with a suit and tie on and also be there when the cheques are written. I don’t wanna be there when the cheques are handed down from 3 or 4 people’s hands and then it hits mine as a trainer because 9/10 times, deductions have come out of that.”

8 “The controversy was that Chad Dawson thought he was in an MMA fight and not a boxing match.” – On his controversial first fight with Chad Dawson.

9 “I’ve got a history of frustrating guys and making them angry.”

10 “I was knocking guys out in the streets before I knew how to throw a jab and keep your chin down, …In most neighbourhoods, the guy that could fight gets respect. You got in the parties free. I never had to pay the dollar because people were scared of me. But back then I was ignorant.”

11 “The streets was basically my parents.”

12 “It takes a very very strong individual not to be corrupt in any of those things as time moves on. Myself and other people who went that road and experienced that world, some got a second birth of life and some is in the dirt.”

13 “I really didn’t care. I’d do something to somebody and walk in front of them the next day like it never happened. I had very very low value on my own life.” – Speaking on getting stabbed

14 “Anybody who thinks I’m taking this fight for a paycheck doesn’t know me. My whole life I’ve been achieving the impossible.”

15 “You’ve got to be willing to look at a guy’s face and say I will kill you if I have to. You’ve got to be willing to look in his face and say that I will stab you, I will hurt you and you can’t talk the game, you’ve got to really act and do the game. Prison is a thing where talking gets you killed. What gets you respect is you do. The guy that you fear is a guy that says nothing.”

16 “I wouldn’t wanna fight me, because I know it wouldn’t be a good outcome for both.”

17 “If I’m in a situation where Duane Ford is one of the judges, I have to pick it up.”

18 “There’s no great person that lived that didn’t go through scrutiny or ridicule and prosecution in all types of ways, to be who they are in history.”

19 “I like Sergio Martinez. I think he’s strong, he’s gritty, he’s got plenty of heart, he’s not the fanciest guy you might have seen in boxing but he has the goods to be around a long time in the Middleweight division.”

20 “Boxers are resilitant guys. We know how to take of a big punch that hits us, we know how to survive. Oscar is a survivor, he’s gonna be back bigger and stronger.” – Speaking on Oscar De La Hoya’s drinking and drug problems.

21 “When I talk to young contenders, guys who are looking to make a name for themselves in boxing, I tell them two things. One, if you want to be champion, you have to be willing to sacrifice everything. Anything that interferes with your goals, and that includes sex, has to go. Or, number two, you can have your testicles out. Have your nuts removed. You’ll have to learn that there are going to be women around, women who, before a fight, will say, “Oh, wow, look at your big muscles.” I tell them the same thing: Just say no.”

22 “I still shop at Costco. I just started tipping two years ago.”

23 “Understand that I’m at my best when it comes to proving a point, not only to show that I’m a better fighter and a better athlete at 40½ years old, but I’m at my best when I know I’ve got to beat the system again.”

24 “I am going in there to win this fight. I don’t think people are taking me seriously. I’m gonna surprise a lot of people. This guy helped two people make history.”

25 “I must destroy everybody that comes in front of me. I must execute them and I must do it in grand style. I must slay Robert Allen like I must slay De La Hoya or anybody else that steps in that ring.”

26 “Did you hear what this idiot just said!? He said it’s not about the W…It’s everything about the W with me!” – On the HBO face off with Jean Pascal

27 “I got knocked down. Anybody could be knocked down, anybody can be knocked out, but it’s not what happened, but what happens next.”

28 “Smokey Wilson was like my Gandhi. If I had run into somebody else in prison, with a different set of values, the world might have never known one of the greatest boxing talents ever to come out of Philadelphia.”

29 “I’m lining up my troops to go to battle with. Tarver is the man at light heavyweight. He has the credibility of the fans and media, and that’s what counts. That’s why I am taking this risk, but I am taking it by preparing myself with good people.”

30 “The only way you can get experience is from the clock. Time works with some people and against some people. Fortunately, the clock has worked in my favor.”