Hopkins fails to speak at final press conference; Cloud calls him childish

By Boxing News - 03/06/2013 - Comments

By Allan Fox: Wearing a black hood, ski mask and a pair of dark sunglasses, 48-year-old Bernard Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KO’s) opted not to speak in his final press conference on Wednesday with IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud (24-0, 19 KO’s) to promote their fight on Saturday night on HBO at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York, USA.

Instead of speaking, Hopkins chose to let his trainer Naazim Richardson to all the talking for him at the podium.

Cloud didn’t’ care for Hopkins choice of clothing for the conference, saying this as quoted by RingTV, “It was childish. I just thought it was childish. It was funny to turn around and see a grown man with a ski mask on standing there and no saying nothing to nobody.”

In fairness to Hopkins, he’s been wearing the getup for a while, but not speaking is something new for him. Hopkins uses the clothing for theatrical reasons, and I guess Cloud, being a traditionalist, didn’t quite catch that purpose of it.

This is fight that could turn out to be a real bore if Hopkins chooses to mug Cloud like he does to some opponents. Hopkins doesn’t use that type of wrestling type of inside style against guys that fighting on the outside, but against guys that come straight at him trying to wear him down in close, he tends to do a lot of grabbing and mauling. Cloud may be in for a long night if he doesn’t adapt his style on Saturday night to be more of an outside fighter.

Hopkins wants to prove a lot of boxing fans wrong that he’s starting to show signs of slipping as a fighter, but he’s going to have to really up his game from his last two performances against Chad Dawson. Hopkins did not fight well in those two bouts, and if Saturday’s fight is a continuation of that then Cloud will likely win.



Comments are closed.