Richardson says Hopkins would be world’s biggest star if was in another sport

By Raj Parmar - 08/27/2014 - Comments

kovalev888By Raj Parmar: As Bernard Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KO’s) keeps defying all logic at 49 years young by continuing to rack up wins and championships, his trainer Naazim Richardson has spoken out regarding the fact that Hopkins does not get enough credit for his accomplishments. Richardson feels that if Bernard was achieving similar high level results in another sport at his current age, then Bernard would be the world’s biggest sports star.

“If this was any other sport, like a 50-year old pitcher, he would have been the biggest star in the world,” Naazim Richardson stated to thaboxingvoice.com, “But they are treating out sport different. They don’t acknowledge it.”

There is no disputing that boxing does not get major coverage in the morning sports newspapers or on the sports networks as other major sports, therefore what Hopkins is achieving at his current age is perhaps not reaching as many people as it should. Bernard is a unified champion at light heavyweight as he nears the 50 age mark and he is aiming to unify the division entirely. He will take on hard hitting WBA light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (25-0-1, 23 KO’s) and looks to add the WBA belt to his WBO/IBF collection.

“You have to take more away from Kovalev than just the right hand. He can really punch, but I am dealing with a legend here,” Richardson said regarding the clash with Kovalev, “Bernard is special. He will approach it from an intelligent standpoint and Kovalev will be in trouble.”

The fact that Hopkins is stepping the ring with undefeated champions at close to 50 is definitely not getting enough recognition amongst the general public. The arguable greatest athlete in the history of sports is NBA legend Michael Jordan, and his return to the game at age 38 after retiring a couple years earlier sent shockwaves throughout the world. Jordan played until 40 years old however during his two year comeback he could not lead his team to the playoffs despite putting up good numbers.

Hopkins is not just hanging in with the young champions of the sport, he is beating them. Therefore definitely Hopkins in many ways is being taken for granted as he continues to make history fight after fight. The previous record for oldest champion in boxing was held by George Foreman, who won a heavyweight title at 45 years old. Bernard has eclipsed that record and the way he is fighting, he is not close to being finished rewriting the history books yet.



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