Bernard Hopkins is one of the greatest fighters to put on a pair of gloves and at the end of the day, it's a business. I don't have any beef with Bernard because I haven't talked to him. You can't really beef with someone you haven't talked to. I never had any illusions that this was a dear friend. It was an extended colleague," stated world-class trainer Naazim Richardson, who opened up about Bernard Hopkins removing him as his trainer heading into the final fight of his career. You don't want to miss what else he had to say!
NAAZIM RICHARSON ON BERNARD HOPKINS NOT WORKING WITH HIM FOR FINAL FIGHT
"My thing is, Perc, and I mean this, I would be surprised if this behavior was coming from Percy. That would surprise me. Steve Cunningham, it would surprise me. Shane Mosley, it would surprise me. It doesn't surprise me with Bernard and anybody that really knows Bernard, it can't surprise them. This is what Bernard does. We never hung out or talked on the phone all of the time. I didn't go to his house like that or him come to mine. I didn't deal with Bernard the person; I dealt with Bernard the fighter. I dealt with the boxer. I pray for that Muslim. I won't get into no nonsense about it with him because I'm a better Muslim than that, I'm a better man than that, and I was raised better than that. I'll say this on record, truthfully, when you sit in a room with Bernard Hopkins, and I've done this, sit in a room where it's just me and him talking; when I tell you he's one of the most personable and one of the funniest dudes you will meet...I mean, I'm having a great conversation with him, someone knocked on his hotel room door and 3 people came in. When Bernard came out of the bathroom, you would've thought it was a different person. It's like you were dealing with someone else. There's a reason why I think he needs and his personalities go in conjunction with the mask. Bernard "The Alien" and Bernard "The Executioner", both personalities require a mask. That's his personality is he's one person one second and someone comes in the room, then he's a completely different person. That's where the mask come into play with his two aliases.
My hat goes off to Joe Smith for taking the fight and, like I said, this is boxing. The light heavyweight division is run by Andre Ward, Kovalev, and whether anybody want to admit it or not, Adonis Stevenson. I don't know if this fight would produce anybody that can fight one of them three guys. Bernard asked me after he beat Tarver, "What do you think I should do?" And I said, "Son, retire because you have done everything there is to do but lose badly. Leave before you have done everything." He stuck around and he lost badly where Kovalev dominated every round. Now we hoping he don't stick around until we see him get stopped. We have seen some other legendary fighters stick around so long to where somebody can shorten them rounds up on 'em. And in my opinion, it would be pitiful...taking nothing away from Joe Smith, but it would be pitiful for this guy to go in there and do anything with Bernard. But a kid with everything to gain and nothing to lose is always dangerous. But I plan on flying out to see his last fight because I'm a fan of the fighter. I heard a newscaster when they were picking Pacquiao-Mayweather and the woman said, "I don't like Mayweather because I heard he has some domestic violence in his past." And I was like, "Nobody asked you about no fucking domestic violence. We asking you can Mayweather fight. We're not measuring his lifestyle, we're measuring whether or not this motherfucker can beat Pacquiao."
At the end of the day, I don't know Joe Smith, I give that man no disrespect at all, but I have never heard anything about him that leads me to believe that he can fight at this level. But that's why we fight the fights. Very few people bet with Buster Douglas and very few people bet for Cassius Clay against Sonny Liston. That's why we fight the fights. I prayed that Joe Smith doesn't get hurt, I prayed that Bernard doesn't get hurt, and I pray that there are no delusional states where Bernard does too well and he thinks it's time for Adonis Stevenson now and people cheerlead him to that. I pray he doesn't do too bad to where he feels he has to fight again to redeem himself. He's had a fantastic career and I'm glad he's finishing it healthy and unscathed and I'm glad he's had the kind of career where he can have his last fight on HBO by his choice."
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]