Bernard Hopkins: “The Mob” Runs Boxing

“I think there’s some entities out there that want me to just go away, go away,” said Bernard Hopkins earlier this year.

Who wants you to go away, he was asked?

“Oh, the mob,” Hopkins answered, matter-of-factly.

“The mob?”

“Yes,” affirmed Hopkins.

“Talk to me, the mob, who?”

“In boxing,” said Hopkins, sounding a hint unsure if he wanted to keep talking. But he did anyway. “The mob, to me, in boxing means the entity of powerful people that runs and calls the shots to make things happen when they want it to happen. Now you fill in the dots.”

“To me, the mob isn’t the whole ’50s and ’60s guy with a cigar in his hat and cigar in his mouth and a hat tilted to the side sitting ringside waiting for somebody to die. That’s old school. That’s all played out right now. They don’t get any respect in America any more. I’m talking about when you look in the dictionary and you see the word mob, that’s a group of people. So let me define mob, so everybody understands. Mob is a group of powerful people that have their goal is to make things happen when they want it to happen. Now you fill the dots in who you want that to be.”