Quotes from Monday, March 28 Press Conference in Montreal and Tuesday, March 29 in New York City
Jean Pascal-WBC and Ring Magazine Light Heavyweight World Champion
“I think Hopkins is a cry baby and after the fight he kept crying. He pretends that he won the fight. He’s always complaining. He’s always whining. I won the fight. It was a close fight, but I am not a whiner. You can never call a close fight a robbery. The judges said it was a draw. I took my pill and swallowed it.”
“Bernard calls himself a legend. He beat Roy Jones. Wow. We all know he couldn’t beat Roy Jones in his prime. He beat Tito Trinidad…great, he beat a smaller guy. He beat Oscar de la Hoya, a smaller man. He had a draw with Winky Wright, a man of his size. He got beaten twice by Jermain Taylor, a man of his size and he got a draw with me, a man of his size.
“So I am going to ask you today [Montreal] why don’t you take a test to show you are a clean athlete? Bernard why don’t you take the test [Hopkins response: “Don’t embarrass me or yourself]!
“I had a lot of respect for this man, but now there is no more respect. I don’t respect someone who doesn’t respect me.
“[To Hopkins] May 21 you better be on something because I’m gonna bust your ass.”
BERNARD HOPKINS, Former Two-Division World Champion
“I wanted to go to Montreal and kick his ass again. Right in his own backyard. For the last fight, I was 45; I am now 46 and I am trying to break George Foreman’s record, a record he set when he beat Michael Moorer for the heavyweight championship of the world, becoming the oldest fighter to fight and win a major title.”
“I got fans in Canada and people are going to be coming from New York too. Last time he tried to take the test and he failed it the first time. Now he gets to take the test again. I told Richard Schaefer to make the fight for Montreal. They told me I was going to lose money but I didn’t care. I told him it didn’t matter and to make it happen.”
To Pascal: “You are done boy! You are not going to be able to do or get your way. I am going to beat you in your home. I’m coming here.”
“In Quebec I changed the chanting for Pascal to ‘BHop.’ Listen to the tape. It’s going to happen again. Trust me I am coming at him. I might go down but trust me I will get up and finish this fight. Just like a fireman, who I respect like crazy because they actually go to the fire to put it out. I am going to make the fight again and push him to the limits.
“When I go back to why I am fighting, the question I am asked most of the time. What I have in the bank is not as important as why I am still fighting. It is because it is who I am, from the streets to the story that you already know.
“Don’t be surprised if he [Pascal] dies in the ring in May. That is how I feel. I mean that. This isn’t hyping up a fight. This is not for any [expletive] press conference. Don’t be surprised if I kill him!
