THE PAY BACK
“WHAT YOU SAY OUT OF YOUR MOUTH TELLS THE WORLD WHO YOU ARE”
“WE USED to remember this sharp old guy and he used to stop on the street coming down the corner and say to us, ‘Stay out of trouble,’” remembered Bernard Hopkins.
The future middleweight and light-heavyweight great only half-listened, but the other half listened to the kids he was mixed up with.
The “sharp old guy” who had implored young Bernard to choose the safe path in life was veteran boxing referee Rudy Battle and despite his advice, and even though Bernard’s mother, Shirley, had moved to Germantown from North Philly, correctly predicting that gang violence in the city was about to get out of hand in the Seventies, Hopkins made regrettable choices and wound up in prison.
By 13 he was robbing people and he’d been stabbed on three occasions.
At 17 he was sentenced to 18 years for nine different crimes but prison was no shield. He saw another inmate getting killed because of a row over a packet of cigarettes.
Hopkins became the prison boxing champion for three of five years he served but that wouldn’t help his job applications
Hopkins became the prison boxing champion for three of five years he served but that wouldn’t help his
