Golden Boy Promotions’ Bernard Hopkins, has stated that while he wasn’t ‘disappointed’ in David Lemieux’s performance against Gennady Golovkin on Saturday night in New York, he thought that he was going to ‘perform better’ than he did.
Hopkins gave full credit to Golovkin for the ram-rod jab that he threw at a frenetic pace, going on to suggest that Lemieux tactically fought the wrong fight against the taller man, and that his crouching, come-forward style – along with his haircut – was his downfall in the end.
“You can’t come in crouching, fighting all Rocky Marciano [style] in the 50’s in 2015,” Hopkins said of his fighter in the post-fight media scrum [via iFLtv]. “Against a guy who’s taller than you. He couldn’t get past that shotgun jab, it was knocking his head off!”
“For me personally, I didn’t like the hairdo! I would have cut it bald!,” Hopkins continued, going on to suggest that Lemieux’s floppy/undercutted style actually hindered his performance, in a similar way to Paulie Malignaggi’s extensions when he boxed Lovemore Ndou in Manchester, although admittedly less severe.
The criticism didn’t end there either, with Hopkins also going on to say that Lemieux should be angry at himself for losing the fight, and despite the risk he took accepting it, there are no prizes for 2nd place – however, it’s how he bounces back that B-Hop claims will be crucial.
“Don’t let these people get all psychological on you and tell you that you did great. You lost! But what you gonna get out of that? It’s a real tricky thing,” Hopkins said. “They will trick you to tell you that being 2nd is like a badge of honour….No, it ain’t.
“The money is different when you 2nd, they treat you different when you 2nd and they look at you different when you 2nd!,” he added.
Twitter @Undilutedpoison
