(Ain't nothin' homo 'bout my gimp mask, son)
Ignorance is bliss, just ask Bernard Hopkins. In all honesty, there is probably nothing funnier than when a boxer/boxing promoter starts bashing MMA. Whether it be Bob Arum's rant about MMA being "homosexual" and directed at "skinheads", or Floyd Mayweather's classic comment that the sport is for "beer drinkers", boxing people are always great for a hilarious sound byte. Not to be outdone, or completely forgotten at this point in his career, Bernard Hopkins decided to add his two cents to the boxing/MMA argument. In an interview with BoxingScene.com, the Executioner said
"Everybody is different. I don't want to watch two grown men wrestling with panties on. I'm from the hood, we don't play that. To me, I'm not buying a ticket to watch two grown men with panties on, sweating, nuts in their face. That's not me. To compare that to boxing is ludicrous. It's a porno. It's an entertainment porno. I'm not wrestling a guy with panties on and his nuts in my face, and they call that a sport.
"I'm not criticizing people for what kind of entertainment they like. I think most of those people have chains and masks in their closets. There is something out there for everybody. I can understand if 90% of women were going to those things but I can't understand a grown man sitting there with a couple of guys watching two grown men with panties on, sweating. That's just my opinion. It's not a good look."
LOL! Of course this is just the rantings of a man who is watching his sport erode and be overrun by a growing sport. Boxing has grown stagnant with endless forced title shots, countless organizations with their own titles, lack of quality match making, and an overall problem garnering and holding the interest of fans. While boxing might deliver a true marquee match up 3-4 times a year, the UFC alone puts on double that in any given year. This fails to add in the co-main events that are quite often better than the actual main event. But back to Mr. Hopkins...
Let me get this "straight" (see what I did there?), MMA fighters are gay because they sweat and hang on to each other during a fight? Hmm, you must have been one cool customer in all of your 12 round fights to never break a sweat. And the holding on to each other thing, that hasn't plagued boxing for years has it? I especially love the "panties" line; that is an instant classic quote. It's made even more hilarious considering boxers like Hopkins walk out to the ring in shiny, sequined robes that Hugh Hefner would find tacky and proceed to dance around (stick and move for the snobs) for 30-36 minutes in matching sequined trunks. A lopsided victory for hypocrisy!
Don't get it twisted, I love both boxing and MMA (70-30 MMA for now). I just can't stand it when professional boxers try to discredit professional mixed martial artists and talk down to those who support MMA as being fans of gay porn because they don't understand the appeal of ground work. Much in the same way that training a boxer's hands is a an art, learning the intricacies of the ground game, whether it be wrestling, judo or jiu-jitsu, is simply a different art. They both have their value, and neither should be diminished in their difficulty to learn or master. With his comments, Hopkins sounds like an insecure, homophobe who refuses to believe there is a difference between high level competitive grappling, and gay sex. Perhaps it's the unbridled homophobia, disparaging "we're better than you" comments, and incredible greed by promoters, and certain boxers, that is turning people away the sport. While the boxing world sits up on it's pedestal in it's fantasy land and judges everyone around it, MMA is down to earth, chipping away at it's base, slowly bringing boxing back to reality.
Perhaps what Joe Calzaghe did to Bernard Hopkins really scarred him for life. If that's the case, maybe I can let his comment go this one time. After all, being a participant in simulated gay sex might have made him sensative to the subject.
ed. note: this .gif never gets old. Comedy at it's finest.
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