If Liston and Lyle Fought in Prison when neither one knew how to box who would have won? Charles "Sonny" Liston was sentenced to Missouri Prison and boxed. Liston served 2 years for -Robbery-in prison after being released to the underworld. If Ron Lyle wasn't sentenced to Colorado State Penitentiary would he have become a boxer. Lyle served time for second degree murder. Lyle was part of their boxing program and without that foundation there would have never been. Hopkins is on the same level. Much respect to B-Hop. He Served 52 months and learned to box. If Tyson had served in a prison with a boxing program he would have never lost time?
I heard bhop was running around that prison track like a hamster. He was getting mad props from cold convicts as they respected his hand game. Sometime in the 2000s he showed a picture of one of his old trainers, who is still behind bars to this day me thinks. A world later, when Hopkins made the transition from con to blue chip collar fighter to all time fighter to reigning champion he was still leaving his trademark on jail's! Still doing motivational speeches which his story sounds better when he tells it rather than a commentary host lol. He also was present on the last page of every ring magazine trying to teach somebody or everybody a punch or move each edition. They , ring magazine, had to pull the plug on Hopkins move teaching because it was causing violence in jail's without prison leagues because they would try the moves or punches on other inmates! Dewey bozella was also an ex-con. Different than Hopkins man because bhop was guilty Dewey wasn't. Dewey spent 26 years in the belly of the beast before getting his well earned freedom. His story is nothing short of amazing. When Hopkins came out of incarceration he went legit. Working part time jobs, whatever. He was gonna be a somebody. With decades of discipline instilled in him from prison plus his unwavering faith in himself to the point of being self righteous and tunnel vision to only do that what was completely right. He started his career at 175 but after a loss he moved down to 160 where Roy Jones Jr said he would never be defeated. He went on to beat the delahoyas and the Trinidad's and reigned as champ for more than 20 title defenses. An American gangster in the American dream, loved by American hearts and beyond. Like his ring entrance music he did it his way!!!
