Keith Holmes: He Ain't Meat and Potatoes, but He Could Be Hard to Digest
by Michael Katz
NEW YORK, April 11 - Ringling Brothers was competing today with boxing's P.T. Barnum, and while my daughter is too big for me to have an excuse to go to the circus, there was no way of avoiding the Don King press conference going on at the same time in Madison Square Garden.
Listening to Don King is why I make the big bucks.
He was extolling the virtues of his three-ring circus - well, it's the same ring, but three separate fights - the middleweight championship tournament that gets underway Saturday with Bernard Hopkins, the only man in boxing who talks more than King, facing Keith Holmes.
In the main arena, just like on Saturday night, the big cats and elephants were entertaining children and annoying animal rights' groups. King had his not-so-well-trained seals in the Theater lobby. Felix Trinidad Jr., the star of the show, and William Joppy will meet in the second act of the tournament May 12 in the Garden's big room. Then the winners face each other, again at the Garden, on Sept. 15 and while everyone expects it to be Trinidad vs. Hopkins, King was bellowing, "the word 'upset' hovers over the ring."
The juxtaposition of King and boxing tournament should make everyone suspect, of course. I believe it was King who said "there's a sucker born every minute." Or maybe it was that other Barnum.
Upset may "hover" and King may entertain (placing "the British are comin,' don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes" at Fort Sumter is a great combination of history, geography and comedy). But while Trinidad, who by the way looks the biggest of the four contestants although he is moving up from junior middleweight, may be the favorite to add the undisputed 160-pound title, and a bronze trophy of Sugar Ray Robinson, to his already impressive hall of fame credentials, this weekend's appetizer has been largely passed over (no matzoh jokes, please) by the great American public.
It's not because, as everyone knows, the unification will last no longer than a King introduction. One alphabet or another will strip the champion almost immediately "for the good of boxing." Trinidad will probably move up looking for Roy Jones Jr. if he wins, anyway.
The permanence of the unification is not the problem. Bernard Hopkins may be choice meat to the gourmets of boxing. Holmes was introduced by King as "the Vegan Man, he signifies what comes from the earth' save the bones for Mr. Jones, but no meat." Problem is, Holmes is less known than tofu. But he can fight a bit, he can talk a bit, and he fights from a southpaw stance, is 6-foot-2, and there's no reason to suspect that he won't give a 36-year-old "Executioner" a tussle.
Yet only about 2,500 tickets have been sold for the Theater, which makes it not half full, but half empty. The Joppy-Trinidad fight, still a month away, has sold about 8,000 tickets.
Joppy, like Holmes from the Washington area, probably explained it best today. "Back home, little kids told me I was lying when I said I was champion. They said Keith Holmes is champion. I had to explain Keith was the WBC and I'm the WBA."
"It's a great privilege," said Holmes, "to fight at the Garden. I always had dreamed of fighting to 15,000 fans here. Well, I'm getting 5,000."
The Garden would love that. Holmes, a cousin of the wonderful middleweight of a couple of generations ago, Holly Mims, has been WBC champion since surprising Quincy Taylor on the undercard of Mike Tyson-Frank Bruno II in 1996. Taylor, who had bopped Sugar Ray Leonard in the nose on the Sugarman's final day of sparring before he beat Marvelous Marvin Hagler in 1987 - and that was the last time boxing's second most glamorous division had a unified champion - was the big favorite after dethroning Julian Jackson. But Holmes outboxed him early and beat him up and stopped him in the seventh.
There was a brief hiatus when he lost the title to Hassine Cherifi in France in 1998. Holmes said "we didn't go to France in enough time and the time difference and jet lag affected me, but we learned from that."
He stopped Cherifi in a rematch in 1999 back home in Washington, but in his last fight went to London to stop the No. 1 contender, Robert McCracken.
"I'm the only one who's taken my title out of the country," said Holmes.
He's 35-2 with 23 knockouts, not many fights for a guy who's been a pro since 1989, but much of the time he has been battling King more than other boxers. Here he is, and it's hard for him to get in a word edgewise with both the promoter and Hopkins around.
Hopkins said as the "Executioner" he was giving Holmes his "last meal" and presented his opponent with a tray of veggie burgers. That's like giving Popeye spinach.
Holmes said he was also fighting "the steak and the opponent" until six years ago when his father-in-law gave him some spaghetti with what seemed like a meat sauce. It was some kind of wheat and from then on, he was a vegan, eventually turning his wife into one.
"I think it was the Paul Vaden fight (a 1997 11th-round knockout defense), I felt sluggish," he said. "But after going vegan, I felt much better."
Hopkins, munching on a piece of celery he swiped from the veggie burger tray, said he too liked vegetables "but I don't see where it's relevant when I put this right hand upside your head - what, a carrot's going to come out his his ribs? a cabbage come out of his neck? You're fighting Bernard Hopkins. You better be eating nails."
Holmes didn't look as if he were even biting nails. He called Hopkins "a very nice guy, he looked out for me, but I have my private cook."
His mother wanted him to become a fighter. "She was a Sugar Ray Leonard fan," said Holmes. "I used to like Hagler and Hearns."
When those two legends met in their 1985 classic, the 16-year-old Holmes "didn't want to see it." He said he knew Hagler would win.
"I've dissected both of them," he said. "From Tommy, I learned how to relax, the great jab and boxing. From Marvin, I took the will and determination."
He laughed at Hopkins' boast that "if I have to go 12 rounds to win, I don't deserve the title." Holmes said "if this doesn't go 12 rounds, it's because of his default."
He accused Hopkins again of extracurricular activity in the ring. "I expect a brawl," said Holmes. "He'll try some dirty tactics, I believe. But I'm not basing the fight on what he's going to do. I'm going to dictate this fight."
Holmes said "I can fight backing up." He'll be moving and Hopkins' spindly legs will be tested. "I believe it'll be very one-sided in my favor," said Holmes.
He said it was "50-50" who he expected to win the other semifinal. It's like the Tyson-Holyfield fight, the first one. he said. "I knew Holyfield would fight back so I knew it was going to be a fight," Holmes said. "Trinidad has very much experience, but Joppy wants that position. I believe he will fight back."
The WBA middleweight champion said "the best fighting the best equals what? Legacy."
Trinidad, as King said, "was the tea in the water to bring it to a froth." Without Trinidad, there would be no tournament . King would not have been able to afford the purses to attract the three other champions without the main draw.
For as long as a unified 160-pound title lasts, it should be fun. Hopkins said, "It's move on or move out." There was talk the two first-round losers might meet on the undercard of the finale Sept. 15. The Garden should think about putting them in the NIT instead.
ON THE HOUSE: Okay, I knew Australia was a longshot and it had come down to Paris, Milan or Washington. The good news is the proximity, but believe me, I'd rather be in Paris for the Tyson-David Izon fight June 2. I'm not sure I can be in the same town with W....King was jubilant over the news that China had released the American flight crew. It clears the way for taking John Ruiz and Evander Holyfield over there in August for a third boring fight. He couldn't have done it, he said, while the crisis raged. "Being the 'Only in America' man," he said, meant he was "enfurled in the flag."...That was King's "wrap" today. But last night, according to George Kimball of the Boston Herald, he intended to take Ruiz and his manager, Norman Stone, to China next week to make the announcement. But Stone, a Vietnam veteran, said no way would he and Ruiz go to China while the airmen were still being held. It's one thing saying "Only in America." It's another acting it...Of course, King might have been going to Bejiing with Henry Akinwande and Larry Donald and forcing an exchange...King said it was great negotiating the deals to make the tournament. "Closing," he said, "is orgasmic." All these years, I thought it was coming....When Hopkins mentioned doing about five years in Graterford, a member of the Penn State pen system where he got his "bachelor's degree in ghetto and prison," King whispered to the fighter, "I went to Marion." (Bwe note: A great line) |
