Bernard Hopkins: Free at Last
by Michael Katz
NEW YORK, April 13 - Keith Holmes calls him a "chain snatcher," says the guys he knows wouldn't be bragging about being in prison. He was brought up by his mother to respect his elders, he says. Bernard Hopkins, says Holmes, "has to make himself out to be a street person, a prison person, to feel big."
Keith Holmes may beat Bernard Hopkins tomorrow night in the opener of Don King's middleweight unification tournament at Madison Square Garden. It's possible. Holmes has some talent and tall southpaws are generically difficult to box. Hopkins is 36 and some people see signs that he is slipping.
But win or lose, Hopkins is not the "chain snatcher" Holmes thinks he knows.
Bernard Hopkins USED TO BE a street person, USED TO BE a prison person. He USED TO BE boxing's last angry man, although life is pretty good these days.
Graterford Penitentiary, deep in the Philadelphia suburbs, is no place to change your path. The clank of metal on metal, the odor of disinfectants mixing with dinner, reminds you Graterford is full of dead ends and horrors, full or murderers and rapists who don't ask not what YOU did to join them, ask not what they can do for you, but suggest what you might do for them.
People come out of Graterford better prepared for a life that would assure their going back. Bernard Hopkins is no recidivist.
He was a 17-year-old street hood who was sent to that adult world. He would stay there for 56 months. He acted crazy at first, to scare away the predators. In time, as a fighter, he earned some respect. He would learn Islam in the prisoner-built mosque and remember his mother's Christian upbringing.
He would train every day in the gym, and later, when he was out and boxing pro, he would go back because the guys there were more likely to show up the next day than some of the sparring partners he had in Philly's gyms. The boxing program is gone now, he said, "and the guys have nothing to do but get in trouble. They said the state couldn't pay for prisoners to work out. Now guards are getting beaten up."
He was 22 when he was released. For nine years he was on parole. One slip, easy on the streets of Philadelphia, and he could have been sent back to Graterford.
"I haven't had a ticket for spitting on the sidewalk," he said the other day. "I haven't had a speeding ticket."
For 15 years, he has been straight. He is married, the proud father of a baby daughter and living in the suburbs, not the Graterford suburbs. He worked hard at his profession. He is Marvelous Marvin Hagler in his fanatic devotion to training, Samuel Gompers in his battles with boxing's Establishment. He has long been one of the best fighters in the world, the IBF middleweight champion since 1995, and undefeated since losing a dull 12-round decision to Roy Jones Jr. in 1993.
But with all his success, Hopkins railed against the men who could put butter on his bread. He went to court against promoters, he screamed at the alphabets. If he was paranoid, it was because everyone WAS out to get him. He escaped one prison, but was now chained in anonymity and politics.
No one wanted to promote him. Worse, no one wanted to fight him. Jones, out of opponents, still runs from a rematch and don't get Hopkins started on No Balls Jr.
He knew, "if nobody wants to fight me when I have a title, what chance have I got if I don't?"
He ranted and raved, spewing more words than you'd get from Bernard Fernandez interviewing Don King. Lately, though, people are beginning to listen.
Hey, Hopkins has been right all along. He calls himself a "renegade" and a "pioneer." His adviser, Lou DiBella, said "all the things he's been saying, about boxers assuming control of their careers, has been right on. Look at Oscar de la Hoya, Lennox Lewis, Naseem Hamed."
DiBella, even before he left HBO to become a "matchmaker" and adviser (please don't use the words "manager" or "promoter"), had been approached by Hopkins to work with him. "We're working on a handshake," said DiBella, "no contract. I'm more sure of my contract with Bernard than I am with most of my written ones. He's a very loyal guy. Bouie Fischer (his trainer) and Bouie's son James have been with him since the beginning. He's a real man. I'm proud to be his adviser. I think he's a hall of fame fighter and a hall of fame person."
Hopkins, who has sued Butch Lewis ("I wanted the man to put on a shirt years ago") and Dan Goossen, was promoted for seven fights by King in the past. But until Felix Trinidad Jr. decided he wanted to be a middleweight champion, too, there was no way King was going to deal with Hopkins, or vice versa. For years, the middleweight muddle went along with King at times having promotional rights to all the players - except Hopkins. But he couldn't, or wouldn't, put Holmes, the WBC champion, in with William Joppy, the WBA champion who meets Trinidad in the second semifinal May 12.
Trinidad made it worthwhile for everyone to play. If anyone is to get credit for what should have always been a given - and which should be done in all weight classes, of course - it should be the Puerto Rican superstar, not the promoter.
"Let's fight, no more talking," said Hopkins, who'll be getting $1.1 million, his first seven-figure payday in a brilliant 38-2-1 career that includes 28 knockouts.
"I'll say it again, if I don't knock this guy out, I don't deserve to win."
Holmes has never been stopped in his 35-2 career and he has stopped 23. He has a 3 1/2-inch reach advantage and good lateral movement, but is surprisingly effective on the inside, too. This is a fight, even if New York seems to pretend it's not. There were less than 3,000 tickets sold as of yesterday afternoon. The Joppy-Trinidad showdown, in the main arena, has sold almost three times that. But that card will have a pretty good undercard, perhaps including the IBF's long-overdue filling of the welterweight vacancy Trinidad left when he moved to junior middleweight (Vernon Forrest and Raul Frank, who had a "no contest" because of an accidental head butt, will try again). There's also a matchup of clever heavyweights, Chris Byrd and Maurice Harris, and possibly a women's contest that might be worth watching, Christy Martin against Kathy Collins.
Tomorrow night, the semifinal could be a thriller, but who cares? It's for the vacant WBO junior flyweight (108 pounds, or lighter than some of my meals) title between Andy Tabanas of the Philippines and Nelson Dieppa of bombing target Vieques, Puerto Rico. Between them, they have failed in four previous world title shots. You don't have to know what else is on.
The main event should suffice. Hopkins has been searching long for a major fight. He walks around 168, 169 pounds and offered to go down to 154 to face someone like Trinidad, Fernando Vargas, David Reid, Oscar de la Hoya or Sugar Shane Mosley.
"No one bit the bait," he said. "I'd have to go to Africa to (make 154), where it's 100 degrees every day."
He said he was "ready to show I've been a diamond in the rough all these years."
The real appraisers know. After the top four on the mythical pound-for-pound list (Mosley, Trinidad, Jones and Floyd Mayweather Jr.), Hopkins belongs in the next group (de la Hoya, Lennox Lewis, Ricardo Lopez, Tim Austin).
He's a throwback. He said, "I got stuck behind time," but sometimes he was stuck behind himself. DiBella said "in the last two years, Bernard has in effect stopped looking back (at past business felonies committed against him) and started to look forward."
It's why he was willing to sign up with King, that and the guarantee of million-dollar paydays for the tournament and a chance at someone like Trinidad (who is no "lock" against Joppy, though he has to be favored to be the big winner at the end Sept. 15).
Though Hopkins is sometimes painted a villain by promoters and opponents, he should be a blue-collar hero, the ex-con role model Rocky Graziano used to be, back in another middleweight era. Hell, give him a Martha Raye (okay, kids, ask grandpa who she was) and he'd be a TV star, too.
He goes back to Graterford now and then to see old friends. "A lot of 'em in there I wouldn't let out if I had the keys," he said. But he made it, and he should continue to make it, win or lose.
I've got to make a pick. It's my job. Okay, Barrera by decision. Only a week late. Okay, no more stalling. Hopkins will have trouble early, but he's still quicker than people think and he should slow down Holmes and maybe stop him around the 11th.
ON THE HOUSE: Hopkins weighed in today at 159, Holmes at 157 1/2 and I keep telling you, Trinidad is the biggest of the four contenders....Holmes won the coin toss with tails and will enter the ring last, but Hopkins then will be introduced second....As they posed for the perfunctory pictures on the scale, Hopkins offered to bet Holmes $100,000 on the outcome. "I don't bet," said Holmes....Hopkins has made 12 defenses of his IBF title and thinks he needs just two more to tie Carlos Monzon's middleweight record. I'm not sure. First, Monzon was the unified champion for most of his reign. Second, one of those "successful" defenses by Hopkins was a "no contest" when Referee Mills Lane accidentally pushed him out of the ring and he twisted an ankle and could not go on against Robert Allen. He destroyed Allen in the rematch, but should a "no contest" count as a defense if it was not a contest?....Let's hope that Lennox Lewis and Hasim Rahman don't go to any football (soccer) games while they're in Johannesburg. Now that's a rough sport. |
