PULLING OUT THE STOPS

Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins has brought out all the intimidation big guns at his disposal for his fight with William Joppy on 13 December. The undisputed middleweight champion has not only belittled Joppy verbally, he has bet him $50,000 that his mandatory challenger will not survive the 12 rounds.

Things got ugly at a press conference in Washington when Hopkins, as is his way, became confrontational at the podium and Joppy, who was attempting to address the media, responded by pushing him in the chest with both hands.

Then, at a New York press conference at which Joppy was a late arrival, Hopkins got into it with members of Joppy’s entourage.

Don King, who promotes the fight as part of a pay-per-view TV extravaganza at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, makes no attempt to disguise his delight at the shenanigans, indecorous though they may. “Lord have mercy! The brother’s got smoke coming out of his ears,” King exclaimed in approval of Hopkins’s aggressive behaviour.

What was once just a good middleweight fight has become something more; it now possesses all the trappings of a grudge match.

Throw in the welterweight unification title match on the same show, with Ricardo Mayorga and Cory Spinks having exchanged insults and proclaimed their mutual dislike, and we have the makings of a couple of memorable fights to close out the big-time boxing year in America.

But back to Hopkins. I am not sure that he really dislikes Joppy any more than any other opponent. What you have to understand about Bernard is that he likes to impose psychological authority before a punch is thrown and to get the other man so rattled that well-thought-out strategy falls apart in the emotion of the moment.

This worked wonderfully well against Felix “Tito” Trinidad, whose one-dimensional bomb-throwing played right into Hopkins’s hands in the Executioner’s career-defining victory two years ago at Madison Square Garden.

Also, Hopkins, with his seeming rages, is all the while ratcheting up his own intensity level. So his rantings have a dual purpose: to get inside the other’s head while building a mega motivational force within himself.

The big question will be to see if Joppy is affected by all this, if he can stick to the slick, smart boxing that is his only chance of victory.

The bad news for Joppy is that he let the occasion get to him when he fought Tito Trinidad in his previous biggest fight as part of Don King’s middleweight unification tournament in May 2001.

Everyone knew that Joppy’s best chance was to use speed, movement and boxing skills. Instead, he started trading punches, getting dropped in the first and fourth rounds and blasted out in the fifth.

Joppy admits that he got caught up in the hype and let his emotions get the better of him. He says he won’t let it happen again.

And Joppy paints a convincing portrayal of why he will upset the odds against Hopkins (see separate story).

In Joppy’s mind, he is the superior boxer and he will show it on 13 December. He says that Trinidad knocked him out with illegally wrapped hands (Hopkins’s camp insisted that Trinidad’s hands were re-bandaged before the fight to remove tape from the knuckle area). As Joppy sees it, people make a Hopkins victory a formality because they look no further than the respective performances of the two men against Trinidad. He says the Joppy who answers the bell in Atlantic City will not be the same one who fought the wrong fight against Trinidad.

And Joppy, who has a record of 34 wins, two losses and a draw in 35 bouts (25 opponents stopped) does have talent. He boxed beautifully in the early rounds against Britain’s Howard Eastman two years ago, for instance, and although he faded late he had enough points in the bank to eke out a majority decision. He says that he wasn’t at his best that night, physically or mentally, in his first bout after the Trinidad disaster. Against Hopkins, he says, it will be different.

Promises, promises. But can Joppy deliver? The 33-year-old is a three-time middleweight champ but world titles, of course, aren’t what they were (Joppy currently holds the WBA title while Hopkins is the organisation’s “super” champ).

Joppy has won 11 of 13 world title fights, including a couple of stoppage victories in Japan and a three-round blowout of an old and shot Roberto Duran. But Joppy had some difficult moments against Hacine Cherifi in winning a widely scored decision and he was knocked down by Julio Cesar Green at Madison Square Garden although he came back to floor Green twice in the next round before losing on points (but Joppy says he broke his right hand). In two subsequent fights he comfortably outboxed the slugger from the Dominican Republic.

So, Joppy can box and move, he can punch a bit, he can be dropped and hurt but in two of the three title fights in which he was floored he finished on his feet and won one of them.

At his absolute best, then, we can feel safe in saying that he can cause problems for Hopkins, who will turn 38 in January and who has had just two fights — unimpressive stoppage wins over mandatory challengers Carl Daniels and Morrade Hakkar — in the two years since he outclassed Trinidad. But giving Hopkins problems and beating him are two different things.

Hopkins has not lost since he was outpointed by Roy Jones 10 years ago and he has broken Carlos Monzon’s record of successful middleweight title defences with 16 of them (including the “no contest” when he fell out of the ring against Robert Allen, who was easily stopped in seven rounds in a rematch). Even in this age of fragmented titles and undeserving challengers, there is an impressive consistency about Hopkins’s nine-year reign. He has proved he is the best at 11st 6lbs (160lbs) and he has beaten some useful fighters, such as Canadian southpaw Syd Vanderpool, Antwun Echols and rival champ Keith Holmes although his dominant display against Trinidad overshadows all other performances.

Joppy argues that if you take away the Trinidad fight, Hopkins has never looked all that good, but I’m not so sure about that. Yes, there have been fights where Hopkins has won in ugly fashion (notably against Holmes, Vanderpool and in the rematch with Echols) but in some of his other title fights he has looked like an efficient, even devastating, fighting machine (KOs over two-time champ Simon Brown, Segundo Mercado and southpaw Joe “Sledgehammer” Lipsey come quickly to mind). But the bottom line is that he wins.

At this stage it looks as if only age is going to beat Hopkins. Everyone knows that Hopkins brings tremendous mental strength and unparalleled conditioning. He is like one of the old-school fighters from Philadelphia in this regard.

Pennsylvania commissioner Greg Sirb sounded almost in awe when talking over the phone about his state’s most celebrated fighter. “When Bernard’s in that gym in North Philly with the temperature cranked up to 100 degrees it’s hard-core training and the sparring can be brutal,” Sirb said. “He lines them up, one after the other, 10, 12, whatever number of rounds. This is a guy who never drinks, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t stay out late and is always in tremendous shape.”

Even Joppy acknowledges that Hopkins will be in superb physical condition. And while Joppy talks of being in the best condition of his life, more focused than he’s ever been and reaching new heights, you have to wonder just a little if some of the bold comments are perhaps intended to build his own confidence.

Joppy’s co-manager, Steve Nelson, says that Joppy could have made more money by defending his version of the WBA title but that he wanted Hopkins, that it’s a fight, in fact, that he’s always wanted. “Fighters know who they can beat,” Nelson said, “and William knows he can beat Hopkins.”

If Joppy does pull off the upset it will knock out Hopkins’s plan of meeting Oscar De La Hoya in a mega fight next year, when the Executioner will be a free agent (unless promoter Don King can come up with a much-improved offer for a contract extension). Hopkins, considered frugal, is comfortable financially but a De La Hoya fight would assure an affluence that must have been beyond his wildest imaginings when he was serving time for robbery in Philadelphia in what seems a lifetime ago. Joppy is in the way of this dream fight, and I think we can assume Hopkins will be anxious to remove him as quickly and as convincingly as he can (especially with the $50,000 side bet involved).

While Hopkins did not look impressive in stopping Carl Daniels and Morrade Hakkar in 10 and eight rounds respectively I don’t think he was “up” for either of these essentially meaningless fights. In fact, I think he carried Hakkar simply because he was enjoying himself in a virtual public sparring session.

Against Joppy, though, my feeling is that Hopkins will come out with a high-intensity, power-and-pressure attack. Joppy is game enough and talented enough to make a fight of it, but I just cannot see him holding off Hopkins for 12 rounds. Not unless Hopkins grows old overnight, and I don’t see that happening. Hopkins looks too strong, too tough and simply too much.

For additional coverage, including interview with William Joppy and preview of Mayorga vs Spinks, see December issue