Hopkins threatens to pull out of Saturday's fight over referee
By Tim Dahlberg, Associated Press, 6/3/2004 19:31
LAS VEGAS (AP) Bernard Hopkins has spent his career doing things his way, often to the detriment of his bank account.
That didn't change Thursday when Hopkins threatened to pull out of a deal with Oscar De La Hoya worth at least $15 million because he didn't like the choice of referee Joe Cortez for his fight Saturday night.
''I'm adamant about my instincts,'' Hopkins said. ''I don't want Cortez.''
Hopkins first said he had booked an afternoon flight home, then said later he was chartering a private jet to take him back to Philadelphia on Thursday night if the referee wasn't changed.
If he followed through with the threat, both the Saturday card featuring Hopkins against Robert Allen and De La Hoya against Felix Sturm and a planned Sept. 18 megafight between De La Hoya and Hopkins would be off.
''He would be making a fatal mistake,'' promoter Bob Arum said. ''That would be the end of his boxing career.''
Nevada Athletic Commission executive director Marc Ratner said there would be no emergency meeting of the commission to discuss changing the referee and that no one would ask Cortez to step down.
Ratner, though, didn't rule out Cortez volunteering to do another fight on the card instead.
''That would be entirely up to Joe Cortez,'' he said.
Hopkins, who has been accused by some in boxing as being paranoid about his business dealings, said he didn't know that Cortez was going to be the referee until Thursday. He said he didn't want Cortez because he had twice refused him for fights in the past, and feared Cortez might hold a grudge.
''Evidently there is some history we were unaware of,'' Ratner said.
De La Hoya suggested that perhaps Hopkins was merely getting nervous about one of the biggest fights of his career.
''Things start happening and you start to feel jumpy,'' De La Hoya said. ''A little jitterbug here? That's good to know.''
Hopkins is scheduled to make a minimum of $1.25 million to defend his undisputed middleweight titles against Allen on the same card Saturday night as De La Hoya's fight with Sturm.
If both win, they are scheduled to meet Sept. 18 in a fight that would pay Hopkins a minimum of $10 million, by far the biggest purse of his career.
There were suggestions that Cortez could trade with Tony Weeks, the referee of a lightweight fight between Juan Lazcano and Jose Luis Castillo on the card, but Ratner said that would have to be Cortez's decision.
Cortez was picked last week by the commission, and Ratner said Hopkins' camp was informed then of the choice, though they deny it. Hopkins refused to have Cortez referee his 2001 fight with Felix Trinidad because he thought he would favor the Puerto Rican fighter and also declined him for his last fight in December against William Joppy.
Hopkins is the undisputed middleweight champion of the world, a fighter so good that he hasn't lost in 11 years.
But at the age of 39 he's still not a popular draw and has spent much of his career fighting with promoters, managers and anyone else who he believes might be trying to harm him.
Hopkins made less than $300,000 in his last fight against Joppy and had eagerly promoted the two-fight deal with De La Hoya as vindication for the way he ran his career before the controversy over Cortez.
''I've called Oscar a punk and other things for ducking me, but I have no disrespect for him as a businessman,'' Hopkins said earlier. ''He knows how to bring in the money.''
The Sept. 18 middleweight title fight could be the richest non-heavyweight fight ever.
''He got this fight because he's very, very smart,'' Arum said. ''At the end of the day on September 18, Bernard is going to make more money than any opponent Oscar has ever faced.''
Hopkins won the biggest fight of his career when he beat Trinidad to unify the title in 2001, but since then has fought only three times, for a few hundred thousand dollars a fight.
''Bernard Hopkins,'' promoter Don King said before Hopkins' last fight, ''is like someone who won the lottery and then lost the ticket.''
If so, it didn't take Hopkins long to find it. He finished his obligation to King in December when he destroyed Joppy to retain his titles, then declared himself a free agent open to all offers.
Surprisingly enough, one came from De La Hoya, the one fighter Hopkins knew he could make a bundle from.
''A lot of people didn't see my vision, they called me crazy and an old fool,'' Hopkins said. ''I waited them out when they threw everything at me and I've persevered. Now, there's no other way to go but through the door of Bernard Hopkins.''
Looks like Bernie might be just a bit nervous. wil.
