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Tyson and Hopkins
By Eddie Goldman (February 12, 2003)
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A little over a year ago, on January 22, 2002, the infamous Mike Tyson-Lennox Lewis press conference brawl took place. We all know how Mike Tyson instigated the riot by marching over on the stage of New York's Hudson Theater to confront Lewis. It has been well-documented how this led to the Lewis-Tyson fight being disallowed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, how several other states made it be known that the fight would be unwelcome under their jurisdictions, and how it ended up in that boxing capital of Memphis, Tennessee, with Lewis dominating and getting an eighth-round TKO on June 8, 2002.
Despite Tyson's history of biting off parts of Evander Holyfield's ears, also biting Lewis at the New York press conference, innumerable antics in the ring, endless accusations of misconduct outside the ring, and a rape conviction (however controversial and tainted), it seems that he has been given some redemption by the boxing media.
In recent days he has had several top boxing writers over to see him in Las Vegas training for his Feb. 22 fight with Clifford Etienne. The biggest controversy so far involves his attempts to rein in his 13-year-old daughter. That plot sounds more like fare for "Father Knows Best" or "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter," rather than "Silence of the Lambs" or "Oz."
At the New York press conference, an enraged Tyson screamed at a boxing writer, "I'll f__k you till you love me, faggot!" From all the glowing articles about Tyson these days, it appears as if this was an accurate prediction.
And why not? Tyson deserves redemption, so long as he continues to behave more or less professionally, anyway. Hopefully, the brother is mellowing, maturing, and finally learning from so many of his mistakes. Hopefully.
About a month before the Tyson-Lewis New York press conference, Bernard Hopkins gave an interview to MaxBoxing.com's own Steve Kim making various allegations of a kickback or bribe against Lou DiBella, formerly his "advisor." A few days later, DiBella filed a suit for libel in U.S. District Court. In Nov 2002 DiBella basically won on the main charges. A federal jury awarded DiBella $500,000 in punitive damages and $110,000 in compensatory damages. Hopkins has said he is appealing that verdict.
I attended the DiBella-Hopkins trial for a little under one court session. It was clear from what I saw that Hopkins was getting verbally and logically sliced and diced by DiBella's lawyer, the talented but highly arrogant and greasy Judd Burstein (hey, I already said he was a lawyer, so excuse the redundancies). Hopkins tried to say that he was misquoted, or quoted out of context, in Kim's article. Burstein handed him a copy of that article, played back the tape of the unedited interview, and read back from the transcript of that tape. He asked Hopkins to specify just where he had been misquoted or quoted out of context. After pauses for reading the piece, while still on the witness stand, and listening to the tape and the transcript, Hopkins said he could not find anything written that did not reflect what he had said at the time.
That snippet of the two-week trial that I had witnessed was enough to tell just what this verdict was going to be. It was a far more lopsided battle than Hopkins's picking apart of Felix Trinidad until the inevitable TKO in the 12th round. The little that I saw of this trial was at least 10-8 for DiBella's side. The jury of Hopkins's "peers," seven white and one Black New Yorkers, looked like it had been chosen from among the season ticket-holders at the New York Philharmonic, and not exactly from the kind (like us) that you see at the fights. Nevertheless, they had no choice but to see that Bernard Hopkins had flushed his own credibility down the toilet.
With all that said, while Hopkins lost that civil trial, he has also not bitten anyone, not sexually abused anyone, not assaulted anyone, and said he has not even had a traffic ticket since he was released in 1989 from a fifty-six month stretch at Graterford State Penitentiary. True, he does face another suit, this time from former trainer Bouie Fisher, but that is also a civil action.
Yet while the boxing media seems to be returning, hat in hand, to record the latest Quotations from Chairman Mike, few have seemed interested at all in finding out just what Hopkins is up to.
At last Thursday's press conference in Philadelphia to announce his March 29 middleweight title defense against little-known WBC mandatory Morrade Hakkar, and the David Tua-Hasim Rahman rematch, there were lots of reporters from the mainstream press in attendance. Both major Philadelphia daily newspapers (including Bernard Fernandez of the Philadelphia Daily News, and also president of the Boxing Writers Association of America), several Black-oriented papers like the Philadelphia Sun and the Philadelphia New Observer, seemingly all the major local television stations, and at least one radio show, were among those represented at this gathering held at Bullies Sports Bar & Restaurant, right next to the First Union Spectrum, the site of this card.
Although Hopkins's opponent is virtually unknown in America, let alone Philly, the Hopkins fight, and not Tua-Rahman 2, is the main event. The local TV talking heads were jostling for position to interview Hopkins, with at least one engaging in a mock sparring session with the middleweight champ as the cameras rolled. Unlike the treatment Tyson so justifiably received from the Nevada and other commissions, Pennsylvania commission head Greg Sirb spoke at the press conference to welcome the fight, and also justifiably. While Philadelphia Mayor John Street had been expected to attend but didn't, he has been working with Hopkins on a campaign to "Knock Out Violence With Education." Hopkins's business card is emblazoned with that slogan, as well as, "Kids listen to the champ... Stay in School!"
Despite losing the libel case to Lou DiBella, despite the next legal battle with Bouie Fisher, and despite essentially turning his back on Steve Kim by trying to make his interview appear to be inaccurate or misleading when it was dead on the money, Bernard Hopkins remains the local hero in Philly. It might be understandable why many veterans in the boxing media are still royally pissed at him. Had I been the one on the other end of any of these disputes, I doubt I would be feeling very generous towards him.
But since I was not directly involved in any of these messes, perhaps I am in a better position to put it all in perspective.
The promoter of this fight, Don King, was once jailed for killing a man. Other top promoters such as Bob Arum, Cedric Kushner, and Dino Duva, all testified under oath at the bribery trial of former IBF president Bob Lee that they had paid bribes to Lee though his intermediary Doug Beavers. Many fighters, including Hopkins and Tyson, have served time for all sorts of violent crimes.
While not excusing any of this, we continue to cover everyone and everything in the sport of boxing. That's what made the absence of articles in the boxing-specific media about the Hopkins and Tua-Rahman press conference last week so galling. For once, the mainstream media, at least the local Philadelphia media, was all over this story. But the usual suspects weren't.
And don't give me that crap that it was inaccessible because it was in Philly. I took the IRT #1 subway train to New York Penn Station, then New Jersey Transit to Trenton, then the R7 SEPTA train to Philadelphia's 30th Street Station, then the Market-Frankford Philly subway ("blue line") one stop east to City Hall, and then the Broad Street Line ("orange line") south to the last stop, Pattison, where the Sports Complex is located. And then, after the two-hour press conference, which started two hours late, back again. Michael Katz is a better driver than me.
Maybe if Bernard Hopkins bites someone in the ring, the boxing media will once again flock to this undisputed champion. Maybe if he mauls another fighter, rather than saying something bad about a promoter, then he will become their darling once more.
A double standard? In boxing? Baby, quick, get me the smelling salts!
But even in this sport where the unexpected is always expected, don't expect Hopkins to behave that way. He is far, far from flawless, and even he knows it, whether he admits it or not. Whatever his errors of judgment in his business dealings regarding making this fight, he is not the one who should be blamed for having to fight a relatively unknown mandatory to retain his undisputed status.
In fact, Hopkins was the only boxer who testified at last Wednesday's Senate Commerce Committee hearing called by Sen. John McCain about the overall mess in boxing. In his support of McCain's bill for a national boxing commission, he spoke up for the average, ordinary, underpaid, and exploited fighters. Here is a portion of what he said:
"While the [Ali] Act addressed some of those ills, it was not enough. It had no teeth and no practical impact on the average professional boxer. Promoters violated it with impunity because they knew that for the most part there would be no negative consequences.
"Though I do not have the statistics to support it, I believe that the average professional boxer lives at or below the poverty line. Only a handful of boxers receive over Twenty Thousand Dollars per year in purses. They live to fight and fight to live. They fight at the promoters' whims and therefore do not have the luxury to reject purse amounts, and exclusive promoter/manager agreements, when the agreements violate the Act. Likewise, they do not have the resources and information necessary to prosecute claims against promoters and managers for violations of the Act."
The average boxers would fear being blacklisted after making such statements. The top boxers would not. Yet of these, only Bernard Hopkins came forward to speak up last week.
Both Tyson and Hopkins have had their share of screw-ups, to say the least. They both have also paid the price, sometimes too much, and sometimes not enough. But what do you want to do to them now, lynch them?
Let those in the boxing media, and all of boxing for that matter, who have never broken the law, never bad-mouthed anyone unfairly, and never engaged in immoral or unethical behavior, stand in holy judgment of Bernard Hopkins and Mike Tyson. Otherwise, put it all in perspective, move on, and cover the fights.
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E-Mail Eddie Goldman at knockoutradio@yahoo.com
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