Middleweight Square Garden

Middleweight Square Garden
15 Rounds by Steve Kim (Thurs Apr 12, 2001)
You can thank Roy Jones for what is being billed as 'the Middleweight World Championship Series' being held at the famed Madison Square Garden in New York.

Without his strong-arm tactics in negotiating a rematch with International Boxing Federation middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins, the 160-pound division would be just another set of fractured titles in today's game.

Jones had insisted on 'capping' what Hopkins could make in a third bout between the two, if Hopkins should win the rematch. When Hopkins balked, he and the middleweight division seemed stuck in the same quagmire they had been in since the great Marvin Hagler left the game in 1987.

But to the rescue came Don King (please, give him some credit, he deserves it) and 'the Garden'.

"We had been working to put together a rematch between Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones," stated Kevin Wynne of MSG. "And separately doing a stand-alone fight between Felix Trinidad and William Joppy, but not in the context of a tournament.

"It was really King's idea, when Hopkins became available when the Jones fight didn't materialize, I think he and Lou DiBella got together. Bernard was the only missing piece to the middleweight series since King had all the other middleweight under contract.

"Once Bernard signed on to the series and Trinidad agreed to fight in the series, everything came together."

The winner of the tourney will not only unify the division but win the Sugar Ray Robinson Trophy. It's appropriate that this tourney is being held at what has been called 'the Mecca of Boxing', since past middleweight champs like Robinson and Hagler have defended the titles in this historic arena.

The winner's of Hopkins-Keith Holmes and Trinidad-Joppy (scheduled for May 12th) are scheduled to meet on Sept. 15th.

All week the fighters have been on various promotional functions around the area to promote the fight. Wynne says the anticipation began even before the official announcement.

"It's great," stated Wynne. "The public reaction since the story first broke, even before we announced it, have been good. It's funny we ended up postponing the initial announcement for a week and we were getting so many calls because of the anticipation, we put the tickets on sale to the fight before we even had a formal press conference to handle the demand."

It's being reported that only about half of the 5,000 seats in The Theatre (the scaled down room in the Garden, which will host Hopkins-Holmes) have been sold, but Wynne expects good walk-up sales of tickets as the event approaches.

"We are doing some things in Washington D.C and in Philadelphia from a promotional standpoint. For example William Joppy had a big sendoff party in conjunction with a radio station in Washington D.C. last week. Keith Holmes, some people that are friendly with him have purchased some tickets to bring up a couple of busloads from D.C. I'm expecting something similar from Philadelphia."

Wynne also mentioned that both the mayors of Philly and D.C. have been invited by King. Maybe they'll have a wager representing their respective hometowns, like many other politicians do during a World Series and Super Bowls.

How 'bout a wager of a cheese steak hoagie for a Georgetown Starter jacket?

"I think both cities are creating a rivalry here," said Wynne. "I think it's going to be fun with a lot
of people from both hometowns."

Wynne who is responsible for booking boxing events to the Garden, says this is exactly the type of event that the Garden is looking for when hosting a fight.

"This middleweight series is exactly what we want," said Wynne. "Fights that are career defining. Bernard Hopkins, Keith Holmes and William Joppy have been looking for a certain recognition in their career's, that winning this series will give them. If Felix Trinidad wins this series, it could possibly put an exclamation point on him being the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the last 25 years."

With this series, the Garden is guaranteed at least three boxing events in 2001. "We need at least two matchups a year to keep continuity," points out Wynne. "But we also don't want too many because then we're not sticking to our quality standard. We want 'A' versus 'A' matchups."

HOPKINS AND JONES

Bernard and Roy looked rather chummy on the TVKO broadcast this past Saturday night, they discussed the mythical 'pound-for-pound' issue and said that they were top dogs because they had reigned the longest as champions. Jones has been a champ since '93 and Hopkins since '95.

It has to be pointed out that one 'Tito' Trinidad has been champion since '93 also and has beaten more big names than Jones and Hopkins combined.

His record includes names like Fernando Vargas, Oscar De La Hoya, Pernell Whitaker and David Reid. Also he has ruined the undefeated marks of fighters like Oba Carr and Yory Boy Campas in the early '90s. This guy has been a 'zero-killer'.

I WOULD LOVE TO BE A FLY ON THE WALL

When Hopkins goes in for his HBO pre-fight meeting with the HBO crew, which includes George Foreman who he has blasted in recent weeks.

Things could get interesting, but as Larry Merchant (who will have a ringside seat to both the pre-fight meeting and the actual fight) pointed out: "Hey, if Bernard can get along with Roy, then I'd think he can get along with George."

Yeah, but I would still love to be a fly on the wall for that one, juuust in case.

MORE GEORGE

Several of you readers disagreed with my column ("Once a Bully, Always a Bully") saying that he was provoked by Jim Lampley making reference to Naseem Hamed's deep faith in Allah and spelling out Barrera's name in reference to a comment Hamed had made the week of the fight.

Point taken.

I believe George had every right to tell Lampley, "You better be cool with that." It was a deserved slap on the wrist, and in this dreaded politically correct era, maybe Lampley should have shown some discretion. I really don't have a problem with that.

But my problem stemmed from the exchange afterwards, which had nothing to do with Hamed's religious beliefs.
George mentioned that Lampley had said some 'things' not 'thing'. Obviously he was bothered by more than just one statement made on that broadcast. To me, I think he was a bit flustered that his guy (Hamed) had gotten shellacked and that both Lampley and Merchant called it as such.

His reply to Lampley went from a slap on the wrist to a shove against the wall.

BOTTJER'S REPLY

Y'know, you give a guy credit for picking a winner and he starts to think he can correct you. Never mind he is probably right, that's not my point.

Eric Bottjer the matchmaker for Cedric Kushner e-mailed me to let me know that Ed Mahone's training expenses ($5,000) were exorbitant in comparison to what his purse ($10,000) was and in contrast to what other fighters (not fighting on the main event) get for fighting on ESPN2.

Bottjer pointed out that perhaps Mahone could have spent some of his training expense dough on something other than three round-trip tickets from Las Vegas to St. Louis.

These matchmakers can be sooooo mean.

BONES VS AYALA

The official announcement was made by Top Rank that on August 4th at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas that WBA bantamweight champion Paulie Ayala will move up and challenge WBA super bantamweight champ Bones Adams.

OK, I have a feeling Bones will not have to prepare for three different opponents and then fight a
late, late replacement. But, who will be the judges?

Ayala, to some is lucky to still have his title. Adams and Ayala are both Top Rank fighters. With the bout being televised nationally on HBO, lets just hope that a fair and well judged fight will take place.

I don't think Teddy Atlas could take another controversial decision.

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E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com

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