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Hopkins and DiBella unhappy with treatment

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By Paul Upham: Lou DiBella, the matchmaker and advisor to WBC/IBF champion Bernard Hopkins, is unhappy with the lack of respect given to his client by promoter Don King in the lead up to the middleweight unification super-fight with WBA title-holder Felix Trinidad on September 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Despite not receiving any extra monetary incentive to promote the fight from pay-per-view sales, Hopkins has been readily making himself available to the media says DiBella. “Bernard is not in on the upside of this fight, neither am I. However, Bernard has been carrying this promotion. He knows that, I know that and you all know that,” said DiBella.

“The requests for interviews have been outstanding and the demands on Bernard’s time have been outstanding. Frankly, this is a super-fight because Trinidad is not dancing alone, because he is in there with a guy who is not only a great fighter, but a personality.

“I said to Bernard during the course of this, ‘we have no upside, you’re dealing with all this negativity, why are you doing this?

“Bernard said, ‘on September 16 we have all the upside.

“I want to remind Tito’s promoter Don King about that. I want to talk to Don King for a minute on this phone call, because contempt breeds contempt, decency breeds decency and proper treatment breeds proper treatment.

“Don’s got to remember that he is not only Tito’s promoter he is Bernard’s promoter, too. He is a great promoter and he knows what he is doing but we entrusted him with the last years of a career of one of the great fighters of this generation.

“Right now he ain’t acting like Bernard’s promoter. To be honest, he has been less than fully accessible to me. If this is how he wants it to be that’ll be fine because he is going to wake up on September 16 and he’s going to be really, really sh*tting bricks.

“He wants it this way? This is how it will be. He can understand something, he is going to wake up on September 16 and maybe he doesn’t have one superstar anymore, he’s got two.”

Hopkins recalled that he is an impressive record of defeating boxers promoted by Don King and intends on extending his streak by defeating Felix Trinidad.

“I look at this as being another mandatory that has been won by Don King in a purse bid, because I am 8-0 with him. Most of my title defences have come from beating up Don King’s fighter when they were No.1 contender. This will be my ninth time knocking out a fighter that is promoted by Don King, so I will be 9-0 with Don,” said Hopkins.

“I look at this as a mandatory that took place that I didn’t have any control of and I had to defend my title or get stripped and Don happened to be the promoter of the fight. That’s my motivation. I will be 9-0 come September 16.”

Hopkins has a promotional contract with Don King that will continue beyond his fight with Trinidad and DiBella is hoping that the association can be mutually beneficial.

“Bernard has a promotional contract with Don that extends beyond his victory over Trinidad and frankly, Bernard becomes a big promotional commodity on September 16 if we are all right. Anybody who knows anything about this game knows that there is at least a decent chance that we are right. Don should remember that,” said DiBella.

“He is a great promoter and we are going to be with him after this fight, but we could be with him and it could be all pleasant or we could be with him and it could be his way. His way for the last couple of months has been less than totally respectful of my fighter and less than totally respectful of myself and I hope that doesn’t continue because if Don wants cold war again, we can find it.”


Paul Upham
Contributing Editor
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