No decision yet on new Trinidad-Hopkins date

By Paul Upham: Bob Goodman, Vice President Boxing Operations, Don King Productions, addressed a meeting of representatives from all of the boxers on the Bernard Hopkins-Felix Trinidad card, who were still in New York on Friday morning, to bring them up to date on the rescheduling of the card. “Thank you for standing tall in this time of need here in New York. We would like to be able to announce to you today that we have a new date, but we do not as yet,” said Goodman.
In the official postponement announcement on Wednesday, Don King indicated that September 29 was a new working date for the fight at Madison Square Garden. The Garden is currently booked from September 26-29 for a Greco-Roman wrestling tournament and it is not clear whether an arrangement can be worked out to allow the Hopkins-Trinidad card to go ahead on the 29th.

“Maintain your training schedule until you get a new date so that you know better how to proceed. It’s a terrible time for all of us. It’s tough being away from home and I know many of you have come from half-way around the world such as our brothers and sisters from Thailand,” said Goodman.

“If the new date is close enough we will keep everyone here in training so we don’t have to travel all the way home and back again. We will give you a new date as soon as possible. I don’t want anyone to panic, we do have some alternatives for getting out of New York in case airports remain closed and the new date is not close. As soon as we know a date, we will notify everyone.

“I’m sure your family and friends are concerned because you are in New York. They don’t know what is going on and they see all the horror that is on television and they are concerned for you and that is understandable. Please let everyone know that you are safe.”

WBC/IBF champion Bernard Hopkins has left New York to continue training at an undisclosed location while WBA champion Felix “Tito” Trinidad is working out daily in the city.

All of the boxers scheduled to appear on the card are still in New York with the exception of former world champion Danny Romero, who was on a plane that was prevented from flying into New York on Tuesday morning, while WBA super-middleweight champion Byron Mitchell and super-featherweight Shamir Reyes are still at their training camps.

On Friday night at 7pm, the Don King Productions staff will be joining a candlelight vigil at the 31st street Fire Station where so many brave fighters were lost in the World Trade Center tragedy. Bob Goodman encouraged the boxers and their training teams to join them.


Paul Upham
Contributing Editor