Sunday, May 30, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Two sides of middleweight class

Backgrounds differ, but De La Hoya, Hopkins a lot alike

By KEVIN IOLE
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Oscar De La Hoya laughs during a training session on Tuesday at the MGM Grand. De La Hoya will face Felix Sturm on Saturday in a middleweight fight. Photo by K.M. Cannon. Bernard Hopkins talks to a reporter as he arrives at McCarran International Airport on Thursday. Hopkins will fight Robert Allen on the same card Saturday as Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

The same question is put to these two very different men: Everyone is aware of the differences between Oscar De La Hoya, boxing's golden boy, and Bernard Hopkins, its blue-collar superstar. But what do they perceive as the similarities between them?

De La Hoya shrugs and cheerily says, "None, really," with a bright smile. Hopkins, though, rambles on for several minutes about how he and De La Hoya, the man he will fight for the undisputed middleweight title on Sept. 18 if both win their separate bouts at the MGM Grand on Saturday, are more alike than dissimilar.

"Look at what a great competitor Oscar is," Hopkins said, his soulful, passionate eyes dancing as he speaks. "You can say a lot of things about him, but the man comes to fight and he's never ducked anyone. He's sought out the best there is."

Hopkins points to a vast sea of people scurrying to and fro at McCarran International Airport. Whatever their jobs, he said, few seek to be the best at what they do like De La Hoya has.

"And that's why we're so similar," said Hopkins, who will defend his championship against Robert Allen in the co-feature as De La Hoya meets Felix Sturm for the WBO middleweight title. "I want to be the best and I'm coming every day with everything I have to make myself the best. And I see a lot of that in him.

"He's the money man, the big draw, and he could get millions and millions for fighting bums. He's already proven that. He got more money for fighting guys you all say shouldn't have even been in the ring with him than most of us do for fighting the biggest and most difficult challenge of our lives. He didn't have to take Bernard Hopkins. This was strictly Oscar's call. But that tells me a lot about the man."

De La Hoya, 31, grew up poor in the barrio of East Los Angeles. He turned his good looks, pleasing personality and athletic ability into a gold mine. He is the biggest draw in boxing and Sports Illustrated earlier this month ranked him sixth on its list of the 50 highest-paid athletes with earnings in 2003 of $32 million. No athlete made more in base salary than the $30 million De La Hoya earned.

Hopkins, 39, began in similar surroundings in the rough neighborhoods of North Philadelphia, where fighting is a perquisite for survival. But he didn't have the storybook turnaround of De La Hoya and spent five years, from 17 to 22, in Graterford Prison in Pennsylvania on a robbery conviction.

De La Hoya recently hired the William Morris Agency to represent him; Hopkins represents himself, serving as his own manager and advancing his interests with the sheer force of his personality.

"I think pretty much everyone who knows anything about Bernard Hopkins knows how I've fought against all the injustices and how, just like Frank Sinatra, I've done it my way," said Hopkins, who is 43-2-1 with 1 no contest.

Upon hearing Hopkins' opinion that there are numerous similarities between them, beginning with their competitiveness, De La Hoya nods.

He has lost three times in 39 pro fights and was ridiculed for one, when he essentially ran and didn't fight in the last three rounds of a 1999 fight against Felix Trinidad. Just two years later, Hopkins destroyed Trinidad, dominating from start until the brutal finish when he stopped him in the 12th.

De La Hoya, though, never needed to be saved. And he's quick to point out that, whether anyone agrees with his contention that he should have received wins in at least two of his three losses, no one can dispute the fact that he's never been blown out.

"Of all these tough guys I've fought, no matter what else you say, you can never say I was dominated. Never," De La Hoya said. "Look at Roy Jones. He said a lot of stuff (about me) through the years, but he winds up getting knocked out (in the second round on May 15 by Antonio Tarver). Say what you want, but nothing like that has ever happened to me."

He puffs up proudly like a peacock, drawing strength from an area many would consider a weakness.

And though many expect Hopkins to rout De La Hoya should they meet in September, De La Hoya is defiant in his belief that he will emerge with the title belts of the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF.

"I promise you, I'll be the first to have all four," he says.

He turns to his wife, Latin pop singer Millie Corretjer, and encourages her to tell a visitor to his training camp what will happen on Sept. 18.

"You're going to rearrange his face," she said, feigning a snarl, as De La Hoya laughed uproariously.

Hopkins, though, isn't about to berate De La Hoya. He is notorious for trash talking with his opponents, often getting into their heads and forcing them to change their approach.

But he says it won't be that way with De La Hoya. He says he has too much respect for De La Hoya as a person and as an athlete.

"Maybe there will be some woofing with Floyd Mayweather (Sr., De La Hoya's trainer), because you know how he is and I'm going to have to respond, but I think this is going to be a very different promotion than people think," Hopkins said. "What am I going to be able to say about him? I can't honestly look in the mirror and say this face is better looking than his. I can't say I've got more money than he does. I can't say anything about him ducking a challenge because he's the one who stepped up. This fight is happening because he is the one who wanted it to happen.

"Basically, all I have to do is go about my business and get ready to fight. I got no beefs with anyone."

Nor does De La Hoya, unless it is the system itself, the very system that the renegade Hopkins has bucked for so long. De La Hoya regrets his outburst following his controversial September loss to Shane Mosley, a fight many believe he deserved to win. De La Hoya called for an investigation after the bout, touching off an explosive week in which his promoter, Top Rank's Bob Arum, wound up being ordered to appear before the Nevada Athletic Commission.

De La Hoya still believes he should have received the decision over Mosley. But he no longer thinks there was some nefarious scheme behind his loss. In his mind, the judges simply made a mistake. He's now a promoter with a thriving Los Angeles-based company, Golden Boy Promotions, byt De La Hoya is far from satisfied with the system.

"We need to change it from within," he said. "Boxing can be the greatest sport of them all when everything is right, but there is no other sport that constantly is killing itself like boxing does. We have to clean it up, to change the way things are done. If we do that, it will go right up, because at its core it is so good. The problem with boxing is nothing to do with boxing and everything to do with the way boxing is run."

He laughs when it's suggested he sounds like Hopkins, who on Feb. 5, 2003, appeared before a Senate committee and gave similar testimony.

Hopkins said De La Hoya's outspokenness is another indication of how they're more similar than dissimilar. He said he learned much about his potential foe when they took a cross-country tour earlier this year to promote the fight shortly after it was signed.

"He's a man," Hopkins said. "Everyone sees the Golden Boy and the pretty face and all that, but behind it all, the real De La Hoya is a true man. He's not just another pretty face. I live every day of my life that way, so you know I have much respect for him for that."