By Keith Idec
Photo © Chris Cozzone/FightWireImages
The Nevada State Athletic Commission performed perhaps the toughest trick in boxing Friday afternoon, something opponents, publicists, reporters and miscellaneous adversaries have never done.
They made Bernard Hopkins keep his mouth shut.
The motor-mouthed former middleweight champion feared further punishment in Las Vegas, so after the NSAC fined him $200,000 for his antics at a July 20 weigh-in for his points victory over Ronald "Winky" Wright, Hopkins declined to elaborate on his displeasure with the NSAC's ruling.
"No comment," Hopkins told the Las Vegas Review-Journal upon leaving a 40-minute hearing at the Grant Sawyer State Office Building. "If I say something, they may haul me back in that room."
Nevada's boxing regulators probably should've done just that. Because from the opposite side of the country, it looks like the frugal fighter from Philadelphia got off easy by losing $200,000, or six percent of his contracted purse of $3 million.
The NSAC originally withheld 10 percent of Hopkins' purse, an additional $100,000, following the aforementioned mini-melee. But Hopkins pocketed an undisclosed portion of the pay-per-view revenue, too, and the fight drew reasonably well domestically --- 305,000 buys, according to Mark Taffet, HBO Sports' senior vice president for pay-per-view and operations. And that doesn't include whatever additional profits Hopkins might've earned as a legitimate partner in Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, the primary promoter of the Hopkins-Wright fight.
Therein lies the NSAC's neglect in punishing the 42-year-old legend.
Hopkins' promotional role should've led to a heftier fine because he wasn't simply representing himself when he mushed Wright following a verbal battle and fierce finger pointing on a makeshift stage inside the Mandalay Bay Events Center. The ever-rebellious boxer was at least partially responsible for maintaining the professional, safe environment that ceased to exist once he placed his right hand on Wright's face and shoved the mild-mannered former junior middleweight champ backward.
By doing so, he seemed to create a situation that was comparably dangerous to the one Roger Mayweather worsened the second he set foot in a Thomas & Mack Center ring that infamous night 16 months ago in Las Vegas. That transgression cost Mayweather $250,000, his entire check for working his nephew's corner last April 8, when Floyd Mayweather Jr. overcame Zab Judah's low blow/rabbit punch combination in the 10th round to win comfortably. The difference, of course, was Roger Mayweather's wacky act interrupted an actual boxing match, while Hopkins compromised "only" a weigh-in.
What if, though, a publicist, an NSAC inspector, NSAC executive director Keith Kizer or a member of the fighters' respective camps fell off the stage and was injured while Hopkins and Wright went at it? And truthfully, you could argue that there were more people in actual danger on July 21 because the stage isn't confined by ropes or ring posts. You could also argue that someone could've been seriously injured unnecessarily simply because Hopkins half-heartedly manufactured controversy to boost pay-per-view and ticket sales.
He admitted as much after winning a 12-round decision.
If that's the truth, then the NSAC essentially slapped Hopkins on the wrist. Boxing has enough image problems without those who should know better making mockeries of what are already glorified non-events. This isn't the WWE, so Hopkins should save such shenanigans for an Evander Holyfield-like appearance at Vince McMahon's theater of the absurd.
Then again, Hopkins stated Friday that he was actually angry at Wright because a member of the St. Petersburg, Fla., fighter's camp made mention of his late mother, Shirley, while they were weighing in.
"They broke the rule," Hopkins told the Review-Journal. "I didn't say anything about his family. ... I'm not proud and happy I did that. That's not what Bernard Hopkins is about, and I apologize to the commission." Maybe Hopkins has truly realized he was wrong over the last month. Or maybe he was lying to the commission because he knows that's what its members wanted to hear. One thing appears clear, however --- he was lying on July 21 or Friday.
So we're left wondering whether this was predetermined drama that got out of hand, or one of boxing's most calculating, controlled fighters finally losing his cool.
If Hopkins had every reason to grow angry, well, no one has disrespected his mother's memory more in public than him. He promised her he wouldn't box beyond 40, yet reneged on that vow because he saw opportunities to make more millions as he heads toward his mid-40s. That temptation might've made many men do the same thing if they encountered similar circumstances, but it seems somewhat hypocritical for a man who has constantly made Shirley Hopkins a topic of conversation to state that she is off limits to anyone else.
That in no way should be misconstrued as condoning someone saying something derogatory about a man's deceased mother. It's just that Hopkins cannot conveniently use that as his excuse four weeks later, when he never mentioned it after the weigh-in or the fight.
Worse yet, after failing to get off easily against Wright in a fight that resembled wrestling more than boxing, Hopkins seems to have gotten off pretty easily after facing five of Nevada's boxing regulators.
Keith Idec covers boxing for the Herald News and The Record.