By Frank Lotierzo
In his upcoming fight with the highly touted middleweight sensation Jermain Taylor, undisputed champ Bernard Hopkins can score his own personal boxing hat-trick. That's right, victory over Taylor nets three monumental wins for Hopkins. Even his one sided victories over Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya won't measure up to the satisfaction he'll get handing Jermain Taylor his first loss as a pro.
The most obvious, has been the back drop every time Hopkins has fought since 2002 is his public feud with former advisor Lou DiBella. Which stems from a law suit filed against Hopkins by DiBella for defamation. This was after Hopkins claimed DiBella shook him down for $50,000. Hopkins alleged the money was so he could fight on HBO while DiBella was still the vice-president of programming for the network. The issue was resolved when the court ruled in DiBella's favor awarding him $610,000. Hopkins appealed the verdict and lost the appeal, something DiBella didn't let anyone forget at the press conference this past May 3rd to announce the Hopkins-Taylor middleweight championship bout.
In the years since Hopkins and DiBella terminated their relationship as business associates, both have realized tremendous success in boxing. Hopkins has defended his middleweight title six times since stopping Felix Trinidad and earned the biggest purse of his career when he stopped Oscar De La Hoya in the ninth round last September.
DiBella's Company, "DiBella Entertainment", has signed many top amateur standouts and world class fighters. DiBella's biggest star is middleweight contender Jermain Taylor. Taylor is currently ranked among the top three middleweight's in the world by all three of boxing's major sanctioning organizations. Many fight observers believe it is Taylor who will succeed Hopkins as middleweight champion. Which ironically really brings Hopkins and DiBella full circle.
Is there even be a morsel of doubt how much Lou DiBella would love nothing more than being in the opposing corner the night Hopkins 10-year reign as middleweight champion ended. Making it all that much sweeter is the fighter responsible for it is his most touted prospect and star. The one DiBella has navigated his career from it's inception with one goal in mind, take down Bernard Hopkins. What's makes this great is DiBella hasn't even tried to hide that's exactly what he's counting on when the two fighters meet. Only DiBella himself getting in the ring and beating Hopkins would be greater. Something I'll bet Hopkins has wished for to happen at least once a day since losing trial and appeal.
There is certainly no guessing as to where Hopkins stands pertaining to DiBella or anything else for that matter. Hopkins probably couldn't wish for a better way to end his career than by taking apart DiBella's superstar fighter. No doubt he'd love to ruin Jermain Taylor just as he did Felix Trinidad. Trinidad was never the same after the beating Hopkins administered to him during their fight. Something only a Trinidad fan blinded by bias would even attempt to argue with a straight face.
Hopkins hasn't been shy about mentioning Taylor through the media either. Bernard has been critical of Taylor's fights going out of his way to point out mistakes he said he's seen Taylor make. He also probably believes he has every reason in the world to want to punish Taylor. Taylor is a former Olympian and has had the benefit of million dollar marketing and promotion companies overseeing his entire career. Along with having shrewd businessmen providing him the access to fight in front of millions of people on a major television network. Something Hopkins didn't realize until he was middleweight champion. Before he won the title, Hopkins fought on the BET and USA networks. Taylor is probably the only fighter Hopkins could meet where his number of consecutive title defense streak is secondary.
Another factor resinating for Hopkins is the fact that Jermain Taylor is an HBO fighter. When you run down the HBO lineup of house fighters, it's getting very thin. Starting with Vitali Klitschko, who other than diehard fans of his think he's the most important fighter in the heavyweight division, when he's not injured. Roy Jones only wants to cherry-pick and doesn't want any part of the only fight that has any meaning to him, a rubber match with Tarver. Even if that happened and Tarver iced him again, Tarver will be 37 soon. How much longer can he be factor in the light heavyweight division.
We know how badly they need Taylor to beat Hopkins. Trinidad is retired and the fighter responsible for his latest retirement, Winky Wright, is only known to boxing fans. De La Hoya marches to his own tune and could care less about HBO or helping them maintain their profile in boxing. Mosley and Vargas have been treated like red-headed step sons by HBO. They just launched the make Floyd Mayweather the next Sugar Ray Leonard campaign by having him fight Arturo Gatti. Miguel Cotto doesn't speak English which will unfairly keep him from being embraced by the target audience HBO caters to. Just ask Felix Trinidad. Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barera and Many Pacquiao, are three outstanding fighters, but who was the last fighter under lightweight that carried a big PPV card fighting in the main event.
There is no doubt about it, a Hopkins victory over Taylor deals a serious blow to HBO's boxing program. However, a win by Taylor gives them a real fighter with even more credibility than Mayweather. If Taylor is the undisputed middleweight champion on July 17th, all you'll hear from HBO is how remarkable Hopkins must've been to hold the title 10 years and defend it 20 consecutive times. Something else you'll hear repeated twice as much is how great Taylor had to be to beat him. Which is something they'll have the right to claim and can't be questioned. That's two, DiBella and the HBO/boxing establishment are major wins Hopkins can claim by defeating Jermain Taylor.
Hopkins third victory is actually just beating Taylor. A fighter who not because of anything that he did wrong, but who had his career chronicled for him by influential boxing and television executives before he fought his first bout as a pro. Hopkins fully understands that Taylor has been groomed to take his title since he won the Bronze Medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. And there is probably nothing more satisfying for a reigning great champion to beat the fighter designated by the media and fans as the heir apparent to his title, which is exactly what has been said and written about Jermain Taylor.
For Hopkins, beating Taylor sticks it to DiBella and dirties his star, it prolongs HBO's plan for promoting their most marketable fighter as the most authentic champion in boxing. And last, Hopkins who is almost 41 will be turning back a gifted star who is only 26 and is at or near his prime. For Bernard Hopkins, that's a Hat-Trick.
