Who's fault it is...

[borikua]

If the Bernard-Jermain fight fall off..

[AintGottaClue]

i beilve its signed already, B-hop gtes 3M taylor gets 1.8

[borikua]

BY CHRIS GIVENS, nwanews.com

Posted on Friday, April 8, 2005

All that was left was to sign on the dotted line, or at least that is what Bernard Hopkins said two weeks ago.

But apparently it’s not going to happen.

A July 16 middleweight championship fight between Hopkins and Little Rock’s Jermain Taylor has gone from a sure thing to all but dead. More than a month of fierce negotiation between promoters for the two sides apparently has come to an end with Hopkins refusing to agree on the offers his promoter proposed for a rematch clause. "He’s a lunatic fighter that changed his mind," said Taylor’s promoter, Lou DiBella. "If I don’t get a phone call today that the crazy man has come to his senses, we’re moving on to another fight and will announce Jermain’s next fight soon. I’m not going to let this nut Bernard Hopkins wreck Jermain’s career."

Hopkins said don’t expect his promoter, Richard Schaefer, to make that phone call. "I don’t think it’s happening," Hopkins told ESPN. com on Thursday. "I think the fight is dead in the water unless something drastic happens." From the beginning of negotiations the key figures in Taylor’s camp insisted Hopkins doesn’t really want to fight Taylor. Even when Hopkins said, "Everything is a go, everything is agreed upon. We are going to go ahead and sign it," there was still doubt from Taylor’s side whether Hopkins would really go through with the fight. "Not that I doubt Bernard’s word, but until it is signed, I’m not announcing anything publicly," DiBella said on March 22, when Hopkins declared the fight was a go. There are two issues that hung up the deal.

irst was the financial terms of a rematch clause, which is something champions often require in case they lose to a nonmandatory challenger.

The two sides agreed that Taylor would receive $1.8 million for the July fight, and DiBella and Schaefer agreed to a 50-50 split of a rematch, but then Hopkins said no. The two promoters tweaked the deal, with DiBella agreeing to a 60-40 split against a $2.5 million guarantee for the rematch, but again Hopkins refused.

Finally, Hopkins offered Taylor 40 percent, or a $2 million flat fee that would not allow Taylor to share in any profits from the fight, which DiBella said was laughable. "Twice I made deals with Richard Schaefer and twice Bernard changed his mind," DiBella said. "At this point we’re not going to answer to Hopkins’ marching orders. He is the most unpromotable fighter in modern boxing history, and I should know because I was his promoter once."

Hopkins told ESPN. com the deal his side is offering is not unfair. "They want to put the blame on Bernard Hopkins but you can’t have your cake and eat it too," Hopkins said. "Either 60-40 for the rematch or the $2 million. I think if you compare what I’m offering Taylor, who is not a gold medal winner of a bigger name than I am, and compare the offer to a Roy Jones negotiation, I think I am being extremely fair.

" Do I need Jermain Taylor or does he need Bernard Hopkins? I am the undisputed champion and he can’t change that unless he beats me. I don’t need him. But I am giving him an opportunity to whip my a **. That’s the best I can do. If he don’t want that opportunity, that’s not my fault. "

The second issue involves a lawsuit former Hopkins promoter Don King filed against Golden Boy Promotions, of which Hopkins is a partner. Hopkins refuses to indemnify DiBella against potential claims from King, meaning King could be entitled to potential money owed to Taylor’s camp.

There is a personal aspect to the situation. A federal court of appeals Tuesday upheld a $610,000 judgment from a 2002 libel suit filed by DiBella against Hopkins, but DiBella said that was not a deciding factor in Hopkins pulling out of the fight.

" I don’t think it helped. I’m sure it made him angry, "DiBella said." Money is his God and he can’t like having to write a big check to me. But I guarantee you that is not why this fight isn’t happening. He just doesn’t want to fight Jermain Taylor. "

Sources have said Hopkins has told other fighters a fight against Taylor would be the most difficult fight with the least reward.

So now DiBella said he’s moving on. DiBella already had to give up a June HBO date while waiting for Hopkins to make up his mind, and he said he’s not keeping Taylor out of the ring any longer.

" We still want the fight so if something happens today, I’ll sign it, "DiBella said."

DiBella said he has made an offer to WBC and WBO No. 1 contender Felix Sturm about a fight with Taylor, but was not optimistic Sturm would accept.

Taylor’s most likely next opponent will be either IBF No. 1 contender Sam Soliman or Maselino Masoe, who owns a non-sanctioned WBA middleweight belt. The fight would be this summer, likely in July.

[m00ks]

HeHeHe Nard wants to take the 500k so he can get his money back. lol Good man.

[AintGottaClue]

the whole camp is scared of B-hop


he's not gonna let b-op ruin taylor's career? sounds lou doesnt think taylor can beat him,


and from my knowledge sam isnt the number 1 in IBF, trinidad is then number 2 is the winner of kingsely ikeke/echols fight, then sturm.

[masterdirector]

It won't hurt Taylor really if he loses to Hopkins, not that much. He's expected to lose. It'd be a great learning experience. I think Hopkins wants this fight less than Taylor. Not because he's worried of Taylor, but because he'd rather be making more money at this point. I think 3 million is pretty good for a not very popular guy like Hopkins fighting Taylor. I think 1.5 million for Taylor was good. He should've been happy with it.

Hopkins better be smarter than he was with the Joppy thing. Hopkins is a bull**** artist and I don't buy everything he says publicly. Part of his bull**** master plan as he called it was to get the DLH fight. No, that just came about. He didn't sit there in 2001 after beating Tito saying "Damn now I can get Oscar." That's bull****.

If Hopkins was really following a master plan for big money, he wouldn't have turned down an initial offer of like 1.8 million to fight Joppy, which turned into like a few hundred thousand when it went to purse bids, meaning Hopkins turned down the fight and ended up fighting for a whole lot less to fight the same guy on the same exact date. That's just ******, not a master plan.

He'd better not try his "master plan" again. Sure, he made well on the DLH fight, but look at all the missed opportunities between the Tito win and then. He could've fought Vargas and Calzaghe instead of Hakkar and Daniels. He could've fought Roy Jones! But he wanted a 50 percent purse split, which was ridiculous. He had one big marquee win over his career, Trinidad. Jones had Hopkins and Toney. Jones, even now, was clearly the bigger name, the draw. Jones offered a 60-40 split, which I thought was ridiculous. I thought he should've offered maybe 65-35 maximum.

And yeah, Hopkins should fight Sturm. That'd be easy to market, although DLH wouldn't let it be marketed the way it should. They could market it as "the other middleweight that beat DLH (at middleweight)."

[AintGottaClue]

It won't hurt Taylor really if he loses to Hopkins, not that much. He's expected to lose. It'd be a great learning experience. I think Hopkins wants this fight less than Taylor. Not because he's worried of Taylor, but because he'd rather be making more money at this point. I think 3 million is pretty good for a not very popular guy like Hopkins fighting Taylor. I think 1.5 million for Taylor was good. He should've been happy with it.

Hopkins better be smarter than he was with the Joppy thing. Hopkins is a bull**** artist and I don't buy everything he says publicly. Part of his bull**** master plan as he called it was to get the DLH fight. No, that just came about. He didn't sit there in 2001 after beating Tito saying "Damn now I can get Oscar." That's bull****.

If Hopkins was really following a master plan for big money, he wouldn't have turned down an initial offer of like 1.8 million to fight Joppy, which turned into like a few hundred thousand when it went to purse bids, meaning Hopkins turned down the fight and ended up fighting for a whole lot less to fight the same guy on the same exact date. That's just ******, not a master plan.

He'd better not try his "master plan" again. Sure, he made well on the DLH fight, but look at all the missed opportunities between the Tito win and then. He could've fought Vargas and Calzaghe instead of Hakkar and Daniels. He could've fought Roy Jones! But he wanted a 50 percent purse split, which was ridiculous. He had one big marquee win over his career, Trinidad. Jones had Hopkins and Toney. Jones, even now, was clearly the bigger name, the draw. Jones offered a 60-40 split, which I thought was ridiculous. I thought he should've offered maybe 65-35 maximum.

And yeah, Hopkins should fight Sturm. That'd be easy to market, although DLH wouldn't let it be marketed the way it should. They could market it as "the other middleweight that beat DLH (at middleweight)."

thats the last thing oscar will do, he does not want sturm anywhere near his hopkins, cause what if sturm wins lmao

[masterdirector]

Exactly.

Still seems odd to me that Hopkins beats DLH up, but Hopkins still becomes DLH's ho.

[borikua]

.

"DiBella said he has made an offer to WBC and WBO No. 1 contender Felix Sturm about a fight with Taylor, but was not optimistic Sturm would accept"

[AintGottaClue]

"DiBella said he has made an offer to WBC and WBO No. 1 contender Felix Sturm about a fight with Taylor, but was not optimistic Sturm would accept"

promoters say alot of thing how amny times have we seen a promoter say o he offered this guy a fight but he said no, and besides that sentence says that lou doesnt think sturm will accept how do we know sturm even got to answer yet? sturm/taylor has a great back story to it. sturm beat taylor in the amatuers then taylor revenaged it at the oly, they both had the pro debut on the same day, one beat up a guy named oscar when everyoen thought he was a nobody, the other is the hier appently who looks like the next hopkins. that **** would sell and if u have seen there oly fight u can tell the pro fight is gonna be the ****