View Full Version : oscar de la hoya vs bernard hopkins
Anonymous
11-09-2004, 16:56
wee iemand toe wanneer deze wedstrijd wordt gevochten...
Go oscar!
Hollandpride
11-09-2004, 17:13
Nicky weet het vast wel
Zaterdag 19 September
http://www.hboppv.com/events/delahoya_hopkins/img/poster300.jpg
zaterdag 18 september volgens mij
ow solly , nikcy had al gepost :thumbs:
Wordt echt een top partij en ik denk dat Bernard het gaat winnen!! :maskills:
Gulo gulo
12-09-2004, 22:03
Ik denk dat Hopkins deze zal winnen
btw, wat een geweldige poster weer he
Gulo gulo
12-09-2004, 22:05
De twee gladiatoren, idd erg mooie poster
Weet iemand of we deze partij hier ook ergens op tv kunnen zien. Voor zover ik weet zenden de BBC, ARD en ZDF dit gevecht helaas niet uit. :(
nee die zal niet uit gezonden worden. geen van deze vechters heeft een contract met die zenders.
HBO zend het wel uit als PPV.
Klitschko dat word wel uitgezonden die hebben nog een contract lopen bij ZDF.
Ok Nicky, bedankt voor de info. Ik baal er flink van, want ik zou t heel graag willen zien.
http://secondsout.emojo.com/USA/news.cfm?ccs=229&cs=14366
De La Hoya v Hopkins: Gold v Concrete
By Thomas Hauser
When Oscar De La Hoya versus Bernard Hopkins was announced earlier this year, there were a lot of naysayers who said the fight would never happen. Now the only potential stumbling block appears to be the possibility that Hopkins will pull out because of laryngitis.
Barring the unexpected, September 18th will see an updated version of Sugar Ray Leonard versus Marvin Hagler; a Golden Boy with Olympic pedigree going up in weight to challenge a dominant blue-collar champion.
De La Hoya (pic by Tom Hogan)
bristles at that categorization. "A lot of people think I had everything handed to me on a silver platter," he says. "People see the actual fight and say, 'Wow, he won all this money in one night.' Or they think it was easy and that they can do it. But it's not that easy. I started when I was four years old. People don't realize how many sacrifices I've had to make over the years. It was a long road to where I'm at now. It's not easy being an athlete, especially at this level; and on top of that, being a fighter."
Both men are fighting for immortality. And both men have such strong personalities that their ethnic differences have hardly been noticed.
The contract weight is 158 pounds; two pounds below the middleweight limit. But that shouldn't be a problem for Hopkins, who is rarely more than a few days away from making weight.
"Bernard Hopkins is very, very dangerous," De La Hoya acknowledges. "This guy is strong, an animal. I know I'm in deep water, but I'm willing to put my life on the line to make history. I was born to fight. Boxing runs through my veins. It just won't go away. It's not for money. I can make money against anyone. I love to fight and to rise to the occasion. What's bigger than beating Bernard Hopkins?"
This is Hopkins's second coming-out party. The first was three years ago when he devastated Felix Trinidad, knocking him out in the twelfth round. As Patrick Kehoe later wrote, "To fight the fight of your life in your most momentous outing defines a champion."
If there's a knock against Hopkins as a fighter, it's that he always seems to get in the ring against littler guys. But he has successfully defended various versions of the middleweight crown eighteen times. And in the process, he has stamped his persona on boxing.
"Hopkins," Tom Gerbasi observes, "is all about what's right for him. That has burned a lot of people; from promoters to managers, from the media to his own trainer. It wasn't personal. They served their purpose and were let go. He travels light. You're either with him or against him. There is no room for dissent or questions. That's business; and business is not about friendship, loyalty, or doing the right thing by those who have done right by you."
Hopkins stands for the proposition, "Life is tough, but I'm tougher." He's self-absorbed with emotional wounds that scar over but never really heal. He's an angry man, and his anger fuels him. He acknowledges as much when he declares, "Motivation can come in all shapes and forms with me. If I go outside and all my tires are slashed, that's motivation. When things run smoothly, somebody has to break a glass. Some people need bumps in the road to make things happen. It don't always have to be downright dirty ignorant stuff. It just has to be some type of motivation. I need that. Maybe, in some cases, I've interacted and made it to the point where I brought it upon myself."
"I don't think a lot of people will get ulcers or cry all day if Bernard Hopkins don't come up with a win," Hopkins continues. "I was born with something that everybody ain't born with; my heart. Not just a heart that's beating, but a heart to stand up and balls to stand up and courage to stand up. It's easy for me to stand up because that's me. They call me an ingrate. Why is that? Is it because I refuse to be fucked, or is it because I prefer to be the one fucking?"
One denizen of the boxing world who has crossed swords with Hopkins is promoter Dan Goossen. When reminded of the Will Rogers saying -- "I never met a man I didn't like" -- Goossen responded, "Obviously, Will Rogers never met Bernard Hopkins."
Still, as Hopkins observes, "People can say what they want about my character. One thing everyone agrees is, in the ring, I'm not a liar. When it gets hot, I'm not jumping out of the kitchen."
That's true. As his trainer, Bouie Fisher, notes, "Bernard is a throwback fighter when it comes to dedication in and out of the ring. Boxing never leaves his thoughts. He lives, eats, and dreams boxing. He puts in the work that's necessary to be great."
To date, Hopkins has been respectful of De La Hoya. "Oscar is known as the darling boy of boxing," he acknowledges. "But you can't hate him for that. Oscar brings a lot to boxing and Oscar is a great competitor. You can say a lot of things about him, but the man comes to fight and he's never ducked anyone. He's the money-man, the big draw. 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; that was strictly Oscar's call. This fight is happening because Oscar wanted it to happen, and that tells me a lot about the man."
But then Hopkins adds, "Twenty successful middleweight title defenses is my goal. I think it would be a long time before anyone beat that record. To me, Oscar is number nineteen; that's all."
On September 18th, De La Hoya will be going into the ring as an underdog for the first time in his professional career. Most pundits think Hopkins will win. Many of them don't even think it will be a competitive fight.
"I have a lot of respect for Hopkins," says De La Hoya. "He's a great champion, but I believe that my speed will be the difference. I'm not Trinidad. Trinidad is a one-dimensional fighter, easy to figure out. I'm not that easy, and I guarantee that Hopkins won't figure me out. People expect that I'll stick and move and run a lot, like Leonard did with Hagler. But I'm going to have to take it to Hopkins, at least a little bit. I have to get that respect. If I don't, he'll run right over me. But once I have his respect, I'll make it my fight. I don't have to have a big punch. I am not counting on a knockout. My focus is on going the distance and winning. Don't underestimate the little guy."
Then there's the matter of Hopkins's age. On fight night, he'll be four months shy of forty.
"Do I get more aches and pains then I did five or six year's ago?" Bernard asks rhetorically. "Absolutely. Do I get more rubdowns, more chiropractors? Absolutely. We all deteriorate. I hate to say it like that; but the longer we live, the more we're going to hurt."
But then, in the next breath, Hopkins declares, "My body has been put together different by God than any other body that's living. Once you start thinking old, you become old. I haven't started thinking old yet."
De La Hoya might think that, against Hopkins, he can revert to the fighting style of his youth. But he won't be able to. Bernard won't let him. And more significantly, Oscar no longer has the physical tools to fight the way he once did. He's not young anymore.
De La Hoya's record is 6 and 3 in his last nine fights. One can argue that the decisions he lost to Felix Trinidad and Shane Mosley (in their second encounter) were questionable, but so was his victory over Felix Sturm. And other than Sturm, the only fighters Oscar has beaten over the past five years are a blown-up Derrell Coley, a blown-up Arturo Gatti, a one-dimensional Javier Castellejo, a drug-ridden Fernando Vargas, and a shot Yuri Boy Campos.
Hopkins hit the nail on the head when he assessed De La Hoya's performance against Sturm. "He wasn't moving to his left or his right quickly," Bernard noted. "And Sturm was just eating him up with those jabs. I thought Oscar was using some kind of macho thing, which is unprofessional because you don't want to show that you can hang in with the middleweights by taking punches. Then, as the rounds went on, I said, 'Wait a minute. He can't get past this guy's jab.'"
Moreover, Hopkins might be stretching reality when he proclaims, "I'm perfect when it comes to boxing." But his fists are nasty weapons, and he has both the skills and attitude to use them to maximum effect.
"I'm not shy when it comes to inflicting pain on people," says Hopkins. "Nothing is fair, what fighters do. You hit behind the head? It's not legal, but it happens. There's no such thing as a dirty fighter to me. It's just an opportunity. You're dirty only when you get caught. In the ring, there's a chance you can die or become a vegetable. And the reality is, I would rather it be him than me."
"De La Hoya won't see twelve rounds," Hopkins continues. "Somewhere along the line, his corner will have to make a decision. He'll still have his movie career if they stop the fight in time. They'll be smart enough to know that we'd better stop it right now while we still got an eye left or a lip left. It's up to them; it's their call. I don't think they're going to let De La Hoya get punished like Joppy did [in his fight against Hopkins last year]. I think that his corner has enough sense to do what Joppy's corner didn't do; throw the towel in."
In sum, De La Hoya versus Hopkins has the markings of a man beating up a boy. On paper, Oscar doesn't have the tools to win. But this is boxing. And regardless of what has happened in the past, fighters who face one another in the ring start from scratch each time out and must perform every time.
If, as expected, Hopkins wins, neither man's legacy will change. But if De La Hoya finds a way to prevail, historical perspectives will be revised. Is an upset possible? As Hopkins himself noted last month, "It only takes one shot to shatter your dreams."
http://www.maxboxing.com/Kim/Kim091304.asp
Training for an Execution
15 Rounds with Steve Kim
(September 13, 2004)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Oscar De La Hoya steps into the ring at the MGM Grand next Saturday night against the undisputed middleweight champion of the world, Bernard Hopkins, it will mark the first time in his illustrious career that 'The Golden Boy' will go into a fight as an underdog.
Most pundits believe that De La Hoya, who has won world titles in multiple weight classes (starting from junior lightweight - if you count his WBO title that he won against Jimmy Bredahl) has simply bitten off more than he can chew by facing a fighter many consider one of the all-time great middleweights.
But three world class trainers - Teddy Atlas, Joe Goossen and Tommy Brooks - give De La Hoya more than just a sliver of hope of upsetting 'The Executioner'
Many had written off De La Hoya's chances after he struggled to beat the relatively unknown Felix Sturm in June, but Atlas, who believes that the psychological makeup of a fighter is just as important as their physical conditioning, thinks that the scare against the German could actually benefit him.
"I think he gets a benefit in two ways," Atlas explains. "One, it's a wake-up for him. I don't think he was ready for that fight; a lot of people are going to say, 'Well, he should've been.' Well, he should've been, could've been, would've been - it don't matter. He wasn't and he will be this fight. He wasn't mentally up for that fight; physically he didn't look to be ready for that fight, completely."
Which was bore out by the fact that De La Hoya, as is customary with most fighters, refused to take off his shirt at the weigh-in , which hid a soft, flabby body.
"He understands that there's no room for that now," says Atlas. "He has to be ready for this fight. And the other thing is that it helps him on the other side of the coin too because people are human."
Atlas thinks that based on how De La Hoya performed in his last bout, that perhaps Hopkins could suffer a letdown of his own.
"Hopkins and the people around him, even as slight as it is, might start to assume that they have a lesser mission in front of them because of that performance against Sturm then they might have been if he had a good performance against Sturm in that fight."
But that doesn't seem likely with the paranoid Hopkins. Mental letdowns don't seem to be in his vocabulary. But what De La Hoya can control is his own preparation. Going as far back as the opening days of this promotion, De La Hoya seemed to be in better shape for the photo shoots for the fight poster than he was for the Sturm fight a week or two before.
Human nature seemed to have gotten the better of De La Hoya for his previous fight. Hey, it happens in all sports. In football, coaches always warn of looking ahead to rivalry games when there is a lesser-known opponent to play that week. De La Hoya was clearly in that position and he nearly got upended by a two touchdown underdog.
But regardless, there's no way Oscar trains for Hopkins the way he did Sturm.
" No way," states Goossen. "Obviously, if he didn't look the way he did and he's the first one to admit he didn't do it correctly and he cut himself short and just by him saying, 'I promise I won't come in looking like that,' meant that he came in looking like 'that' because he's promising to train this time."
Brooks agrees with Goossen.
"He knows all the marbles are at stake now. Not only all the marbles, but everything that he has is based upon his boxing career."
In other words, never underestimate the pride of a fighter who is fighting for his legacy. But no matter how much passion and hunger De La Hoya says he has (and we've all heard that song before, haven't we?) it may not matter since it could be that maybe he just isn't a real, legitimate middleweight. But for this fight, the catch-weight is 157 pounds and Oscar has stated he will weigh-in lighter than that. So how much of a factor is that?
"It's going to make him come down three pounds; did it look like he needed to get rid of more than three pounds when he was at 160?" asked Goossen rhetorically. "Yeah, it looked like he needed to get rid of 33 pounds. But again, it has nothing to do with weight, it has to do with what you put into it to get your body at 157 or what you did to get your body to look either good or bad at 160.
"That looked to me like he just starved himself down to 160 and made the weight. He can make 160 for this fight and look tremendous."
Again, this goes back to the mental psyche of De La Hoya, but being in better condition does accentuate the one clear advantage he has - speed and quickness. All three trainers agree that the best chance he has to upset Hopkins is to box smartly and employ lateral movement.
"I need to see the old De La Hoya," says Brooks, "the De La Hoya right after the Olympics, the guy that's up on his toes, sticking and moving, not standing still. He stands still, he's going to get knocked the hell out. He fights any kind of way like he fought Felix Sturm, it doesn't go four rounds."
Atlas, like Brooks, believes that Oscar's best chance of winning comes from, "Being left on the outside, boxing. And he's got a good chance to do that. I think people forget two things: one, that Bernard Hopkins' greatest assets are that he's a versatile fighter and he's a slickster. He's a counterpuncher, a good boxer, he's a smart fighter. And that bodes well for De La Hoya, because Hopkins is not a seek-and-destroy guy.
"He stays on the outside, looks to box, looks to counter and that's good for De La Hoya," adds Atlas. "De La Hoya's a guy who used to be a junior lightweight, lightweight; that fits into him. He can use his speed, he can box with anybody. If he's allowed that kind of landscape on the outside, I think he's got a very good chance to win this fight."
Hopkins is as sound and as complete a prizefighter as you'll see, but if he does have one discernible weakness, it's that he does seem to have slow feet, and at 39, he's not moving quite as well as he used to.
"I think that's the obvious thing," agreed Goossen."Hopkins is a real methodical pressure fighter; he's not a hustling pressure fighter unless he's just got you dead to rights and he's jumping all over you. But he's a very systematic fighter and he's not a rushing pressure fighter. He waits for you to make mistakes so he can come out of a dip, slip and crack you good or counter you.
"Hopkins is not fleet of foot; De La Hoya used to be. Now is he anymore?" asked Goossen. "And if he is, that's pretty much what he better get going first - the legs. Because the minute you get pinned on the ropes or cornered or step and sit in the middle, that would obviously go to Hopkins' favor."
But Brooks, who trained Carl Daniels against Hopkins a few years back, doesn't see a lot of chinks in his armor.
"Not a whole lot," said Brooks, whose fighter got stopped by Hopkins in ten rounds back in February of 2002. "Bernard's a phenomenal athlete. He's strong-minded, strong-willed and as anyone can tell you, if you've got a strong mind, strong will and you're in condition, you can do anything you want to in the fight game."
So can De La Hoya do it? Goossen thinks that he'll have to turn back the clock.
"His best chances are to do what he's done when he's won his biggest and best fights," he says. "And that wouldn't be what he did in his last fight. Aside from the physical issues, if you're talking about styles, the style would be the one he's been most successful with and that would be obviously to box," said Goossen, who points to his past fights against Ike Quartey and Felix Trinidad. "I can't see any other style that will work; he certainly couldn't use a pressure style. He can't use a pressure tactic like Hopkins is going to use.
"De La Hoya's going to have to get into the shape where they used to say about Ali, 'How can he dance for 12 rounds?' Well, he's going to have to be able to dance for 12 rounds."
Atlas agrees with much of this and adds that the size differential between Hopkins and De La Hoya is a bit overstated.
"Another thing people are forgetting is that while people say, 'Well, now De La Hoya's moved up too much,' hey, this guy's a small middleweight," he points out. "This guy isn't the size of a Hagler or one of those kinds of middleweights. With all those things, I give De La Hoya a real shot."
Gaaf artikel met links naar filmpjes van o.a. Hopkins-Trinidad en DLH-Vargas en DLH-Quartey (2 knockdowns).
http://www.hardcoreboxing.net/mark_snow_9132004.htm
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.2 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.