http://maxboxing.com/Fischer/Fischer052307.asp
It can be argued that Wright, who holds a 51-3-1 record, dominated Trinidad more complete than Hopkins did and the Florida-based southpaw fought Taylor on more even terms than the aging middleweight champ did.
Maybe that’s why Hopkins, 47-4-1, sought a fight with Wright? Perhaps his fiery fighter’s ego was bruised by Wright’s shinning performances vs. his former foes.
Or perhaps, as some boxing writers have suggested, a showdown with Wright was merely convenient.
Perhaps the making of Hopkins vs. Wright was just a simple matter of business on the side of Golden Boy Promotions, which has a “strategic alliance” with Wright’s promotional entity Winky Promotions, and HBO, which has exclusive contracts with both fighters.
Truth be told, the first 30 to 40 minutes of the last stop on the Hopkins-Wright press tour, which took place at the swanky Cinegril inside the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel yesterday afternoon, sounded more like a business seminar than a media conference for an upcoming prize fight.
The title to Hopkins-Wright is “Coming to Fight”, but for at least half an hour nobody mentioned the fight. All anyone at the podium talked about were the record numbers posted and revenue taken in by the Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather event earlier this month and the projected stats of the July 21st bout.
Schaefer let the assembled press know that over 5,000 tickets for Hopkins-Wright, which are priced from $100 to $850, have already been sold at the Mandalay Bay before quickly commenting on the “great partnership Golden Boy has with the MGM-Mirage group”. The former banker-turned-promoter introduced the guy who sells closed circuit venues for pay-per-view events, who let everyone know that a record 2,000 locations were sold for De La Hoya-Mayweather.
Schaefer talked about the many corporate sponsors of May 5th, July 21st, and all of Golden Boy’s big fights – Rockstar energy drink, Southwest airlines, Tecate beer, and a large Hispanic phone card company. In-between the usual corporate back-slapping between promotional company, network and venue representatives, Schaefer went on and on about – the fight? – no, business.
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