Hopkins: Felix has fear in eyes

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Sept. 6, 2001 | 11:14 a.m.

Bernard Hopkins caused a ruckus at a pair of summer press conferences when he twice threw down a Puerto Rican flag in the presence of his Sept. 15 opponent, Felix Trinidad.

But it wasn't Trinidad's reaction -- or lack of reaction -- to the flag desecrations that has stayed in Hopkins' mind. It was Trinidad's reaction to the simple act of posing the fighters who will headline a pay-per-view card from New York's Madison Square Garden.

"I saw the fear in Trinidad's eyes," Hopkins said Wednesday from the Prince Ranch training complex near Mt. Charleston, where he has been working out for six weeks. "He's dealing with a bigger man now and he realized in New York City that he had to look up for the first time in his career.

"I'm too much man for Felix Trinidad."

Coming across as fearless if not overconfident, Hopkins said he will win the fight in New York and derail a Trinidad express that has chewed up and disposed of such noteworthy challengers as Maurice Blocker, Hector Camacho, Pernell Whitaker, Oscar De La Hoya, David Reid, Fernando Vargas and William Joppy.

Trinidad may be 40-0 with 33 knockouts and the betting favorite in Las Vegas sports books, yet Hopkins is convinced he will win the fight and become the first undisputed middleweight champion since Marvin Hagler in 1987.

"I don't think the fight will be that hard," Hopkins said. "It's going to be so easy, people will be shocked."

Hopkins, 35, is 39-2-1 with 28 KOs and has held the IBF middleweight title since 1994. He added the WBC portion of the 160-pound title when he knocked off Keith Holmes last April, setting up a unification fight with the WBA champion, Trinidad.

"I'm mentally and physically prepared for war," Hopkins said. "I've been waiting for a long time for this opportunity, and, in boxing, when opportunities come you have to capitalize on them."

He said Trinidad is not the great, technically sound fighter that he has been portrayed to be.

"Everybody will see his weaknesses," Hopkins said, alluding to the fact he plans to go strong to the body. "Forget the head. Trinidad's biggest asset is his heart, it's not his overall abilities.

"He won't quit. The referee or Papa Trinidad is going to have to save him."

As for the flag incidents, which took place in New York and in Puerto Rico on an early July promotional tour, Hopkins is ambivalent as to whether Trinidad will be aroused, distracted or intimidated once they get in the ring.

"I don't have time to worry about Trinidad," he said. "I don't know if (the flag incidents) are getting in his head or under his skin."

But Hopkins did admit he tossed the flags down as something of a publicity stunt.

"Some people will tune in (Sept. 15) who never had an interest in boxing, and that's good," he said, exploiting the upside of being a participant in a pay-per-view bout.

Hopkins, who lost the first pro fight of his career and then dropped a decision to Roy Jones in 1993, is self-managed and promoted. He calls his business operation a "one-man army" and implies that those who have treated him unfairly in the past will be made to pay once he wins this big fight.

"I've always been one win from being a superstar and one win from retirement," he said. "I can't get angry because everyone is not pro-Bernard ... but I've earned my way here whether you like me or not."

His best wins have come over Simon Brown, Robert Allen, Antwun Echols and Holmes.

Now he's predicting a period of national mourning in Trinidad's native Puerto Rico.

"By Sept. 16, the flags there will be at half-mast," he said.