Thursday, March 18, 2004 | 9:10 a.m.
There's no mistaking Robert Allen's point of view as he prepares for a June 5 fight with Bernard Hopkins at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. He's both belligerent and obsessed with upsetting the undisputed middleweight champion, who he will be fighting for a third time.
"I watch tapes of our two fights every day of my life," Allen said. "This man is now a part of my life.
"I understand Bernard as a fighter and as a person. I can picture everything he's going to do in every situation."
Allen has enough firsthand experience with Hopkins to feel comfortable in saying he will beat him when they fight as part of a doubleheader that includes Oscar De La Hoya vs. Felix Sturm. Should Allen pull off that upset, it would deny Hopkins a fight with De La Hoya that is tentative for Sept. 18 at the same site.
"They're looking so far beyond me ... like I'm a nobody ... that I'm offended by it," Allen said of Hopkins, De La Hoya and promoter Bob Arum making plans for the September fight. "There's no respect for me even though I'm one of the best fighters in the world.
"After I beat Bernard, I'm going to get that respect."
Allen, 34, is 36-4 with 27 knockouts.
Hopkins, 39, is 43-2-1 with 31 KOs.
Each man also has a no-contest on his ring record as the result of their first fight, held Aug. 28, 1998, in Las Vegas. That fight came to a premature end when referee Mills Lane attempted to separate the fighters in the fourth round and Hopkins slipped under the bottom strand of the ring ropes, injuring his ankle.
The scores through three rounds were split, with two judges having Allen ahead at the time of the stoppage.
The rematch, Feb. 6, 1999, in Washington D.C., was less competitive and Hopkins stopped Allen in the seventh round.
"He took a dive in that first fight," Allen said. "But in the second one he humiliated me on national television. I talked some s-- before that fight, but I wasn't really ready.
"It puts me in a position where I'm willing to fight Bernard for nothing, just to prove something to myself and my career."
Allen will get that chance in a fight that has already sold 10,000 tickets and is likely to sell out the 14,000-seat arena.
"Bernard's a wussy," Allen said. "He's arrogant, which used to bother me. But now I know I'm like a bad cancer for him; he thought I was gone but I keep returning.
"People talk about his ring generalship and like he's always the boss in the ring, but there's nothing to that. The boy's an average athlete who has a lot of kinks in his armor who happens to have fooled the public.
"The only thing he's consistent at is being dirty."
Allen has won his past 13 fights, allowing him to return to the mandatory challenger's position at 160 pounds in the International Boxing Federation rankings. While his competition during that streak wasn't particularly noteworthy, it did include a technical win against legitimate threat Tito Mendoza two years ago.
In his most recent outing, Allen stopped Steve Walker in the first round of a Nov. 8 fight in Las Vegas.
"I've gotten better, but Bernard ain't getting any better," Allen said. "I've been diligently training for five years to get another crack at this dude, and I'm feeling monstrous.
"The one thing I want to make sure of is that Bernard knows I'm coming to win. I don't want him saying after the fight that he took me lightly, so I'm coming out and telling him that I'm going to beat him."
Allen, a former U.S. amateur champion and Marine, will be giving up 4 inches in height to Hopkins although he will have a 1-inch reach advantage. More important, he knows he will be facing a man who has won a record 17 consecutive middleweight title defenses.
"It ain't going to be a pretty fight," Allen predicts. "It's going to be nasty and gritty.
"This dude ain't trying to get rid of those championships he owns. I know I'm going to have to all but kill him for them."
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