‘The new Golden Boy’

Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2004 | 10:46 a.m.

Bernard Hopkins predicted Monday that Oscar De La Hoya's father, Joel, will be forced to ask the referee to halt Saturday's middleweight title fight out of concern for his son's bodily safety.

It could be a virtual replay, Hopkins said, of his 2001 stoppage of Felix Trinidad in New York, when Trinidad's father and cornerman, Don Felix, told the ref to call an end to the fight after a 12th-round knockdown.

"You'll see it Saturday," Hopkins said as he arrived at the MGM Grand to kick off fight week. "De La Hoya's father -- not (trainer) Floyd (Mayweather Sr.) -- will holler and scream and demand this fight be stopped.

"It happened with Trinidad, and I'm predicting it again now. Remember that."

Referring to a boxing-oriented TV reality show that De La Hoya is involved with, Hopkins added: "He's got a sitcom he has to run on Fox, but De La Hoya's career will end physically on Saturday."

After training for the past several weeks at Mount Charleston and Red Rock Canyon, Hopkins and members of his camp rolled up to the MGM in two gold limousines and checked into a deluxe suite at the resort.

De La Hoya, who is still training in Big Bear, Calif., will not make himself available to reporters until Wednesday's prefight news conference at the MGM.

Hopkins (44-2-1, 31 KOs) is a minus 220 favorite against De La Hoya (37-3, 29 KOs), the challenger in Saturday's showdown for the undisputed world middleweight championship at the Grand Garden Arena.

The scheduled 12-rounder is available for $54.95 on HBO Pay-Per-View.

During his appearance Monday in a temporary boxing ring in the hotel's lobby, Hopkins took several personal shots at De La Hoya, and even made a move to usurp his opponent's signature nickname.

"You're looking at the new Golden Boy," Hopkins said. "It's tunnel vision for me from here on. It shows in my face. It shows in my demeanor. Oscar is not a guy right now that I want to embrace as a friend.

"I'm the hungriest fighter that he ever fought in his life. I will become the Golden Boy on Sept. 18."

While doing road work in the canyons and mountains outside Las Vegas in preparation for the fight, Hopkins, a 39-year-old Philadelphia native, said he drew strength from memories of his rough-and-tumble youth.

After a robbery conviction at age 17, Hopkins spent nearly five years incarcerated at Graterford Prison in Pennsylvania.

"No disrespect to Oscar, but he didn't come from where I came from," Hopkins said. "In this sport, you need that. That's the difference. This is a mental game for me right now in my career."

Hopkins, unbeaten (22-0-1, 1 no contest) since he was outpointed by Roy Jones Jr. on May 22, 1993, said his career exemplifies what a man can do given focus, dedication and a second chance.

"I am the American dream," Hopkins thundered with such intensity that a nearby stone lion statue seemed perturbed. "We talk about how great things are here (in America). Who's the perfect example? I am. You're looking at it. Isn't the American dream based on opportunity? I was given that, when I was released 16 years ago, at 22 years old with a GED, with (multiple) felonies against me.

"Never believe a person who says you can't do what you set out to do. Never give up."

Several years after his release, Hopkins returned to Graterford to train. ("No shortage of tough guys for sparring," he said at the time.)

"I remember in 1991, '92, at Graterford, I talked about this day," Hopkins said. "Of course De La Hoya's name wasn't mentioned. But I talked about one day being the champion; I talked about being in this position. And that was over 10 years ago."

Saturday's bout with 31-year-old De La Hoya will be, by far, the biggest and most lucrative of Hopkins' life.

But for Hopkins -- who throughout his career has famously battled promoters and the boxing establishment, sometimes in courtrooms -- the fight also validates his vision of himself as a trailblazer in the sport, a renegade.

He wants to be remembered not just as a good counterpuncher, but also as a countercultural figure within boxing.

"What makes my biography, what makes my movie, is that Bernard Hopkins did something that other fighters did not do," Hopkins said. "He did what Satchel Paige did; he did what Bill Russell did; he did what Jim Brown did; he did what Muhammad Ali did: He went up against the system that controlled the job that he does and still became who he strived to be in spite of it.

"That takes me above being an athlete and puts me in a whole different light. My name will be mentioned, I hope, as one of the greatest middleweights, but there will be another segment there, too -- that he done it his way. That's the history and the legacy I will leave."

* -- Exact weights to be announced at official weigh-in.