Friday, Sept. 17, 2004 | 10:20 a.m.
As he's wont to do, Floyd Mayweather Sr. mistook a major prefight news conference earlier this week for a "Def Poetry Jam" audition.
Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya's trainer, used his time on stage to recite an obscenity-laced poem slamming Bernard Hopkins. It was trash talk in rhymed couplets.
On Thursday, Mayweather tempered even more criticism of Hopkins with an admission that he harbors a grudging respect for the longtime champion.
Likewise, Hopkins' trainer, 76-year-old Bouie Fisher, offered some compliments to De La Hoya while continuing to insist his fighter will prevail.
The two men meet in the ring Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena to clash for the undisputed middleweight championship of the world.
"When I read that poem, what you didn't know was that the one guy I didn't want to talk (disparagingly) about, the one guy I didn't want to say nothing about, was Bernard Hopkins," Mayweather said. "Since he came on to this promotion, he has greeted me warmly; he has treated me very well.
"But we're on opposite sides. And you know me, if you're not on my side, I'm going to seek and destroy."
Mayweather said Hopkins deserves credit for defending his middleweight title a record 18 times.
"It concerns me that he has improved himself over the years," Mayweather said, before cracking, "even if you don't know who any of those guys were."
Hopkins' most prominent opponents leading to Saturday's bout were Roy Jones Jr., who beat him in 1993, and Felix Trinidad, who was stopped by Hopkins in 2001.
"That's one win and one loss -- and Trinidad was a blown-up welterweight," Mayweather said.
In the next breath, he admitted that same description could also apply to De La Hoya.
But Fisher, who has been working with Hopkins for 14 years and considers him a member of his family, warned against underestimating De La Hoya in this fight.
Most boxing experts are picking Hopkins to win, figuring De La Hoya, for all his success in lighter weight divisions, lacks the requisite power at middleweight.
"A lot of people might be asleep to the fact that Oscar De La Hoya can fight, he can box," Fisher said. "Never play him cheap. It's not a matter of size or power. He's one of the great fighters of all time, so you know De La Hoya is going to bring it."
Fisher even liked what he saw from De La Hoya in his lone previous middleweight bout, a narrow decision against Felix Sturm on June 5.
"You might not have liked the Oscar you saw in that fight; he might not have been the Oscar you wanted him to be," Fisher said. "But the key rounds he needed to win, he won. That shows the heart of a fighter."
Fisher, who was born in South Carolina but has lived in Philadelphia since age 6, said Hopkins reminds him of many of the old-time tough, disciplined boxers that city has produced.
"I'm lucky enough to have been around Philadelphia to see a lot of the great fighters through the years," Fisher said. "Bernard is like a throwback to the old Philly fighters -- he's well-conditioned, well-taught, and at this point in his career he's stepping forward to where he wants to be."
Hopkins, known as a master of psychological warfare, has continually vowed to re-arrange the features of De La Hoya's face Saturday. Fisher hinted that such talk is mostly prefight hyperbole.
"Bernard is not a mean, vicious guy," Fisher said. "He's just in a mean, vicious sport."
In an interview Thursday, Joel De La Hoya, Oscar's father and adviser, would not directly address Hopkins' prediction that he'll pound Oscar so badly that Joel himself will be forced to ask the referee to halt the bout.
"Hopkins knows how to talk," Joel De La Hoya said. "After the fight, we'll see."
Joel De La Hoya said he expects his son to perform Saturday at the level he did when he fought Julio Cesar Chavez for the first time, bloodying the legendary champion on the way to a fourth-round stoppage in 1996.
"He was ready, just like he is for this fight," Joel De La Hoya said. "I don't know who's going to win. Hopkins is tough, but Oscar is focused. He is 100 percent ready."
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