The Verbal Jabs Become Real Ones

NEW YORK — To hear Felix Trinidad tell it, the hard part is over. Trinidad, who will fight Bernard Hopkins tonight for the undisputed middleweight crown, was asked this week who is better--William Joppy, the boxer he knocked out in May, or Hopkins?

“Joppy,” he said quickly, speaking through a translator. “He’s a more complete boxer than Hopkins.”

Hopkins was neither surprised nor rattled by the response.

“It reminds me of a guy in the street telling a girl that she’s not all that good looking, but he knows she’s very good looking,” he said.

“I have very high self-esteem, and it’s very hard to beat me down by telling me I’m not this and I’m not that.... It’s a ridiculous statement.”

Hopkins will have a chance to prove that tonight at Madison Square Garden, when he and Trinidad square off to become the first undisputed middleweight champion since Marvin Hagler in 1986.

The unbeaten Trinidad, who at 28 is eight years younger than his opponent, kept his cool during a news conference this week despite taunts from Hopkins, who has twice trampled the flag of Trinidad’s Puerto Rico.

“I don’t feel any anger,” Trinidad said. “I’m going to do my job. “He’s a good fighter, but he’s been lucky up to now.”

Not only did Hopkins try to stir Trinidad to anger this week, he tried to rile the entourage that accompanied him to the news conference.

“See, you know [promoter] Don King did that, having these guys here,” he said. “Gave them all free passes to get in here. You see the behavior of uneducated people? You see what I am saying? ... Let me tell you, I hope everyone is going to come out and enjoy the fight. See you at the fight.”

The last undisputed middleweight title fight in the Garden was Oct. 19, 1984, when Hagler knocked out Mustafa Hamsho. Hagler’s last undisputed title defense was an 11th-round knockout of John Mugabi on March 10, 1986, in Las Vegas.

Hopkins is a brawler who feels he has not gotten sufficient respect since winning the International Boxing Federation championship in 1994. Trinidad has 33 knockouts in 40 fights but has been knocked down seven times within the first four rounds of fights.

“People try to hit him on the chin. He’s got a body and arms. Everybody wants to hit him in one place,” said Hopkins, who defended the IBF title and won the World Boxing Council championship by outpointing Keith Holmes on April 14.

Meanwhile, Trinidad was typically succinct in his appraisal of Hopkins: “I will knock him out.”

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Fight Facts

Who: Felix Trinidad vs. Bernard Hopkins

What: Fight for undisputed middleweight championship

When: Tonight, 6, pay-per-view.

Where: Madison Square Garden, New York.

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Tale of the tape

TRINIDAD and HOPKINS

5-11 Height 6-1

72 Reach 76

153/4 Neck 15

391/2 Chest 40

42 Expanded 42

31 Waist 31

131/4 Biceps 14

111/2 Forearm 12

61/2 Wrist 63/4

12 Fist 12

211/2 Thigh 19

143/4 Calf 133/4

9 Ankle 91/4