One Night, Many Fights

As a publicity stunt for tonight’s fight card at Boardwalk Hall, Bernard Hopkins emulated Rocky Balboa this week by racing up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum.

It was the perfect promotional plug for an event that is trying to duplicate Rocky I, II, III, IV and V all in one evening.

There will be five world championship fights tonight on the televised portion of the show alone.

They are:

* Hopkins (42-2-1, 31 knockouts), the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation middleweight champion, will face World Boxing Assn. titleholder William Joppy (34-2-1, 25) in the main event for the undisputed championship.

Felix Trinidad is the common denominator for these two. Hopkins handed Trinidad his first defeat two years ago but failed to come to terms with his most logical opponent, Roy Jones, and allowed the impact of his big victory to dissipate.

Joppy lost to Trinidad before Trinidad faced Hopkins, which makes Joppy a decided underdog tonight.

* Ricardo Mayorga (25-3-1, 22), the WBC welterweight champion, who goes against Cory Spinks (31-2, 11), the IBF titleholder.

Mayorga has already signed to fight his biggest opponent to date, Shane Mosley, on March 13. But to do so, Mayorga must win tonight against Spinks, who sees this fight as his opportunity to finally escape from the long shadows of both his father, Leon, a former heavyweight champion, and his uncle, Michael, a former heavyweight and light-heavyweight champ.

* John Ruiz (38-5-1, 27), who will face Hasim Rahman (35-4-1, 29) for the WBA interim heavyweight title, a temporary crown to keep the sanctioning fees flowing and set up a mandatory opponent for Jones.

* Zab Judah (29-1, 21) will defend his World Boxing Organization junior-welterweight title against Jaime Rangel (29-4, 25). Judah is trying to regain his reputation as a major player in his division. Beating Rangel won’t do it.

* Alejandro Garcia (22-0, 21), who will defend his WBA super-welterweight title against Travis Simms (22-0, 17). With a combined record of 44-0, these two might put on the best show of the night.