Holt gears up for unexpected fight with Hopkins

Rafael

By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
(Archive)

Updated: December 12, 2008

Tom Casino/Showtime

Switching gears: Kendall Holt, above, will face slick Demetrius Hopkins instead of hard-charging Ricardo Torres on Saturday.

Holt ready for replacement Hopkins

Junior welterweight titleholder Kendall Holt thought he'd be facing rival and former titlist Ricardo Torres for the third time. Instead, he'll make his first defense against another fighter, Demetrius Hopkins, with whom he is also familiar.

Holt and Torres had split a pair of exciting fights, both of which were tinged with controversy. In their July rematch, Holt went down twice in the first round before rallying to knock Torres cold following a brutal accidental head butt. That all happened in 61 seconds, in what is likely the round of the year.

But earlier this week, Torres, ill with a virus and unable to make weight because he had taken so much fluid, withdrew from the bout.

Valuev, Ruiz

Tom Casino/Showtime

Demetrius Hopkins, right, had little time to prepare for his crack at a title.

In stepped contender Hopkins, who was already scheduled to fight Germaine Sanders on the undercard.

Now, Holt (24-2, 13 KOs) will defend against Hopkins (28-0, 11 KOs) on Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J., on a special edition of "ShoBox: The New Generation (Showtime, 11 ET/PT).

In the televised opener, New York-based junior middleweights Yuri Foreman (26-0, 8 KOs) and James Moore will meet in a 10-rounder.

It won't be the first time Holt and Hopkins will be facing each other. Hopkins, the nephew of Bernard Hopkins, defeated Holt in the 1999 national Golden Gloves quarterfinals on the way to winning the tournament. They've also sparred numerous rounds back in the days when they were both promoted by Duva Boxing in the early part of the decade.

Their previous experience with each other won't play much of a role in their fight, however, they both said.

"The only thing I remember is it was the quarterfinals and he beat me, bottom line," said Holt, of Paterson, N.J. "I remember it being a close fight. He was the better man that night. Come Saturday night, it will be a whole different story. We [are] both men now."

Said Philadelphia's Hopkins: "We was amateurs then. We got 8-ounce gloves now, we men now."

Holt had been preparing for Torres, a straight ahead brawler, instead of the slicker Hopkins. The change in opponents, however, won't be an issue, Holt said.

"Demetrius is a good fighter, rangy, gets good leverage on his punches, but I am prepared," Holt said. "He wasn't preparing for me and I wasn't preparing for him, so I look forward to seeing how this plays out."

Hopkins echoed the sentiment.

"I took the fight on a week's notice," Hopkins said. "It's a challenge and I love challenges. That's what makes champions and what makes good fighters. This type of stuff happens in boxing."

Besides the opponent change, Holt is also dealing with another big issue. His manager, Henry Cortes, was arrested last week on charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and is jailed with bail set at $500,000.

"I am holding up really well," Holt said. "That's all mental. When you get inside the ring and you have a person throwing punches at you, those events kind of fade from your memory. That's mental to deal with."

Hopkins, of course, was thrilled to get the title shot out of the blue. He plans to make the most of it.

"It's a good opportunity," said Hopkins, who hasn't fought since last November because of a falling out with Golden Boy Promotions before signing with Top Rank; his next fight was canceled when he couldn't make weight. "I've been waiting 10 years for this and I know I will be champion. I feel good, I feel strong, I feel well conditioned. I'm excited. I'm ready for this. I want to show Kendall something that he ain't seen in the 140-pound division. He's got fast hands and power. I got that too. He met his match.

"This is a shot of a lifetime. I'm on a new journey now, a new chapter. It's a good opportunity to fight for a world title."

There's a lot on the line for the winner. Titleholder Timothy Bradley Jr. (23-0, 11 KOs) will be ringside with a contract to fight the winner on Showtime in April.

"I have a lot of respect for Holt and Hopkins, which is why I'm getting an up-close-and-personal look at both men from a ringside seat," Bradley said. "I think an even better fight would be for the winner of our fight to defend the title against Manny Pacquiao."

Funny Bradley should mention Pacquiao because Top Rank's Bob Arum, who promotes Holt, Hopkins and Pacquiao, said the winner of Bradley and Saturday's winner could very well land a shot at boxing's money man, who plans to go down to junior welterweight after brutalizing Oscar De La Hoya at welterweight last Saturday.

"Right now, I think the 140-pound division is the hottest in boxing," Arum said. "The reason to say that is because with the great victory of Manny Pacquiao over De La Hoya, Pacquiao made it clear he will campaign in the 140-pound division. It brings attention to the division and a lot of money for the guys competing in the division. … The winner of this fight will fight Bradley and, hopefully, the winner of that fight I will be able to put in with Manny Pacquiao. So there is great, great action in the 140-pound division."

Caballero might move up

Unified junior featherweight titleholder Celestino Caballero (31-2, 22 KOs), fresh from a dominant fourth-round TKO of Steve Molitor to unify belts Nov. 21, says he is ready to fight any of the top 122-pounders.

"Israel Vazquez, Juan Manuel Lopez and Rafael Marquez are the ones I want to fight," he said. "I don't care what order they come in, but I won't stop calling for them until they step up and prove themselves to be the warriors they say they are."

The problem, however, is that none of them seem interested in facing Panama's 5-foot-11 "Towering Inferno."

Celestino Caballero

Chris Cozzone/FightWireImages

"OK, who's next?" Celestino Caballero wants to unify the belts at 122 pounds.

"In an era where world class fighters run away from unification bouts, Celestino is running to unify, and he should be commended for such a stance," said Leon Margules of Caballero co-promoter Seminole Warriors Boxing. "Then again, I'm not surprised that the other beltholders don't want to fight the biggest, strongest, and best 122-pounder in the world -- Celestino Caballero. I welcome the representatives of Vazquez, Lopez, and Marquez, to help us unify the title, and give the fans the fights they want to see."

Since those bouts appear unlikely in the near future, Margules told ESPN.com that Caballero might take his next fight at featherweight against Yuriorkis Gamboa, the electrifying 2004 Cuban Olympic gold medalist who has moved quickly up the ranks as a professional.

Margules said he has a deal for Caballero to fight Gamboa pending a television network buying the fight. Margules said Showtime, which televised Caballero's victory against Molitor, is interested in Caballero against Lopez or Marquez (Vazquez is on the shelf for several months with an eye injury), but is also considering Gamboa, who has appeared on HBO in two of his last three bouts, for a possible March or May fight.

Margules said Gamboa would have to win his ESPN2 fight against Roger Gonzalez on Jan. 9 in the "Friday Night Fights" season premier.

Foreign flavor on FSN

Fox Sports Net, which has had sporadic boxing coverage since the demise of the live "Sunday Night Fights" a few years ago, will begin airing notable overseas title bouts on a tape-delay basis about once per month as part of "Best Damn Sports Show Period."

Carl Froch, Jean Pascal

AP Photo/PA, Nick Potts

Want to catch a glimpse of Carl Froch's impressive showing against Jean Pascal? FSN has you covered.

The first bout to be part of the series should excite fans as FSN will replay the Dec. 6 bout between Carl Froch and Jean Pascal. Froch won the all-action slugfest to claim a vacant super middleweight belt in his hometown of Nottingham, England. The air date has not yet been set, but it will be before the end of the year.

In January, FSN will likely air at least one of the bouts from a Jan. 10 card in Germany featuring light heavyweight titleholder Zsolt Erdei's defense against Yuri Barashian and super middleweight titleholder Denis Inkin's mandatory defense against Karoly Balzsay.

Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.

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