Hopkins - Tarver is on

credit: Espn

Some really big fight news coming this week

Bernard Hopkins, who made a division-record 20 middleweight title defenses, will attempt to close his career by defeating light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver.

Tarver and Hopkins agreed Thursday to terms for a June 10 (HBO PPV) fight in Atlantic City, N.J., after several weeks of sometimes difficult negotiations.

Although an agreement has been reached, the paperwork is not signed yet due to a death in the family of Golden Boy Promotions' executive Richard Schaefer, who was handling the negotiations with Tarver promoter Joe DeGuardia.

"I feel comfortable saying that the fight is on the horizon. I feel comfortable saying the fight is a 'go.' We've agreed to everything," DeGuardia told ESPN.com.

The sides agreed to a 50-50 split of the revenue, even though it took time getting to that point.

"Any time you make a fight with two stars, it's not easy," DeGuardia said. "Both guys have their claim to being treated in a manner that makes it difficult when you have to slice up the pie, but we were able to do it."

Said Hopkins, "We did 50-50. He is the best light heavyweight in the world, so he deserves that. I didn't play no games."

AP Photos

After conquering Jones, Tarver (right) will be Hopkins' final foe.

Hopkins, 41, who turned pro as a light heavyweight before moving down in weight to dominate the middleweight division for a decade, lost two close decisions to Jermain Taylor last year. Hopkins said he is excited about the chance to make history in what he said will be the final fight of his career.

"I'm fighting the best guy at 175 pounds, and that's Tarver," Hopkins told ESPN.com. "Everything is done. It's all been agreed upon. This is my last fight. This is the fight where Bernard Hopkins goes out and tries to do what Sugar Ray Robinson couldn't do, what Sugar Ray Robinson fell one round short of doing. There's a lot at stake. This is the light heavyweight championship of the world. There is nothing else for me after that. This is the ultimate grand finale."

Hopkins, who considers Robinson his boxing idol, is referring to the former middleweight champ's attempt to win the light heavyweight crown in 1952 against Joey Maxim. Robinson was leading on all three scorecards by a wide margin when he was stopped in the 14th and penultimate round of the fight due to heat exhaustion.

After Tarver dominated Roy Jones to win a decision in their rubber match in October, he toyed with moving to heavyweight, an idea that was reinforced in recent months.

Tarver put on weight to play heavyweight champion Mason "The Line" Dixon opposite Sylvester Stallone's Rocky character while filming the sixth movie in the popular series.

Tarver said during the filming that he weighed as much as 218 pounds, which means he'll need to shed 43 to make the 175-pound limit to fight Hopkins.

After Jones won a heavyweight title, he took off a similar amount of weight when he dropped back to light heavyweight to face Tarver in 2003. Jones blamed the weight loss for his sluggish performance in their first fight.

"You won't hear any excuses from Antonio about having to lose the weight like Roy did," DeGuardia said. "Antonio is a professional and he knows what he has to do. He will be on the mark. He's going to have to work to get down but it is not anything that he is unaccustomed to. When we were talking about making this fight I said to him, 'Are you sure you want to work this hard and come down to 175?' and he said he wants the biggest out there and that Hopkins was the biggest one out there."

DeGuardia said that even though Hopkins has lost two in a row, Tarver can't afford to overlook him.

"Bernard has so much experience under his belt that you can't underestimate his abilities and the value of that kind of experience, but I think Antonio is one of the best fighters in the world," DeGuardia said. "That said, Antonio will have to be ready for the fight because Bernard will take a certain amount of emotion into the fight given that it is his last fight. And when you look at the last two fights and Bernard's feeling that he was treated unfairly by the judges against Taylor, I think it will further motivate him."

It looked as though Hopkins would complete his career in a rematch with Jones. The camps had agreed to terms for a March 4 fight. However, when organizers couldn't find a suitable site, the fight date shifted to June. However, Jones walked away from it in a dispute with HBO and the bad feelings over his firing as an HBO boxing analyst.

That left Hopkins (46-4-1, 32 KOs) looking for another big-name opponent for his finale, which led to Tarver (24-3, 18 KOs), the only other fighter besides Jones whom Hopkins was interested in fighting.

"I tried to make the fight with Roy," Hopkins said. "We were able to agree on everything but something happened between him and HBO. I stayed out of it. I just wanted to fight a major guy, and I even said before I fought Taylor that I wanted to fight for the light heavyweight championship, and then I'm gone.

"I started at light heavyweight and I'll finish at light heavyweight after cementing my legacy as a middleweight. It couldn't be more perfect."

A very intriguing match up, I like Tarver however, for the sole reason that Hopkins is not the exact same fighter he was say two years ago. Either way, it'll be a close fight but Tarver, while he's only a few years younger than Hopkins, I still like him to outpoint a somewhat rusty Hopkins.

Around the ring

Baldomir weighs offers: Welterweight champ Carlos Baldomir, whose biggest purse was the $100,000 he earned in his Jan. 7 upset of Zab Judah, is going to make much, much more than that the next time he fights. Baldomir and promoter Sycuan Ringside Promotions are weighing three significant offers.

TOM CASINO/Showtime

Several offers are on the table for Baldomir.

One deal on the table is for Baldomir to defend against Arturo Gatti in July, and Main Events has already offered a package worth about $1.4 million plus the TV rights in Baldomir's native Argentina.

The camp of junior welterweight champ Ricky Hatton, who intends to fight in May but has no opponent yet, has made an offer in the $1.5 million neighborhood plus the TV rights in Argentina. Hatton has said in the British media that he is interested in fighting Baldomir.

Another offer being considered is a two-fight deal from Golden Boy Promotions that would start with Baldomir earning $500,000 on the May 6 HBO PPV undercard of Oscar De La Hoya's fight with junior middleweight titlist Ricardo Mayorga. Opponents mentioned early in the discussions were Antonio Diaz, Ishe Smith, Craig Weber and Admin Mosley, but all were ruled out for one reason or another -- either they were unavailable or unacceptable by one of the sides.

The second fight of the Golden Boy proposal would call for Baldomir to fight in the fall with one scenario being a $2 million minimum to fight De La Hoya if he and Baldomir each win May 6. However, if De La Hoya opts not to fight Baldomir, Golden Boy Promotions would still guarantee $1.5 million for Baldomir to face another name opponent, possibly Shane Mosley if he defeats Fernando Vargas next week.

Baldomir, was such a great story. He came out of nowhere to upset a top 10 lb for lb fighter in Judah. I'd take the Hatton fight, but I'm biased, seeing that I want to see him take the Hatton fight, for the sole reason of seeing one of my favorite fighters(Hatton) hold the Ring belt in two weight classes.

Showtime for Brewster: Showtime and promoter Don King were finalizing plans Friday for Lamon Brewster (33-2, 29 KOs) to defend his heavyweight title against Sergei Liakhovich (22-1, 14 KOs) on April 1. Sites being discussed include Detroit and the Mohegan Sun resort in Connecticut.

The date became available after heavyweight David Tua backed out of a fight with Shannon Briggs that was supposed be on the one-fight telecast during Showtime's free preview weekend.

Liakhovich, who will earn the modest purse of $170,000, has already signed for the fight. King was trying to complete his deal with Brewster.

"We signed our contract. The rest is in Lamon Brewster's hands," said Ivalyo Gotzev, Liakhovich's manager. "We signed our part to fight Lamon on April 1. Now we just hope Lamon finishes his deal with Don King. I have heard they agreed and Don called me, but we missed each other. We're optimistic the fight is on."

Liakhovich hasn't fought since pounding out a 10-round decision against Dominick Guinn in December 2004. The long stretch of inactivity is in part because fights that were offered didn't materialize plus Liakhovich suffered some minor injuries.

"It's a dream come true for Sergei," Gotzev said of a Brewster fight. "Sergei will come with everything he has. He is ready to go. It would be a wonderful opportunity and a tremendous fight."

Brewster is coming off a Sept. 28 ninth-round TKO of mandatory challenger Luan Krasniqi in Germany, a fight in which Brewster was trailing on the scorecards at the time of the knockout.

Showtime went with the Brewster-Liakhovich fight over others that were offered, including lightweight titlist Juan Diaz vs. Joel Casamayor or a rematch between Casamayor and Nate Campbell.

I believe Brewster's the second or third best Heavy right now behind Toney and Byrd, so this is a good busy fight for Brewster who's had three impressive wins in recent years(Wlad Klit, Golata, and tough german Luan Krasniqi), and Liakhovich is certainly not a push over. I still would have rather the Diaz/Casamayor fight however.

Quartey-Forrest in Big Apple: Former welterweight champs Ike Quartey and Vernon Forrest, who meet April 15 on HBO in a junior middleweight fight, will face each other at the 5,000-seat Madison Square Garden Theater in New York, promoter Lou DiBella told ESPN.com.

Forrest will be returning to the scene of his greatest triumph -- his 2002 decision victory against Mosley to win the welterweight championship.

AP

Forrest will be returning to the site of his greatest triumph.

The fight, however, won't be officially announced until after March 3, when Forrest faces Raul Munoz in a tune-up fight (Fox Sports Net).

"I think it's a great Theater show," DiBella said. "We're going to do really good business. To get a fight like Quartey-Forrest in the Theater is terrific. And it's an important fight. It's all or nothing. Someone rises to a huge fight by winning and the other guy is in nowheresville. Both of these guys have a tremendous amount at stake."

DiBella said the co-feature, which won't be part of HBO's telecast, will be a bantamweight title eliminator between South African star Silence Mabuza against Ricardo "Chapo" Vargas, a fight DiBella won at a recent purse bid. The winner will earn a shot at champion Rafael Marquez, who has already defeated both men.

DiBella said he also plans to add hot welterweight prospect Andre Berto, a 2004 Olympian for Haiti, and New York super middleweight prospect Curtis Stevens to the card.

An excellent matchup of two world class former champions, battling for one last shot. This is a clear cut win or go home situation. The winner, probably gets a big fight. The loser, probably hangs it up. I like Quartey in this fight. Forrest, has fought journeymen since returning. Quartey, had a tough fight in his return to the states against Verno Phillips but came out with a nice win, after a late round scare. He also dominated tough journeyman Carlos Bojorquez. Either way, it's a great matchup but I wish they would televise the Berto fight. Berto,is one hell of a prospect.

Cotto-Malignaggi? As long as junior welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico defeats Gianluca Branco of Italy on March 4 and comes out of the fight healthy, he'll be back in action June 10 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Promoter Top Rank has already put down a $150,000 nonrefundable deposit to secure the building for that date, which is during the weekend of the Puerto Rican Day parade.

Top Rank had success promoting Cotto's fight with Mohamad Abdulaev on that weekend last year and hopes to make it a regular date for Cotto.

However, the TV situation for this fight is unsettled. Although Cotto (25-0, 21 KOs) has been fighting on HBO, June 10 is taken by the Tarver-Hopkins light heavyweight title fight on HBO PPV. So Top Rank is talking with Showtime about doing the fight or it might go on pay-per-view against Tarver-Hopkins and load up the undercard.

Whatever television outlet airs Cotto, Top Rank will need to find an opponent for him that will create a buzz and sell tickets.

Cotto

That's where Brooklyn's Paulie Malignaggi (21-0, 5 KOs) comes in. The "Magic Man" looked outstanding in easily outpointing Donald Camarena on "Friday Night Fights" last week, which immediately led to talk between Top Rank and Malignaggi promoter DiBella about the fight.

Malignaggi, a flashy boxer with a brash attitude, wants the fight.

"I pretty much view Cotto falling into my strengths," said Malignaggi, who called ESPN.com to campaign for the fight. "Cotto has probably the slowest hands of any champion in boxing right now, which falls into my strength of being the fastest fighter besides Floyd Mayweather. And I don't care how hard Cotto punches because you have to hit me with a clean shot and my defense is so good no one hits me with a clean shot."

Malignaggi said since he just fought last week, the timing of a June 10 bout is perfect.

"I'm not trying to downplay Cotto," Malignaggi said. "He will be my test, but I am ready for the challenge. I'm on the level of a Cotto or a Hatton and I will prove I belong up there."

Malignaggi said given the fact that he is an Italian from New York and that Cotto is Puerto Rican that a matchup would make for a major event in New York.

"The product will sell," he said. "You got the Italians from Brooklyn and all of New York to support me and all of the Puerto Ricans coming out to support Cotto. It's an ethnic rivalry and it will create a buzz. It's a great Garden fight. It's speed vs. power. I want to get where he is, so Miguel Cotto is the hurdle."

Another potential opponent for Cotto, according to Top Rank, is a rematch with Colombian knockout artist Ricardo Torres. He and Cotto waged one of the fights of the year last September.

Torres hurt Cotto several times and dropped him for the first time in his career, but Cotto scored multiple knockdowns of Torres and finished him in the seventh round.

It would be one hot crowd for a Malignaggi/Cotto fight. I'm not a fan of either fighter, but I'd certainly be pulling for Cotto to knock the taste out of the classless punk Malignaggi.

Valuev defense postponed: Heavyweight titlist Nicolay Valuev's slow recovering from knee surgery has caused his April 1 defense against Owen Beck in Germany to be postponed.

Martin Rose/Bongarts/Getty Images

The next challenge for Valuev (right) is to get healthy.

The fight was to have been Valuev's first defense since outpointing John Ruiz in December on a controversial decision to win a title.

According to Heiko Mallwitz, spokesman for promoter Sauerland Events, Valuev -- the 7-foot, 330-pound Russian -- had surgery in early February to repair the meniscus in his right knee. Mallwitz said Valuev's recovery was slower than expected, so the target date for Valuev's first defense has been pushed to May 27.

Maybe, Valuev could come back healthy and with an actual deserving opponent. How, a never was fight like Beck could get this title shot amazes me. Then again, Don King had a hand in this.