From time to time, boxing fans ask if prefight press conferences are basically scripted.
In other words, is there an agreement as to what the principals will and won’t say?
For sure, I can tell you no Mike Tyson press conference was every scripted, at least when it came to Tyson’s role.
Iron Mike was the ultimate wild card.
(Notable exception was Tyson’s apologia for chowing down on Mr. Holyfield’s ear.)
Tuesday’s Jean Pascal-Bernard Hopkins presser at Planet Hollywood in Times Square was planned out in terms of what would not be brought up, according to Carrie Sanchez, reporter for her own website, Bigapplesports.com.
Ms. Sanchez expected some real verbal fireworks based on the meeting of the two light heavyweights, who will rematch their Dec. 18 disputed draw on May 21 in Montreal, the day before.
?Not much happened, really,? Sanchez told me. ?It was toned down. And the lunch was lousy.?
Sanchez said an insider tied to the promotion, being handled by Yvon Michel Group for Pascal and Golden Boy for Bhop, told her the fighters were urged to skip over drug abuse allegations hurled at the 46 year old Hopkins by his younger foe on Monday.
?Pascal said he never accused Bernard. Pascal he was asked a question and he answered it and they turned his answer around,? Sanchez said.
That’s laughable, given that Pascal boldly accused Hopkins of steroid use to his face and, for a bonus bashing, said that the Philadelphian and former BALCO Laboratory steroid user and May 7 Manny Pacquiao foe Sugar Shane Mosley, ?come from the same family.?
The only fireworks Tuesday, acccording to Sanchez, came when Hopkins and Pascal posed for face to face photos.
?Bernard said that Pascal will die in the ring and then he called Pascal a faggot,? Sanchez said.
Standing between the fighters in protective mode were there respective trainers.
I asked the reporter if Golden Boy’s Richie Rich Schaefer made any reference to Pascal’s allegations.
?No, he made no reference to that.?
So, to answer the original questions, some pressers are scripted, some are not.
Pascal Hopkins II pressers back to back in Montreal and Manhattan bear that out.
No one told Pascal what to say on Monday but, on Tuesday, he was told what not to say.
I still think we’ve haven’t heard the end of this blemish on Hopkins’ Hall Of Fame career.
Knowing Hopkins, I can’t see him passing off the Monday attack as an accidental low blow.
