Bernard Hopkins, with 38 just around the corner, wants much more than being undisputed middleweight champion plus showing William Joppy he is absolutely the toughest man on the planet when they go to war Saturday, Dec.13 in Atlantic City.

This 12-round unification pairing is the showcase of promoter Don King’s record-busting eight world title bouts with HBO’s Pay-Per-View distribution starting at
8 p.m. ET from Boardwalk Hall.

It appears a sellout looms at12,000 and the flamboyant promoter wound up with a bona-fide grudge match once he finally got unpredictable Hopkins, ruling as the WBC,IBF,and WBA king, and ambitious Joppy, a three time and current WBA160 titleholder, signed to lucrative contracts.

Even the combustible King is beside himself in lauding this unique promotion which he endorsed as “The Night of the Undisputed Back-to-Back-to-Back championships.”

“There have been some four title bout productions on the same night but never anything like this. Before
Hopkins-Joppy vie for an undisputed crown, Ricardo
Mayorga does the same thing with Cory Spinks at 147 after former heavyweight champs Hasim Rahman and John Ruiz fire for the WBAInterim belt. And talk about
your money’s worth, Zab Judah-James Rangel kick it off for the WBO 130-pound crown.”

Hopkins loves to remind the masses he is “The Executioner” from Philadelphia who is making his first
serious start since annihilating Felitx “Tito’ Trinidad on a 12-round TKO Sept.29, 2001 before 19,075 patrons, the the second largest crown in Garden history.

Hopkins, with a 42-2-1, 31 KOs resume, is almost embarrassed about the two fights he had after ruining Trinidad when he TKO’d Carl Daniels in 10 rounds Feb.2, 2002 in Reading, Pa., and inept Frenchman Hakkar Morrade in eight rounds Mar.20 in Philly, extending his title defenses to 16.

“Come Dec.13, I don’t think it would be too much for me if beat a great star that night because those would say look what happened to Trinidad, who destroyed Joppy. But I’m looking for Wiliam Joppy to give a good account of himself because this is his last hurrah. Don King will not be able to recycle William Joppy after Dec.13., and I will move on to bigger and better things.

And one of the things is 20 defenses as a middleweight champion and I don’t believe a fighter in the history of Jack Johnson’s days till now have accomplished that,” the triple champion refected.

In recent weeks, visiting media have pressed Hopkins to discuss some top rivals on his hit list. “I don’t have a hit list, but I’m pretty sure I’m not on their hit list either. I guess you could say my hit list has always been independence. And independence comes Jan.24 when Bernard Hopkins starts his own ‘Executioner’ promotion. And that list will be anybody
who wants to be hit. If they don’t want to be hit, then they won’t be on the list. I have the biggest prize in boxing, being undisputed and that includes three major championship belts. Sooner or later those guys are going to make a move and I’ll be ready.”

In recent weeks, Hopkins has fielded a lot of questions about the prospect of fighting Oscar De La Hoya in 2004 “I think it would be a fight where De La Hoya would box me. He’s younger and he has fresher legs. Of course, Oscar is a guy Bernard has never fought before. He knows that, but he also watches lots of my tapes and my fights. I know he watched the Trinidad fight about a million times in his head. And he has a coach who I respect very much in Floyd Mayweather, Sr., but we all know he has an extremely high ego, the same thing as Emannuel Steward and the other trainers of that caliber who have been successful,” Hopkins recalled.
“ You know I met a great legendary trainer when I was down in Miami recently and he watched me spar four or five rounds. He was watching my speed, combinations, movements and my strategy. He told my friends, “My God, this guy can box his ass off.” Coming from a great conditioner like that who had Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard among other champions was a super compliment.”

Perhaps the big plus in Hopkins preparing for Joppy is renewing his association with trainer Bouie Fisher. “The boxing world can understand if they paid enough attention what Bouie has done for my accomplishments. And, yes, he is back and I’m back with him, it’s right down the line. We had a misunderstanding. We hadn’t spoke in about eight or nine months after being together for 13 years, what I call championship years. Sometime it takes longer to mend back a problem, or mend back feelings or a situation. Some people mend, some people don’t,” Hopkins reviewed.

“I think the boxing world understands that that Bouie Fisher never got the credit until Sept.29 two years
ago when I beat Felix Trinidad. There’s a lot of diamonds in the round with Philadelphia trainers. but you got to have an athlete on stage, and that athlete has to deliver. When two hands are working together then you have a chemistry that can go as far as the sky, so being in a position to fight a De La Hoya or somebody that brings a super star fight includes the credentials and the other things that come at the end of the year and you stand alone with the trainers and fighters who are the best.

Hopkins and Fisher agree that such an operation takes team work from start to finish.

“This is a great feeling, I’ve always been t he type of guy who always feels rejuvenated off of anything that motivates me., negative or positive. Can you imagine what this does to me now? Can you imagine the fear that Joppy might have in him. Because he has to worry about oher things, now he has something else to worry about, and he has a damn good reason to.”

(Jack Welsh is a syndicated columnist headquartered in Las Vegas and a regular contributor to Ringsports.com and other fine websites).