AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH JAMES FISHER By Aladdin Freeman

When people see WBC/IBF middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins you'll usually see his manager James Fisher right there with him. James Fisher basically handles Bernard Hopkins' business outside of the ring. He also is the president and CEO of R&J Management, a company based in Philadelphia. James and I took the time out to talk about the world of boxing.

BRC: How long have you been in the fight game?

JF: I've been involved in boxing to some capacity since I was born. My father Bouie Fisher was a boxer and he's been a trainer for over 50 years, he currently trains Bernard. I'm basically the manager, I handle everything. I coordinate his camps, set up the contracts and other managerial issues. I pretty much do everything for Bernard Hopkins, when you see him you don’t have to look far to find me.

BRC: Speaking of Bernard, what did you think of his performance against Keith Holmes? Because, personally I thought it was good, but I really felt that Trinidad would have gotten rid of Holmes earlier.

JF: I thought that he was focused 100%, and if he'd had a more willing opponent instead of a guy that was holding and grabbing for 12 rounds you would have seen greater things from Bernard that night. I still felt he demonstrated greatness that night.

BRC: How is Bernard's training coming now that you all are playing the waiting game?

JF: Bernard was back in the gym a week after his fight and running. Bernard is a dedicated professional, he loves his job and it shows. People say he's 37 years old but really looks 28.

BRC: What are your thoughts about Trinidad vs. Joppy?

JF: Joppy’s boxing skills are good enough, that he can upset Trinidad. Joppy has a lot of courage, and if he takes a chance and tries to get in an exchange with Trinidad he might get beat up. But, we've had two upsets in the last month (Barrera over Hamed and Rahman over Lewis). I think May 12th is another opportunity for an upset. For Bernard's sake I really hope it's Trinidad who wins, because it becomes a more lucrative fight. What do you think is going to happen?

BRC: I think Joppy is a heck of a boxer, but he's real brave and takes some chances that he shouldn't take kind of like Vargas did. I can see Joppy boxing, doing well, all the while Trinidad is just wearing down his body until he lands a lead right hand and a left hook that would finish him. Also, it's a funny point that I want to tell our readers, Joppy’s only lost of his career against Julio Cesar Green (a very questionable unanimous decision) came at the Garden on the under card of Trinidad vs. Troy Walters.

JF: I didn't realize that.

BRC: How would you all fight Trinidad and prepare for him?

JF: If it's Felix Trinidad that we fight, well continue to do the same things that we've been doing for the last 12 years. There’s nothing special about Felix Trinidad, he's about to enter another world coming up to 160lbs to fight Bernard Hopkins. We believe that Bernard is stronger and can match Trinidad as far as speed; he has the ability to give Felix Trinidad a lot of problems. We would give Trinidad a lot of angles, Bernard would force him to back up and try to get the fight on the inside but then mixes it up.

BRC: If Bernard comes out on top, are you looking for Roy Jones Jr.?

JF: I think if Bernard wins Roy will come to us, we're not really worried about Roy. What's going to happen is de la Hoya is going to come up to 154 lbs to go for a title, after that well try to set up a fight at a catch weight of 157lbs. There are a lot of names at 154 and 160 lbs, Roy Jones Jr. is irrelevant. Roy had his opportunity and he turned it down, so we're not thinking about him anymore. It would be great for the fans and boxing but Bernard isn't going to chase after him.

BRC: Because of some inside knowledge I got I wanted to know what happened with the fight with Dariusz Michalczewski, because that fight came pretty close to getting made.

JF: We all tried to make the fight February 24th of 2001, Lou Dibella along with HBO tried to call Michalczewski in Germany to make the fight, but what they were asking for was so ridiculous that it seems like they didn't want the fight. These guys were asking for fight options with Bernard for close to three years.

BRC: Turning to the “upsets” that you mentioned before, what are your thoughts on this past month?

JF: I think it's a great lesson for the young fighters out there to learn. You can't get comfortable. When you get to a certain level. You have to stay dedicated, train hard and be hungry all the time. When you look at a guy like Hamed, who has talent he sometimes feels unthreatened and doesn't prepare and ends up only hurting himself. I also think the same think happened to Lennox Lewis, he really underestimated Rahman. He sat next to us in Vegas during the Barrera- Hamed fight. Sometimes fighters get to superstar status and start acting like a movie star or an NBA player. The thing is movie stars have stunt men to do their hard work, if an NBA player is having a bad night you can make a substitution. In boxing once you're in that ring if your not prepared there's a chance it's going to be a long night; ask Mike Tyson it happened with Douglas.

BRC: See I agree with you, but as a fighter, isn't it hard to get motivated to fight if your trainer and managers are out doing other things, if the main guy in your corner doesn't feel threatened by your opponent how can you as the fighter take the other guy seriously?

JF: Well, Manny Stewart had a rough month and he was 0-2. What happens is that the fighter has to know what's best for him and to know when he is not getting the proper training. I think when Lennox Lewis made the sacrifice to go to Vegas while Manny did a movie with Wesley Snipes, I think that really hurt him. For any championship fight it takes complete dedication by the trainer and the fighter. Like with Bernard, when he's training for a fight my dads never away from him, he gets 24 hour a day attention from him. They sleep in the same room, eat together, and they do everything together. I think Manny Stewart has his hands in to many different pots and trying to cook too many different types of stews at one time.

BRC: (Laughing really hard at his analogies) I ask everybody this question because I love boxing but there are some real problems. What's something that you would like to see happen to help out the sport?

JF: The Muhammad Ali bill is a start to what I would like to see done. For instance, now the fighters can see exactly what's being offered to the promoters by the networks, which is a great move because for years the promoters would tell the fighters that it says A but it was really B. I would like to see on an amateur scale, fighters having tutorial sessions to educate them on how to speak, and help them with financial management. Really prepare them so if they do succeed they won't have to be broke again. It's almost like coming out of college, you're prepared for success. You wont have to worry about trying to sign something but you can't read it. That's a sad thing in boxing; it's something that I would love to have a part in changing.

BRC: What are your thoughts on the sanctioning bodies, they seem to be real corrupted? I mean you have a fighter that was dead moving up like 3 spots in one of the bodies.

JF: (Laughing at me now) I was reading about that the other day on the internet. I feel they should all come together and make it one belt like it was back in the day. You look at every sanctioning body you'll see different names in every top 10. It took this middleweight tournament for Bernard to be able to fight Keith Holmes and the possibility of Joppy as well. The bodies now allow champions to duck each other and this now gives the promoters leverage to force a fighter to sign with them to get to a championship fight.

They won't give you a title shot unless they have options or have you under their banner. I think they really should become one big organization that controls all the fights sanctioned and I think also that the 3% that they take of the purse is a lot of money, what they give you is the belt and the only real thing on the belt is the leather. Add all that up for each major body and that's 9% of your total purse, it ends up being a bunch of money.

BRC: Thanks, I'm sure people will enjoy this, good luck and see you at the Garden on May 12th.

JF: Thank you, come find me when you get there.