Bernard Hopkins told Brian Kenny on ESPN2 recently that “We (Golden Boy) ended up offering (IBF Cruiserweight champ Tomasz Adamek) $1.2 million, they turned it down.”
Hopkins was claiming that he and his promoter Golden Boy made a follow up offer from the insultingly low $500,000 made to Adamek earlier last month which was rejected by Adamek.
When contacted and told this information on Tuesday, Ziggy Rozalski, the manager of Adamek, responded, “That’s a lie. For a million-two we’d have taken the fight. Without any argument. But we weren’t gonna embarrass ourselves for half a million.”
Hopkins actually repeated the mistruth three times in total on ESPN2 with Brian Kenny in a segment where Hopkins responded to questions sent in by boxing fans. The question about Adamek was the first one Hopkins faced. “They turned down $1.2 million.”
And one more time, “They turned it down, $1.2 million.”
Rozalski seemed angered and surprised that Hopkins would so blatantly lie on national TV. “That’s a ****** lie. $1.2 we’d take with no questions asked. We’d take it without even thinking about it.”
Rozalski continued: “We would even take it for a million. $1.2 we’d take it with flying colors.”
As it stands now, both Hopkins and Adamek do not have official fights lined up for this summer. Both are still available to meet each other.
So it appears now that Hopkins has a date with Tomasz Adamek for July or August – if he really wants it.