By Mark Workman

This Saturday, Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins will wage war not only against undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor in their grudge rematch but also against television network HBO and the sanctioning bodies that are banking on Taylor being their future money machine.

In the rematch to their fight this past July which ended in a controversial split decision win for Taylor, Bernard Hopkins (46-3-1, 32 KOs) seeks revenge, redemption and to set the record straight once and for all before he finally closes the curtain on a long and successful career.

“I’m not going to take a chance on letting the judges beat Bernard Hopkins like they did the first time,” Hopkins says. “Jermain Taylor must get beat up and must get knocked out.”

Judge Duane Ford is blamed by many, including Hopkins, for Bernard’s loss to Taylor. In a very close fight, Hopkins came on strong at the end of the fight and was clearly the winner of the final round, but Ford gave the twelfth round to Taylor. If he had scored the round for Hopkins, as did the other two judges and many at ringside, the bout would’ve ended in a draw and Hopkins would’ve retained his titles. Hopkins is adamant that he won the fight.

“Well, you can look at the fight tape and look at his demeanor and you look at him wanting a rematch,” Hopkins says of Taylor. “As soon as the fight was over, the idiot didn’t understand that he won the fight.”

Having reigned as middleweight champion for more than a decade with wins over fighters such as Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, Segundo Mercado, William Joppy, Syd Vanderpool, Glencoffe Johnson, Simon Brown and Antwun Echols, Hopkins has deeply carved his mark into boxing’s history books. His only losses have come at the hands of Jermain Taylor, Roy Jones, Jr. and Clinton Mitchell in his first professional fight that took place in 1988.

Hopkins turns 41 on January 15 and has promised his late mother that he would not fight beyond the age of 41. It’s believed that Hopkins will honor his promise to his late mother, but there is the possibility of a showdown between Hopkins and Winky Wright, should Hopkins regain his titles from Taylor and decide to fight one more time.

The winner of Winky Wright vs. Sam Soliman on December 10 will face the winner of Taylor vs. Hopkins II, and Wright is favored to win that fight. Wright has said that he believes Taylor will win the rematch with Hopkins. But Hopkins is convinced that he will defeat Taylor in their rematch.

“I’m undefeated in rematches,” Hopkins says. “Roy Jones didn’t fight me again for a reason. And I’m not picking on Roy. He’s my friend now. We got mad respect for each other now. Roy understood. He’s a smart man.”

Believing that he was robbed against Taylor in what was his twenty-first title defense, Hopkins considers the rematch with Taylor (24-0, 17 KOs) his twenty-second title defense, calling himself the “people’s champion.”

“Jermain Taylor didn't actually beat Bernard Hopkins. It was the system,” Hopkins says.

Taylor is out to prove once and for all that he is the better fighter and remove any doubt that he beat Hopkins in their first fight.

“If I don’t knock Bernard out, I’m going to win every round,” Taylor says. “I have to take those belts home with me again.”

Hopkins’ long-time trainer Bouie Fisher will not be in his corner on Saturday. It is rumored that Hopkins fired Fisher over money issues but Hopkins disputes the rumors and says, ““I did not fire Bouie. Everything is a team and a team effort. And my team is here other than Bouie Fisher. This fight is for Bouie. Nothing’s going to change. I have no ill wills with Bouie. Bouie’s a millionaire because of me, a multimillionaire because of me.”

Nazim Richardson, who has worked alongside Fisher in training Hopkins for some time now, will take over Fisher’s duties as head trainer on Saturday night.

Hopkins is surely destined for the International Boxing Hall of Fame and is probably one of the top middleweights of all time, alongside all-time greats such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Carlos Monzon and Marvin Hagler, my all-time favorite middleweight. But to remove any question mark from his greatness, Hopkins seeks to reconfirm that prominence by avenging his loss to Taylor.

“December 3 is going to be an eye opener. They’re going to look at my birth certificate after this fight,” Hopkins says. “When I get him hurt, whatever round, Jermain Taylor’s going to be finished. The fight’s over.”

HBO and the various sanctioning bodies are surely hoping that Bernard Hopkins doesn’t win his battle against Jermain Taylor. Taylor is clean-cut, only 27 years of age and is considered a fighter that is the future of the middleweight division who will continue to fill HBO’s coffers full of cash, while Hopkins is at the end of his career and nothing more than a thorn in their side.

In contrast to Taylor, Hopkins spent 56 months in the Graterford State Penitentiary in Pennsylvania for armed robbery, is nearing the end of his career at almost 41 years of age and constantly rocks the boat of the boxing system, such as when he testified before Congress in support of the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act of 2000. He has always been a strong and outspoken supporter of boxers’ rights.

One could argue that his list of enemies greatly exceeds his list of friends in the boxing world, including on that list of enemies promoters Don King and Lou DiBella who have both battled bitter lawsuits with Hopkins.

Bernard is not only on a mission to avenge his disputed loss at the hands of Jermain Taylor but to destroy HBO and the sanctioning bodies’ financial future in banking on Taylor as it’s newest cash cow.

“The major sponsors and the major ABCs and the wide world of sports of yesterday have abandoned boxing for reasons of good for their sake,” Hopkins says. “I’m going to knock out two people or two entities that night. So, this is a motivation of Bernard Hopkins again taking on the big powers of system.”

With Taylor having recently vacated the IBF title, only the WBC, WBA and WBO middleweight titles will be on the line Saturday night. According to Taylor promoter Lou DiBella, “He would have been stripped anyway for going through with his December 3 rematch with Bernard Hopkins rather than facing mandatory challenger Sam Soliman. The kid would have multiple mandatories and can't fulfill all of them at one time. That and he didn't want to have to pay 12 percent (3 percent per belt) of his purse in sanctioning fees. That's a disincentive to being the undisputed champion."

DiBella is convinced that Taylor will win the rematch with Hopkins. “I’m going to land in Vegas with the undisputed champ and I’m going to leave Vegas with the undisputed champ.”

With the recent retirement of WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko and other fighters such as Oscar De La Hoya nearing retirement, HBO is in serious need of future superstars to maintain a strong position in boxing. If Oscar loses to Ricardo Mayorga in May, he’ll probably call it a day and concentrate on Golden Boy Promotions and his new career as a boxing promoter, alongside his partner Bernard Hopkins. The HBO stable of superstars is certainly dwindling recently.

“Maybe boxing is so much on the downside right now that we’re gravitating and grabbing anything that we can that looks like they have a little bit of something different,” Hopkins says.

If HBO should ever get Floyd Mayweather to put his ego into his back pocket for a minute, the superfights needed to make him a superstar could be actually be made. But, at this point, Mayweather’s far from being a superstar on the scale of an Oscar De La Hoya. If the fight with Zab Judah is finally signed and Mayweather wins, he may finally reach the megastar status that he and HBO desire. But he can’t stop there. There are other big fights that Floyd must sign to increase his status and power in the sport.

Bernard Hopkins will walk into the ring on Saturday night hoping to not only knock out Jermain Taylor and completely cement his legacy in place but to also give a final smack in the face to the boxing establishment that is financially banking on the hopeful success of Jermain Taylor.

Will the great warrior rise to the occasion and pull out what could be the final win of his long and storied career and disrupt HBO’s financial plans for Jermain Taylor, or fail and walk away from the ring bitter like the great “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler did after his disputed split decision loss to Sugar Ray Leonard in 1987?

If Bernard Hopkins has anything to say about it, the walls of the kingdom of HBO are already starting to crack and the foundation is beginning to sink.