It's not a Bernard Hopkins fight without a controversy and so the obligatory dispute erupted on Friday, just more than 24 hours before Hopkins and Kelly Pavlik are to meet on Saturday in a non-title light heavyweight fight at Boardwalk Hall.
The New Jersey Athletic Control Board on Thursday opted to remove Earl Morton, whom it had appointed as the referee on Oct. 1, and on Friday named Benji Esteves Jr.
The move was prompted when Pavlik manager Cameron Dunkin protested Morton's appointment. Dunkin sent a complaint to the NJACB on Tuesday with the signatures of fighters from Philadelphia, referee Eddie Cotton and others in the Philadelphia boxing community alleging a friendship between Hopkins and Morton.
Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, of which Hopkins is a partner, vehemently denied that. Schaefer was in the limousine with Hopkins when Hopkins learned of the referee changed.
"He told me that if you put Morton in a line with 10 people, he wouldn't be able to pick him out," Schaefer said.
New Jersey deputy attorney general Nick Lembo gave the Pavlik and Hopkins camps three names to choose from. The Pavlik side chose Steve Smoger, but the Hopkins side did not pick.
Lembo eventually chose Esteves, who worked Hopkins' victory over Antonio Tarver in Atlantic City in 2006.
It was hardly the only ridiculous controversy of the day. Minutes before the weigh-in — in which Pavlik weighed 169 and Hopkins was 170 — Dunkin and attorney Michael Miller on behalf of Pavlik met with Golden Boy COO David Itskowitch on behalf of Hopkins to determine which fighter would walk out first for the weigh-in.
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