Freddie Roach, Trainer Bernard Hopkins
Dan Birmingham, Trainer Winky Wright
Oscar de la Hoya, Host, Golden Boy Promotions
Moderator: Kelly Swanson
June 28, 2007, 3:30 p.m. ET

KELLY SWANSON, SWANSON COMMUNICATIONS . Thank you, everybody for joining us today for the first part of a series of conference calls we’ll be doing for the exciting Hopkins Versus Wright “Coming to Fight,” presented by Golden Boy Promotions in association with the Winky Promotions, sponsored by Southwest Airlines, Tecate Beer and Rockstar Energy Drink. Again, the fight is July 21at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, live on HBO pay per view.

It’s my pleasure to just give you a quick update before I introduce our speakers. We’re actually in the fourth week prior to the fight. A lot of things are happening in the camps, and we’re delighted to have the trainers Freddie Roach and Dan Birmingham here today to give us updates. Also, mark your calendars. Next week, the Fourth of July week, we will be distributing Camp Notes as well as another release and the following week we’ll be providing you with undercard fighter quotes too. Most importantly, on Tuesday, July 10, Winky Wright will be doing his national conference call followed by Bernard Hopkins on Wednesday, July 11.

So at this time, we’re fortunate enough to have the President of Golden Boy Promotions, Oscar De La Hoya, joining us today, and Oscar, I’d like to turn it over to you, and you can introduce Freddie.

OSCAR DE LA HOYA, PRESIDENT, GOLDEN BOY PROMOTIONS : Thank you very much, Kelly. Thank you very much to all of the press, international media. We are delighted and privileged to have you cover this fight.

As you know, we already have more than 7,000 tickets sold at the Mandalay base for this fight “Coming to Fight,” which is going to be for Hopkins’ “Ring Magazine” Light Heavyweight title, which will take place July 21 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The show is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Winky Wright Promotions.

I watched Bernard Hopkins train the other day at the Wild Card Gym, and it didn’t surprise me how Freddie Roach and Bernard Hopkins are a perfect match and are working great together.

So without any further ado, I would like to introduce to you one of the best trainers in boxing today, Mr. Freddie Roach.

FREDDIE ROACH: Thank you, Oscar. Bernard’s been working really hard and we get a sparring session today at 2:30, and we’re sparring on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and the mitt work on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and they do very well. We’re working on the game plan of how to correct that defense of Winky’s, and everything’s going really well. We’re getting along fine. He’s a little anxious sometimes. He cracked me a couple of times yesterday, and gees, I’m feeling like making my comeback out here. But everything’s going good. Bernard’s in great shape. His weight’s coming down fine, and we’ll be ready to go soon.

KELLY SWANSON: Great. Thank you, Freddie. OK, Operator, if we can please open up the floor to questioning.

BERNARD FERNANDEZ, PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS : Yes, Freddie, Bernard is coming to you at 42. He’s been around the block a time or two or three. How receptive was he to any, you know, new ideas that you might have asked him and incorporated into what he’s already doing?

FREDDIE ROACH: I think he is very receptive. You know, he’s a veteran. You know, there’s not a lot of to teach him but we’re working on the game plan and how to fight this fight, and there’s some conditioning drills and so forth that we’re working on, and we’re in the process of getting him in the best shape we can, and you know, he’s a young 42. He’s never been in too many wars and never took any beatings. So, you know, in boxing, I mean 42 might be an old number, but by boxing standards, he’s never taken any beatings. So he’s a fresh 42, I would say.

BERNARD FERNANDEZ: OK, my follow-up question is, you know, Emanuel Steward at one point, you know, he was just bringing guys up through the ranks in Detroit with Kronk Gym. Then he got kind of like a reputation for being a hire-again kind of guy, troubleshooter that, you know, established fighters would come to him to get