NEW YORK – Although he was obviously born to be a boxing promoter, Josef Goebbels went into another line of work. His spiritual descendants, on the other hand, were out in force at lunchtime Thursday, when the Bernard Hopkins-Winky Wright traveling circus hit the ESPN Zone in Times Square. 

Publicist Kelly Swanson described Hopkins as “the current light-heavyweight champion of the world.”

In promotional literature distributed to the press, MGM/Mirage sports boss Richard Sturm described the July 21 as “a great championship fight.”

Hopkins’ bio in the press kit said he would fight Wright for “the 170-pound Ring Magazine belt.”

Gee. If so, they’ve not only created a title, they’ve created a whole new division.

Make no mistake about it, Hopkins-Wright is an intriguing matchup. It could turn out to be an extremely entertaining fight. Its hype may not match the buildup for Mayweather-De La Hoya, but this Golden Boy promotion could be far more competitive. (“I just love beating up on these Florida boys,” said Hopkins. “All they do is sit out in the sun all day.”)

But anyone trying to sell it (at $49.95 a pop) to the public as a ‘world championship fight’ should be arrested for violating the truth-in-packaging laws.

HBO, whose pay-per-view arm will televise the July 21 matchup in Las Vegas, says they won’t be a party to the deception.

“Does either guy have a title?” HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg asked rhetorically. “Then it isn’t a title fight, and you won’t hear our people describe it as one.”

Look, Hopkins was a great middleweight champion and he is a future Hall of Famer. (So, for that matter, is the Winkster.) But his claim to being a “current” champion is utterly specious.

Seven months after losing to Jermain Taylor for the second time, he fought Antonio Tarver, who hadn’t held a recognized title in over two years. He won that fight convincingly, and announced his retirement thereafter.

The only ‘title’ at stake against Tarver was that of the IBO – you know, those people in Florida that will give a belt to anyone willing to wear it. And not even they are recognizing Hopkins-Wright as a championship fight. (The IBO has promised its belt to the winner of Tarver’s June 9 bout against Elvir Muriqi.)

Right now the only belt at stake will be that awarded by The Ring. Do you think Nevada is going to let Nigel Collins appoint the Hopkins-Wright judges?

Or is Richard Schaefer going to take the next logical step and start looking around for Dean Chance’s phone number?

Think about this for a moment: July 21st will be the 53rd bout in Bernard Hopkins’ career, but he is 1-1 as a light-heavyweight. B-Hop made his pro  debut as a light-heavy, and lost a four-round decision. By the time he got out of Graterford, the prison diet had turned him into a super-middleweight.

This isn’t to cast aspersions on the 41 year-old Hopkins’ career, but you would have to say that when it comes to his light-heavyweight credentials the jury is still very much out.

And even at the 170-pound catchweight, Winky will be ten pounds bigger than he’s ever been before. That makes for an interesting betting proposition, but it doesn’t make it a world title fight, no matter how many times its promoters call it one.

Although HBO maintains that it will it describe Hopkins-Wright as a “12-round, non-title fight,” Golden Boy CEO Schaefer was adamant in his insistence that it is the real goods.

“Yes, it is a world championship fight,” maintained Schaefer. “The Ring belt is as credible as any other – and it may be more difficult to earn.”

That is precisely the logic Don King used three decades ago when he hoodwinked ABC into bankrolling his “U.S. Boxing Championships” based on The Ring’s ratings, but Schaefer & Co. seem confident that if they call Hopkins-Wright a title fight enough times, people will begin to believe them.

Bernard Hopkins, a student of boxing history who made it a point to solidify his undisputed middleweight title by collecting all four recognized titles, seemed almost embarrassed by hearing this fight described as for a “championship,” but he did call the Ring’s “the belt most boxing writers and experts give the most credit to.”

Really? And here we thought all one had to do to get a Ring belt was be named Klitschko.

M

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