Witter vs Hopkins...Off or On?

The news hit the British media and boxing Web sites like a storm a few weeks ago: junior welterweight titleholder Junior Witter of England was coming to America to defend his belt against Demetrius Hopkins on March 22 on HBO's "Boxing After Dark."
Witter's handlers were talking about the fight as was Golden Boy Promotions, Hopkins' promoter. HBO also acknowledged that the fight was penciled in to open a telecast headlined by lightweight champion Joel Casamayor against Michael Katsidis.
The only problem: Hopkins (28-0-1, 11 KOs) said he never agreed to the bout or even received an offer. In fact, he told ESPN.com on Thursday he is no longer under contact to Golden Boy. He said his deal expired Jan. 6.
"For one, I was a free agent and negotiating a [promotional] contract and I've been waiting almost five weeks for the proposal," Hopkins said. "My contract expired Jan. 6. I had no extension, no signing bonus, no nothing. I haven't heard from no one from Golden Boy."
To help sort things out, Hopkins signed Wednesday with adviser Cameron Dunkin, who has worked with two of Hopkins' pals from the Philadelphia gyms, junior middleweight Anthony Thompson and lightweight Zahir Raheem.
"I believe in Cameron and he believes in me," Hopkins said. "We're putting our heads together so we can go ahead and get things done so I can become a world champion."
Said Dunkin: "He hired me because he has no idea what is going on. I'll find out what's going on."
Golden Boy chief operating officer David Itskowitch said he was surprised that Hopkins was unaware of things.
"We had conveyed an offer for a Witter fight to who we thought was Demetrius' attorney and representative and who we had dealt with with respect to all of his fights," Itskowitch said. "We were unaware that Joe Cardona was no longer representing Demetrius and were under the assumption that our offers had been communicated to Demetrius. Joe told me that he had conveyed the offer for the Witter fight and that Demetrius had accepted the monetary terms.
"We had been in contact with Joe about a promotional agreement as well and we were under the assumption that those terms were also being conveyed."
Hopkins said he'd fight Witter, but only with the proper deal.
"We're looking at a lot of guys, [like titleholder] Ricardo Torres, for one," he said. "I think that would be a perfect fight for me. Not that Junior isn't a good fight for me, but nobody told me what the purse was for the fight. All I heard was I was fighting Junior Witter but things have to be right on the business side."
Hopkins' ties to Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy were through his uncle, light heavyweight champion and company partner Bernard Hopkins. Demetrius Hopkins, however, said his relationship with his uncle has deteriorated badly in recent months.
"I don't have a problem with Golden Boy. They're good people. It's just that with my uncle, we have our differences," he said. "It's not going to work between me and him. We have our differences. We don't get along. It's been like that for awhile. It's a shame. He's got to learn how to talk to people and respect people."
Hopkins, 27, said that his uncle threw him, his 6-year-old son and fiancée out of an apartment they rented from him in Philadelphia because he was two weeks late with the rent. Demetrius Hopkins said it was a mistake that happened because he was in the process of changing banks, not because he was short of money.
"The man kicked me out of his apartment," Demetrius Hopkins said. "He kicked me, my son and my fiancée out [in November]. He didn't show me any loyalty so why would I show him any? Yeah, I was two weeks late. I was switching bank accounts. He could have told me to pay a late fee. It's not like I didn't have the money. It's not even that he kicked me out. But when you kick my son out, then you got a problem with me. If you don't care about my son, you don't care about me.
"I'd like to do things with [Golden Boy CEO] Richard [Schaefer], [vice president] Eric [Gomez] and Oscar, but I don't want to do business with my uncle. It's the same thing with us as what goes on between Floyd [Mayweather Jr.] and Floyd Mayweather Sr., and [Bernard] isn't even my father."
Bernard Hopkins, who was in England promoting his April 19 defense against Joe Calzaghe, was not available for comment.
Dunkin, who has known Hopkins for years, said he wants to explore all the options for Hopkins, not be limited just to Witter.
"I haven't seen contracts or what they are offering him," Dunkin said. "I need to see what they are talking about with the Witter fight. Demetrius hasn't seen anything. He hasn't been talked to about that fight or what's involved in the fight -- the money. No details have been given to him at all. He's in the gym but not training for that type of fight. He hasn't set up sparring. He would really like to go to camp if he's going to fight Witter. But first we have to find out the details."
Dunkin said he'd consider Witter but also wanted to speak with promoters involved with other top 140 pounders, including Top Rank, which promotes Torres and contender Kendall Holt and Lou DiBella, who handles titlist Paulie Malignaggi. There is also the possibility of an elimination fight with Herman Ngoudjo, Dunkin said.
"I want to look and see what else is out there for him," Dunkin said. "I think I should talk to all of the promoters who have the top 140-pounders."