LAS VEGAS -- Thirty hours before they face off for the undisputed middleweight title, Bernard Hopkins and Jermain Taylor got face to face for a shouting match at Friday's weigh-in.
Taylor, a Little Rock native, scaled in at 160 pounds to chants of "Pig Sooey, Razorback" from hundreds of his fans who made the trip from Arkansas. The champion gave them a few muscular poses and a tight smile.
"I know Arkansas is always behind me," Taylor said earlier in the week. "Their support is great."
Hopkins was booed by the same fans as he weighed in at 160, the division limit. Both looked trim and ready for Saturday night's 12-round bout at the MGM Grand.
But they apparently couldn't wait to get started, although nothing more than verbal threats were thrown at the weigh-in. The fighters stood together for photos, then put their faces inches apart for some serious mouthing off.
That lasted perhaps a half-minute before they were separated by their handlers and security personnel. It hardly was an unusual scene for motormouth Hopkins, but seeing Taylor lose his cool was surprising.
"You've got nothing," Taylor told Hopkins, the challenger's head bobbing animatedly as he shouted into the champion's face.
Hopkins probably enjoyed the exchange, because he said all week he believes he's gotten inside Taylor's head.
"Jermain Taylor has to battle the enormity of this event and the physical part of it," Hopkins said. "I don't think he's up to it."
Taylor has dismissed any predictions that he can't handle the pressure.
"Now is my time," he said. "I feel like everything that's
happened has prepared me for this moment in time, to be the
undisputed middleweight champion."