North Dakota boxer Hill predicts victory: 41-year-old hopes fight leads to big payday

By Jeff Kolpack

May 31, 2005 at 11:00 PM

At 41 years old, Virgil Hill is looking to the future.

The North Dakota boxer's pending World Boxing Association cruiserweight title fight later this summer will not yield big money. But he is betting a win against Valery Brudov will lead to a bigger payday.

Hill will make about $140,000 against Brudov, said Bill Sorensen, his manager. Sorensen said the fight, which doesn't have a specified date, will either be held in the Caribbean island of St. Martin or France.

French promoter Michel Acaries won the purse bid to stage the fight. Sorensen said his group put together a bid high enough to land the fight, but Don King Productions told him it would put up more money.

"We worked a deal with him and then he didn't bid," Sorensen said. "No surprise."

Sorensen and Don King Productions have had their negotiating troubles in the past.

Sorensen said he and Hill have an agreement that if Hill loses, the fighter will retire. If Hill beats Brudov, the possibility exists for two more fights - one presumably a tuneup and the other a title fight.

"That's the agreement and I think he's going to stick to it," Sorensen said.

Hill and Sorensen have been talking retirement for a few years. But the lure of the boxing money has kept Hill in the game.

"He'd like one more bite of the big apple," Sorensen said.

Hill, the No. 2 WBA contender, got the title chance thanks to Jean-Marc Mormeck. The WBA promoted Mormeck to superchamp status after he won the World Boxing Council unification bout against Wayne Braithwaite last month.

Mormeck defeated Hill, 49-5, for the WBA belt in May 2004.

Brudov, 28, a native of St. Petersburg, Russia, is 30-0 although he has never fought outside of Russia or France and has never competed for a world title belt. He has never faced anybody currently ranked in the top 15 in the WBA, WBC or International Boxing Federation.

"If it goes to St. Martin, that would be to our advantage," Sorensen said. "If it goes back to France, then we have our work cut out for us. Just don't know about those decisions."

Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-5546

By Jeff Kolpack

Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough" and "Covid Kids." He is the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.

North Dakota boxer Hill predicts victory: 41-year-old hopes fight leads to big payday

At 41 years old, Virgil Hill is looking to the future. The North Dakota boxer's pending World Boxing Association cruiserweight title fight later this summer will not yield big money. But he is betting a win against Valery Brudov will lead to a bi...