Newly crowned junior welterweight world titleholder Maurice Hooker was arrested for drunken driving early Tuesday in his hometown of Dallas.
Hooker, 28, was pulled over by police for speeding at 1:50 a.m. CT, and while he was being followed by a Dallas police car, he crashed into a squad car ahead of him that was being used to redirect traffic in a construction area, according to the police report, as reported by the Dallas Morning News. The police car following Hooker collided with another unoccupied police car at the construction site and two officers were hospitalized, one with a broken arm.
Hooker, whose brother was a passenger, refused a blood alcohol level test, triggering a misdemeanor driving-while-intoxicated charge. Hooker was also charged with misdemeanor unlawful possession of a handgun. He posted bond on both charges.
“We’re checking the facts, but Maurice has his attorney in Dallas trying to sort through the police paperwork to see exactly what happened,” Dino Duva of Roc Nation Sports, which promotes Hooker, told ESPN on Thursday. “I don’t want to say too much but Maurice disputes whether he was even intoxicated. They are still doing an investigation and he did a blood test.”
As for the gun charge, Duva said Hooker has a license to carry the legal weapon but that once he refused the blood alcohol test and was charged it “nullifies the gun license until you are convicted or not.”
On June 9, Hooker (24-0-3, 16 KOs) won a split decision over former lightweight world titlist Terry Flanagan (33-1, 13 KOs) to gain a vacant 140-pound world title in Flanagan’s hometown of Manchester, England.
Hooker, who turned down an invitation to compete in the eight-man World Boxing Super Series tournament which begins in the fall, is next due to face Alex Saucedo in a mandatory title defense, which Duva has been negotiating with Saucedo promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank. Duva and Arum are working on a deal for the fight to headline a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card this fall in the Dallas area, because one of the stipulations that Top Rank agreed to was not to place the fight in Saucedo’s home state of Oklahoma.
“Maurice is completely ready, willing and able to do the Saucedo fight,” Duva said. “Bob and I have exchanged paperwork on the contracts but we’re not there yet.”
Duva and Arum are hoping to make a two-fight deal under which Hooker would fight Saucedo (28-0, 18 KOs), 24, of Oklahoma City, this fall, and if Hooker wins he would get a chance to face Jose Ramirez (22-0, 16 KOs) in a title-unification fight in early 2019. Ramirez first will make his first title defense against Antonio Orozco on Sept. 14 and would have to retain his title.