TalkingBoxing Articles
Hopkins Insists He Has Retired, Hall of Fame Promoter in the Future?
FRI June 16, JASPREET PANCHHI - After easily beating Antonio Tarver on June 10th, Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins became only the third fighter, along with Bob Fitzsimmons and Dick Tiger, to win both the undisputed middleweight and undisputed light-heavyweight championships. The feat caps off a Hall of Fame career that has seen the 41-year old Bernard Hopkins defend his middleweight crown a record 20 times in a period that has stretched to over a decade.
Hopkins, a former inmate at the Graterford Penitentiary for 5 years,
outlined his plan to the boxing world at the beginning of last year. He
wanted to make one more defence after beating Howard Eastman to be the
first
middleweight to secure 20 consecutive defences, followed by the quest
to
capture the Undisputed Light-Heavyweight Championship against the
winner of
Tarver-Jones III on January 14th, a day before his 41st birthday. This
would
have meant he had kept his promise that he gave to his dying mother of
not
fighting beyond that age.
However, the intention was slightly altered by a highly controversial split decision loss to Jermain Taylor on July 16th, 2005. The overwhelming feeling among the public was that the veteran won the fight. This consensus was echoed by the media, which was illustrated by the fact that out of 20 media members scoring the bout, 14 thought that “The Executioner” should have remained the champion, 3 held the opinion that it was a draw, whilst 4 media personnel opted for the challenger. The scorecard of Jerry Roth which read 116-112 for Hopkins coincides for the majority view of the media and the other two scorecards of Paul Smith and Duane Ford read 115-113 for Taylor.
Judge Ford’s scoring caused particular controversy as he somehow thought Taylor took the last three minutes of the fight in a round in which the champion out landed Taylor by 12 to 5 power punches. After the encounter, Duane Ford allegedly said he was influenced by the pro-Taylor crowd and that he could not see the action as the native Arkansas fighter’s back was towards him. A rematch followed.
On December 3rd, 2005, Jermain Taylor retained his middleweight titles against Bernard Hopkins via yet another controversial verdict, in which all three judges opted for a 115-113 decision in favor of Taylor. Once again, the general feeling was that “B-Hop” won the encounter, which saw Hopkins land over a hundred power punches in comparison to the 60 landed by Taylor.
Bernard later left the middleweight division to successfully capture the Undisputed Light-Heavyweight Championship after easily out-pointing the “Magic Man” 118-109 on all three judges’ scorecards on June 10th, 2006. Most thought Tarver would emerge victorious and the betting odds of 1-3 reflected that with conviction. Hopkins dominated the fight and made it look easy in a largely unproblematic fight.
In the post-fight press conference, Bernard Hopkins insisted that his win over Tarver was his last fight. “I’m done. I don’t need to risk anything else,” said Hopkins. “I’m not crazy to go up to Cruiserweight or Heavyweight,” said the new 175 lb champion following the win over Tarver.
Hopkins will now focus on the promotional company Golden Boy Promotions
which he co-promotes with Oscar De La Hoya. He indicated his attempt to
revolutionize fighters and their stereotype of not being aware of the
business side of boxing. He is an all-time great. His victory to
capture the
Light-Heavyweight Championship, the first fighter ever to do so after
coming
immediately from the 160 lb division, punctuated his Hall of Fame
career.
Hopkins will now aim to become a Hall of Fame promoter.
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