By Sammy Rozenberg
It was eventually going to come to an end. Bernard Hopkins (47-4-1, 32 KOs) entered the ring in Atlantic City, the same place where he staged his very first fight, to step up to the plate against the recognized light heavyweight champion, Antonio Tarver (24-4, 18 KOs), in what he promises the last fight of his career.
Hopkins made a leap in weight look easy as he goes out with a bang. He was billed as a 3-1 underdog, but ended his career with a dominating performance over Antonio Tarver.
From the start of the fight, Hopkins appeared to be bigger, stronger and younger. Tarver tried to paw with his jab, but was unable to land much on the always-moving Hopkins, who timed the jab of Tarver all night long with straight right hand.
Hopkins used a strategy of grabbing Tarver every time he tired to lunge in to land a power shot and made him pay with straight right hands and left hand counters. In the fifth round, Tarver was knocked off balance by a Hopkins power shot that made his glove touch the ring mat, prompting the ref to rule it as a knockdown. By the tenth round, the left eye of Tarver was almost swollen shut from the right hands of Hopkins and the rest of his face was getting there.
The fight did not get any easier for Tarver as Hopkins began to pursue a knockout by landing combinations on Tarver, who appeared to have nothing left in the tank. The crowd gave Hopkins a standing obviation at the end of the final round. All three of the judges scored the bout 118-109.
When Bernard Hopkins, an ex-con, began his career in 1988, not one person other than Hopkins imagined what he would eventually accomplish in the ring. Hopkins, who will go down as one of the greatest middleweights to ever grace the ring, was always at odds with the media, the networks and promoters, but he was still able to do things his way and eventually became a fan favorite because of his resistance to the higher powers.
Because of his resistance, Hopkins did not get the big paydays or become a pay-per-view attraction until he met Felix Trinidad in 2001, to unify the middleweight division in a highly publicized pay-per-view event from Madison Square Garden. The sheer domination of Trinidad, the betting favorite to win, placed Hopkins in the top five of most pound-for-pound lists in the world. The win over Trinidad made the entire boxing world take notice, Hopkins could no longer be overlooked by the fans or the media.
After the win over Trinidad, Hopkins was still battling with the higher powers because he felt that he was not being offered the proper amount of money for big fights.
In the final quarter of 2004, the tide would turn in the career of Hopkins, when Oscar De La Hoya, arguable one of the most popular fighters in the last 20 years, moved up to the middleweight division to challenge Hopkins for his middleweight crown. In a entertaining fight, Hopkins would begin to dominate De La Hoya in the last rounds, stopping De La Hoya for the first time in his career on a single shot to the liver in the ninth round.
After everything was said and done, Hopkins would unify the middleweight division for the first time since Marvin Hagler, break Carlos Monzon's records of successful title defenses by a final tally of 20 defenses and became the first fighter to hold the WBA/WBO/IBF/WBC titles at the same time. During all of this, Hopkins remained undefeated for over twelve years, and even his two decision losses in 2005 to Jermain Taylor could have gone either way.
The win over Tarver is just another great accomplishment for the career of Hopkins and with the win he redeems his 1993 loss to Roy Jones, Jr.
Tarver began his journey to boxing with an impressive amateur career, capped by winning an Olympic Bronze medal in 1996. After reaching his dream of winning a medial at the Olympics, he began plans to become a profession and made his pro-debut in 1997. It was a long hard for Tarver, but he never gave up and always fought the best fighters of his division. After gaining victories over Reggie Johnson, Montell Griffin and Eric Harding, his time to shine was handed to him in 2003 when he met Roy Jones Jr, the recognized pound for pound fighter in the world. Tarver lost the bout by majority decision, but he battered Jones in the fight like no other opponent, and did well enough that many observers felt he won and a rematch was in demand by the public.
When Tarver and Jones met for the second time in May 2004, Tarver shocked the entire boxing world by stopping Roy Jones in two rounds by way of a crushing knockout. Tarver was now the king of the light heavyweights, but his reign was cut short a few months later when Tarver lost a split-decision to Glen Johnson. After 6 months of heavy training, a motivated Tarver returned to decision Johnson to gain revenge. A few months later, Tarver would easily win a third bout with life-long rival Roy Jones, Jr.
Now that he lost in dominating fashion to Hopkins, a career middleweight, the critics will question if Tarver is exactly what Hopkins called him during the pre-fight hype – a “one hit wonder,” which refers to Tarver’s one-punch knockout of Roy Jones, Jr.
On the undercard,
WBC super bantamweight champion Israel Vazquez (40-3, 29 KOs) stopped Ivan "Choko" Hernandez (23-2-1, 13 KOs) after four rounds of action. The doctors felt Hernandez was unable to continue after being busted up by Vazquez in the fight and bleeding badly on his stool.
In an upset, Andrey Tsurkan (23-2, 14 KOs), almost knocked out in the fourth round, came back to stop Hector Camacho Jr. (41-2-1, 23 KOs) in the eight round.
Undefeated jr. welterweight Jorge Paez Jr (9-0, 7 KOs) won an easy four round decision over Travis Hartman (8-4-1). The scores were 40-36, 40-36, and 39-37.
