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By Lyle Fitzsimmons - To most people, it was a throwaway line.
During post-fight commentary in which Bernard Hopkins vented about a draw after dominating the final two-thirds of a Showtime main event with Jean Pascal, he referenced indignities suffered in his last foreign road trip.
Eerily similar to the two-knockdown miscarriage in Quebec, the old man from Philly had been treated to a Southern Hemisphere version exactly 16 years – and one day – earlier, twice rising from the deck to take control of a what became a dubious deadlock with Segundo Mercado in Quito, Ecuador.
It was the bout that fueled Hopkins’ original jingoistic fire – prompting him to claim he’d never again brandish a passport and board a plane to risk untoward activity benefiting a hometown opponent.
He kept the promise until Saturday, when he earned a 114-112 nod from judge Steve Morrow but saw a bid to regain the IBO’s 175-pound belt and win the WBC version snuffed out by knotted scores of 113-113 and 114-114 from Claude Paquette and Daniel Van de Wiele, respectively.
Morrow gave Hopkins eight of 12 rounds to arrive at his knockdown-skewed totals, while Paquette saw seven rounds in the 45-year-old’s favor and Van de Wiele awarded him six of 12 with one even. [Click Here To Read More]
During post-fight commentary in which Bernard Hopkins vented about a draw after dominating the final two-thirds of a Showtime main event with Jean Pascal, he referenced indignities suffered in his last foreign road trip.
Eerily similar to the two-knockdown miscarriage in Quebec, the old man from Philly had been treated to a Southern Hemisphere version exactly 16 years – and one day – earlier, twice rising from the deck to take control of a what became a dubious deadlock with Segundo Mercado in Quito, Ecuador.
It was the bout that fueled Hopkins’ original jingoistic fire – prompting him to claim he’d never again brandish a passport and board a plane to risk untoward activity benefiting a hometown opponent.
He kept the promise until Saturday, when he earned a 114-112 nod from judge Steve Morrow but saw a bid to regain the IBO’s 175-pound belt and win the WBC version snuffed out by knotted scores of 113-113 and 114-114 from Claude Paquette and Daniel Van de Wiele, respectively.
Morrow gave Hopkins eight of 12 rounds to arrive at his knockdown-skewed totals, while Paquette saw seven rounds in the 45-year-old’s favor and Van de Wiele awarded him six of 12 with one even. [Click Here To Read More]
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