HOPKINS? RACIST REMARKS MAY HAVE COST HIM THE FIGHT
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 20 Apr 2008
Bernard ?The Executioner? Hopkins racist remark ?I will never let a white boy beat me, never,? may possibly have cost him his fight against undefeated Welshman Joe Calzaghe for the Ring Magazine light heavyweight championship belt at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Sunday morning Manila time.
Two of the three judges who scored the fight for the 36 year old Calzaghe who is referred to as ?The Prince of Wales? were white and their tallies were enough to overcome the 114-113 scorecard of Adalaide Byrd who is black. Judge Ted Gimza scored it 115-112 for Calzaghe while Chuck Giampa had Calzaghe winner by an even bigger margin, 116-111.
In a post-fight interview, Hopkins, who decked Calzaghe with a perfect right that landed flush on the face at seventy seconds into round one, claimed the whole world knew he won the fight adding ?I just really feel I took the guy to school.?
Calzaghe recovered from the shock of the early knockdown and put the pressure on Hopkins in the second half of the fight to eke out a split decision. Although he admitted it didn?t look pretty, Calzaghe, who was pumped up by his father/trainer Enzo who kept telling him he had to go after the ageing Hopkins, conceded that Hopkins ?gave me some good shots. It wasn?t my best night, but I won the fight.?
It was a rough and tumble affair with Hopkins guilty of holding often and referee Joe Cortez was forced to warn both fighters for tactics that bordered on the dirty. Cortez stopped the bout twice for low blows but the one in round ten was regarded as borderline at best. The stoppage angered Calzaghe and the large crowd of Welsh fans and fired up the southpaw from Newbridge.
The punch stats weighed heavily in favor of Calzaghe who landed 33 percent of his 707 punches while Hopkins connected with only 27 percent of his 416 blows.In what was perhaps the most telling statistic of all, Calzaghe connected with 232 punches which were the most ever landed against ?The Executioner? in 21 of his fights tracked by CompuBox.
With the win the Welshman kept his unbeaten record intact and improved to 45-0 with 32 knockouts while Hopkins dropped to 48-5-1 with 32 knockouts.
Hopkins dropped to 48-5-1 with 32 knockouts.
Among the many celebrities and boxing people at ringside during the ABS-CBN telecast over Studio 23 was Shelly Finkel, the former manager of Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao and manager of Jeff ?Left Hook? Lacy who lost a lopsided twelve round decision to Calzaghe in March 2006 and predicted he would go far.
During the telecast, ABS-CBN announced that its next big offering will be the battle between Oscar De La Hoya and Stevie Forbes on May 4 as part of its growing involvement in sports, particularly boxing.
Top photo: Joe Calzaghe of Wales is pulled off Bernard Hopkins of the U.S. (R) by referee Joe Cortez during their light-heavyweight boxing fight at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada April 19, 2008. Andrew Couldridge, REUTERS (UNITED STATES)
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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