By Jeff Aranow: Bernard Hopkins firmly believes that he was tossed out of the ring last Saturday night in his 8th round TKO loss to #2 WBC light heavyweight contender Joe Smith Jr. (23-1, 19 KOs) despite there being no evidence to back up what the 51-year-old boxing great was saying.
Hopkins was counted out last night after he was knocked out of the ring from what appeared to be a series of punches from the 27-year-old Smith Jr. in their fight at the Forum in Inglewood, California. This was not the best way for Hopkins to end his career with him getting stopped in the 8th, and then him seemingly in denial about what had happened to him.
Hopkins said that he thought he’d been thrown out of the ring by Smith Jr. That’s not what the replay showed though. It showed Hopkins getting hit HARD by a left hook from Smith Jr. and then moving to the ropes where he was hit with several hard head shots that knocked him out of the ring.
With HBO Boxing televising the fight nationwide in the U.S, Hopkins said, “
“He got frustrated,” said Hopkins. “Next thing I know he was throwing me out of the ring. I injured myself and hit my head first and hurt my ankle. I would’ve come back. I went out as a solider.”
Hopkins had 20 seconds to get back inside the ring to resume fighting after he was knocked out of the ring, but he failed to do so and the fight was halted. It also looked like Hopkins was assisted when he outside of the ring. He’s supposed to have been able to get up on his own. When Hopkins failed to get back into the ring after 20 seconds, the fight was halted and ruled an 8th round knockout for Smith Jr.
I don’t know if you can agree that Hopkins went out like a soldier in the 8th. It looked to me like Hopkins went out with a bunch of excuses for him losing the fight. Hopkins didn’t give Smith Jr. any credit for him having beaten him by hitting him with punches rather than throwing him out of the ring, as he maintains.
It looked like Hopkins muddied Smith’s victory by bringing some controversy to the win that shouldn’t have been there. In the replay of the knockout, Hopkins was hit by punches. He wasn’t thrown out of the ring by Smith Jr. unless you consider the head shots that Smith Jr. landed as being a new way of throwing someone out of the ring. It would have been nice if Hopkins had given Smith Jr. credit for his victory. At least if Hopkins had done that, he could have taken the high road and gone out with some class by showing respect to his opponent for what he had done.
Right now, there’s more than a few boxing fans who aren’t quite sure what happened last night. Some of the fans saw the replay of Hopkins getting knocked out of the ring by punches thrown from Smith Jr. and they’ve concluded that he was knocked out of the ring by an accumulation of blows. Then there are some who believe that Hopkins was thrown out of the ring by Smith Jr. I don’t think Smith Jr. is going to get the full credit that he deserves due to Hopkins claiming that he’d been thrown or pushed out of the ring in the 8th.
If he wanted, Hopkins could always choose to return to the ring in 2017 to resume his boxing career and look for a rematch against Smith Jr. That would be one way for Hopkins to show that he wasn’t the guy that was hammered out of the ring in the 8th round last night. I Hopkins could extend his career for a little while longer, then he could redeem himself potentially by showing that he’s the better fighter than Smith. However, Hopkins says he’s done with boxing and he won’t be fighting again.
“This is my last fight, I promised it would be and you come to that point in life where it is final and I’m happy with my retirement,” said Hopkins. “I’m not in denial-Joe was a tough, heavy hitting fighter.”
It’s never good news when a fighter muddies up his opponent’s victory. I think that’s what Hopkins did last night by saying that he was thrown out of the ring instead of punched out. It’s too bad that Hopkins didn’t give Smith his proper credit for the job well done in knocking him out of the ring with punches rather than throwing him out of the ring.
Jim Lampley of HBO compared Smith Jr’s knocking Hopkins out of the ring to former heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano’s knockout of then 37-year-old Joe Louis in the 8th round in October 1951. Marciano knocked Louis out of the ring, but he was still on the edges of the ring just outside of the ropes. Louis didn’t fall onto the floor outside of the ring the way that Hopkins did. There was a difference. However, Hopkins was definitely knockout of the ring by punches thrown from Smith. That was the similar part to Marciano’s knockout win over Louis.
With the excuses that Hopkins made last night for his loss to Smith Jr., it makes Bernard look like a poor sport for failing to admit that he had been bested by the young power hitter. Smith Jr. is clearly a flawed fighter, but he showed that he didn’t need to have great talent for him to beat Hopkins. All he needed was his punching power and a lot of persistence.