By Eric Thomas: As expected, 44-year-old Bernard Hopkins defeated middleweight Enrique Ornelas by a 12 round unanimous decision on Wednesday night in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The final judges’ scores were 118-110, 120-109 and 119-109. Hopkins used his superior boxing skills to easily handle the smaller Ornelas all night, jabbing him and landing sharp right hands at will. As for Hopkins’ next bout, it probably won’t be against 40-year-old Roy Jones Jr., who was stopped in the 1st round today by Australian Danny Green. Hopkins was supposed to be fighting Jones next, but Roy’s loss will likely upset those plans.

The fight was rather dull to watch for the most part. Hopkins looked older, slower and heavier than he was a year ago in a 12 round decision over Kelly Pavlik in October 2008. Hopkins mostly looked to land one or two shots and then grab either clinch or fight ugly on the inside where both fighters would lean against other and land at close range. In each round, Hopkins would land one or two good shots, which was all he needed to outwork Ornelas, who had poor accuracy with his shots.

Ornelas often charged forward trying to land but would miss badly and end up in a clinch with Hopkins. In the 10th and 11th rounds, Hopkins appeared to tire out and throw far less punches Ornelas’ accuracy improved in both rounds as he was able to land some nice shots against Hopkins, who suddenly started looking old. In the 12th round, Hopkins finally let loose on two separate occasions in the round with combinations on the inside to win the round.

It’s too bad Hopkins couldn’t fight hard like this in the earlier rounds, because he really stunk up the joint with his boring one punch and then grab technique. I never expected anything of Ornelas, who I always thought looked bad in losing to the likes of Marco Antonio Rubio, Sam Soliman, Bronko McKart among others.

The bout was painfully dull to watch until the 8th, which is when Hopkins started to land some nice combinations. Before that, he and Ornelas had spent a great deal of time leaning against each other and punching to the midsection and side of the head. It looked like a fight between two aging heavyweights instead of a light heavyweight. Very boring. Hopkins landed one good shot in the 9th, a right uppercut. Other than that, it was mostly punch and grab and a lot of leaning and wrestling. In rounds 10 and 11, Hopkins looked faded and tired.

All in all, not a good performance by Hopkins. He looked like he had aged rather than rusted. If he’s hoping to fight World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye, then he’s going to have improve somehow. I don’t see it happening. If anything, Hopkins will be worse if and when he moves up in weight.

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In the undercard action, super bantamweight Guadalupe De Leon (8-9, 4 KO’s) defeated Derrick Wilson (5-1-1, 2 KO’s) by a four round split decision. Wilson, 20, a prospect that a lot of people are high on, fought well in the opening round as he blitzed De Leon trying to take him out with a storm of shots. The final judges’ scores were 39-37, 39-37 and 39-37, all for De Leon. However, when De Leon, 30, didn’t go anywhere, Wilson tired out and began to take shots from the more polished and patient De Leon.

In rounds two through four, De Leon outworked Wilson and landed the better shots and the more accurate punches. Wilson would attempt to land a flurry of shots every now and then, but he was too weak and tired by this time to do much. What was disappointing was that Wilson seemed gassed by the 2nd.

De Leon had lost his last seven fights going into his bout with Wilson. Derrick has a lot of work in front of him before he amounts to anything. I don’t know that he can. He doesn’t look at that good to me, and it’s not a good sign when you lose to a fighter that has lost seven consecutive fights.

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Light welterweight prospect Danny Garcia (15-0, 10 KO’s) defeated Enrique Colin (29-6-3, 24 KO’s) by a 2nd round knockout. Garcia, 21, knocked Colin down two times in the fight, both by right hands. In the 2nd round, Garcia tagged Colin with a huge right hand that sent Colin down face first on the canvas. Referee Steve Smoger then stepped in and stopped the bout immediately at 0:55 of the round.

In the opening round, Garcia landed a big right hook near the end of the round that sent Colin down. At the time, Colin was trying to land a big right hand of his own and didn’t seem prepared for the big shot. The round had been fairly even up until the point of the knockdown.

Garcia looks like a good prospect for the light welterweight division. He’s tall at 5’9″ and has good right hand power. His hand speed isn’t all that good, however, but his right hand power seems to make up for it. He’s someone to keep an eye on in the future.