By Sam Gregory: Tonight from the Liacouras Center at Temple University in Bernard Hopkins’ hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Hopkins won a unanimous decision over Enrique Ornelas in a 12 round non-title bout in the light heavyweight division.

In the opening rounds of the fight Ornelas came out hard and fast against the former undisputed middleweight champion; Hopkins paced himself and landed punches with pinpoint accuracy. Hopkins was so slow and methodical with his punches in the first two rounds I couldn’t help but think Hopkins was holding back to give his hometown fans their money’s worth.

In rounds three and four Hopkins slowly picked up the pace and continued to land crisp solid punches with accuracy. Ornelas stayed with Hopkins and seemed to match the champ punch for punch to the point where Ornelas won a couple of the early rounds and kept the fight very close.

In round five while they were fighting in close Ornelas landed three uppercuts that rocked Hopkins’ head back hard.

Midway through the fight it became obvious that Hopkins came to win this fight decisively; he picked up the pace as the rounds went on keeping total control of the offensive flow of the fight.

The only surprising aspect of the fight was the willingness of both men to fight in close coming ever so close to a serious clash of heads. Heads did collide a few times throughout this fight evidenced by the cuts over Ornelas’ right eye.

As the fight progressed to the seventh and eighth rounds Hopkins continued to apply the pressure to Ornelas as the rounds added up in the Philadelphians favor; Ornelas was a very game fighter throughout the fight always leaving the possibility of changing the direction of the fight with one punch.

By the eighth round Hopkins’ steady pressure looked to be taking its toll on Ornelas as the challengers punch count was diminishing rapidly.

Hopkins came out in the eleventh round leading with a solid right hand that rocked Ornelas; the challenger countered with a combination to Hopkins’ body than tied up; Hopkins punched out and finished the round with a flurry of punches that left Ornelas off balance to close the round.

At the start of the final round both men came out hard and fast that resulted in a clash of heads. When they regrouped Hopkins threw punches that looked like he was ready to end the fight a minute or two early. Ornelas stayed with Hopkins to the end of the round not allowing for a lopsided decision at any point in this fight.

After 12 rounds the fight went to the judge’s scorecards that read: 118-110, 120-109, and 119-109 all for the winner Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins.

Bernard Hopkins improved his record to 50-5-1 with 32 knockouts; Enrique Ornelas fell to 29-6 with 19 KO’s.