What round will Hopkins go down in?

[Bornthrilla]

Golden Boy all the way, baby!

[Aggie One]

Oscar in six.

[Brandmasta]

Yall are crazy. Hopkins in a unanimous decision.

[Bornthrilla]

Hopkins KOs De La Hoya in 9th to retain titles
Tim Dahlberg / Associated Press




LAS VEGAS (AP) - Bernard Hopkins suddenly ended a close fight with two left hooks to the body in the ninth round Saturday night to stop Oscar De La Hoya and ruin his bid to become the undisputed middleweight champion.

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Hopkins KOs De La Hoya
Hopkins takes down De La Hoya with a solid body punch in 9th round.


The punches put De La Hoya on the canvas, on his hands and knees in obvious pain. When De La Hoya rolled over on his back, referee Kenny Bayless stopped the fight at 1:38 of the ninth.
While Hopkins celebrated, De La Hoya remained on his knees, his face buried in his gloves. He repeatedly pounded the canvas in frustration after being stopped for the first time in his brilliant career.


"I felt a sense of urgency," Hopkins said. "I wasn't sure if I was winning or not."

Hopkins (45-2-1, 32 knockouts) was ahead on two scorecards and behind on a third in a cautiously fought bout when he suddenly landed the punches just below De La Hoya's rib cage to retain his undisputed middleweight title in his 19th title defense.

"A well-placed body shot," De La Hoya said.

De La Hoya (37-4) was a 2-1 underdog in only his second fight as a middleweight and was taking on a champion who hadn't lost in 11 years.


"I tried to do the impossible on paper - beat the middleweight champ coming up from 130 pounds," De La Hoya said.

Hopkins fought cautiously the first half of the fight, giving both De La Hoya and the sold-out crowd at the MGM Grand arena some cause for optimism. De La Hoya, who many thought would box and move, was the aggressor in many of the early exchanges as he moved forward against Hopkins.

"He came to fight," Hopkins said. "He didn't come to run or look for a gift from the judges."


The pro-De La Hoya crowd cheered their fighter from the opening bell, screaming every time he landed a punch. Hopkins fought patiently, but as the rounds went on, his corner told him to pick up the pace and pressure De La Hoya more.

Still, De La Hoya was holding his own until the fight came to a stunning climax that quieted the shocked crowd as De La Hoya stayed on the canvas.

"He caught me right on the button," De La Hoya said. "Believe me, I tried getting up but I couldn't. I have what it takes, but he hit me right on the button."

De La Hoya, who weighed 155 pounds (70 kilograms) to 156 pounds (71 kilograms), had fought only once as a middleweight, but his opponent this time was a big upgrade from little known Felix Sturm. Hopkins had not lost since Roy Jones Jr. beat him 11 years ago, and he was primed for the payday of his lifetime.

De La Hoya fought despite needing 11 stitches to repair a cut on his left hand suffered three days before the fight. In his dressing room just before the fight, he said the cut on the fleshy part of his hand just beneath the ring finger was slightly swollen and asked that he be allowed not to have the usual tape on it.

But he said the hand didn't bother him, only the punches from a bigger and stronger fighter who wasn't going to be denied.

"It was a great shot, a great left hook," De La Hoya said.

The fight was eagerly anticipated and expected to be the richest non-heavyweight fight in boxing history. De La Hoya made at least $30 million, but the cost to his career might be greater. He was knocked out for the first time since turning pro after winning an Olympic gold medal in 1992.

Hopkins, who made only $300,000 in a fight just nine months ago, got a minimum $10 million, the biggest payday of his career, for fighting De La Hoya. He came into the ring to a recording of Frank Sinatra's "My Way," fitting for a boxer who stubbornly set his own course, even when it cost him millions of dollars.

After stopping De La Hoya, Hopkins climbed on the ropes to celebrate his biggest win.

"It was Hopkins sauce with chopped liver," he said.

The fight had been promoted as a replay on Sugar Ray Leonard's upset of Marvelous Marvin Hagler 17 years ago, but this time the bigger and stronger fighter prevailed.

De La Hoya was quicker inside and landed almost as many punches as Hopkins. But though ringside stats credited him with 82 punches to 99 for Hopkins, he never landed any that seemed to bother the champion.

Still, there was hope both in the crowd and in De La Hoya's corner.

"You can see he's an old man," trainer Floyd Mayweather Jr. told De La Hoya after the third round. "He's an old man."

At the age of 39, Hopkins was old by boxing standards. But he fought with the energy and reflexes of a fighter a decade younger while waiting for his chance to open up against De La Hoya.

"When I saw I could stay in front of him, our game plan changed," De La Hoya said. "It was working until he threw that good body shot."

Hopkins was ahead 79-73 on one card and 78-74 on a second, while the third judge had De La Hoya ahead 77-75. The Associated Press had Hopkins leading 77-75.

In an undercard fight, Juan Manuel Marquez retained his WBA featherweight title with a unanimous decision over Orlando Salido of Mexico.

Marquez, coming off a draw with Manny Pacquiao in May when he was knocked down three times in the first round, dominated the fight to win by comfortable margins on all three scorecards.