1
Light Heavyweight Fight Title: Bernard Hopkins vs Joe Smith full fight round by round result, replay update highlights.Weigh in Result:
Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) weighed in successfully at 174 pounds for his fight against WBC International light heavyweight champion Joe Smith Jr. (22-1, 18 KOs) for their fight on HBO Boxing this Saturday night at the Forum in Inglewood, California. Smith Jr. weighed in at 175lbs.
Preview:
Hopkins, 51, did a lot of talking to the 27-year-old Smith Jr. during the face off after the weigh-in. It looked like Hopkins was trying to get into the head of the Long Island fighter to unnerve him and gain an edge for the fight.
Hopkins seemed satisfied when Smith Jr. turned away to end the stare down. Smith Jr. has not seemed nearly as aggressive as Hopkins during the press conferences. Smith Jr. is not that type of guy to do a lot of trash talking or to use intimidation. If Hopkins wants an opponent that would create more fire and interest from the boxing public, he picked the wrong guy.
Hopkins’ selection of Smith Jr. is likely more about him seeing weakness that he can potentially exploit in this fight. It makes Hopkins look good if he can beat Smith Jr., as the World Boxing Council has him ranked at #2 in their top 15 rankings. However, Smith Jr. was seen as just an opponent for his last fight against Andrzej Fonfara last June.
Smith Jr. wasn’t highly ranked, and he was just seen as a guy that had an inflated ranking and would be a good win for Fonfara. Smith Jr. surprised Fonfara by knocking him out in the 1st round after the Polish fighter got careless with him and was badly hurt. Smith Jr. is still an average fighter in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans. His high ranking with the WBC has got him the Hopkins fight.
Smith Jr. is someone that should be ranked much lower than #2 in my eyes. Smith Jr. does not as talented as many of the fighters that are ranked below him like Artur Beterbiev, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Vyacheslav Shabranskyy, Juergen Braehmer, Yunieski Gonzalez, Marcus Browne, Erik Skoglund, Thomas Williams Jr., Jean Pascal, Isaac Chilemba and Sean Monaghan.
Many of those fighters if not all of them would likely beat Smith Jr. It doesn’t matter though. Hopkins will be able to brag if he beats Smith Jr. on Saturday night by telling the boxing fans on HBO that he beat a highly ranked guy rather than him being a fighter that really should be rated a lot lower than he is.
Hopkins vs Smith Full Fight Replay
Watch: @beastsmithjr knocks @THEREALBHOP out of the ring 53 seconds into round 8, ending the fight. #Final1 https://t.co/Pj2svLUlC9— HBOboxing (@HBOboxing) 18 December 2016
Recap:
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Joe Smith Jr. stopped Bernard Hopkins 53 seconds into the eighth round of their WBC international light heavyweight title fight Saturday night.Smith used a six-punch combination to send Hopkins through the ropes and on to the floor, effectively ending the 51-year-old's 28-year boxing career.
Hopkins had 20 seconds to return to the ring but was unable to stand without pain and the injury incurred forced a TKO. Smith successfully defended his title.
RESULTS
* * * * *
ROUND BY ROUND
BERNARD HOPKINS vs JOE SMITH JR.
Round 1: Smith coming right at Hopkins and loading up with every shot. Bernard tying up on the inside and trying to work.
Smith wobbled Hopkins with a right hand and then came back up top with another left.
Round 2: Smith rips a big right to the body, but he's cut from a headbutt.
Hopkins body language is troubling. Smith is stalking him here and making good use of his youth and power. Bernard needs to find something to exploit here.
Round 3: Smith has gotten a bit sloppier in the last three or four minutes. That's given Hopkins some opportunities to land some leads and make Smith miss.
Hopkins has gotten something going a bit here and is now limiting Smith's contact. Probably the best round of the fight for the 51-year-old legend.
Round 4: Tactically the fight has slowed down dramatically. Smith was on the hunt and landing in the first two rounds, but Hopkins has forced him into a lull. He's forced him to fight his fight. Smith still dangerous, but seems to be more sloppy.
Round 5: Hopkins has landed a couple of big right hands in the first minute of this round. Smith responds with a hard left hand to the body. Big right hand lands upstairs for Smith. Hopkins held but seems fine.
Round 6: Smith having a good round, but he's loading up on every single shot.
Smith clearly trying to impose his youth and power advantages on this fight, but he's looking a bit winded in the corner. It'll be interesting to see how he holds up in the second half.
Round 7: Favored Hopkins in that round. Smith swung wide a lot, missed and took a good deal of return fire. There have been a lot of swing rounds in this fight.
Final Result: Hopkins knocked down and out of the ring, That was brutal. Smith crushed him along the ropes, Hopkins fell straight through the ropes nad landed on his head outside the ring. What an ending.Hopkins complaining that Smith pushed him out of the ring, but that absolutely did not happen. He punched him clean through the ropes.
Clean knockdown and knockout. Smith knocks Hopkins out of the ring and out of the fight in the eighth round.
The first knockout loss of Hopkins' career in what he says is his final fight.
Joe Smith Jr. knocked Bernard Hopkins out of the ring and onto the arena floor in the eighth round to end the all-time great's career with a brutal stoppage loss on Saturday night at the Forum in Los Angeles on HBO. It was a scary but emphatic ending for a fighter who made a career out of defying conventional wisdom.
Smith (23-1, 19 KO) was clearly the stronger fighter. That much became apparent at the opening bell. He stalked Hopkins around the ring in the first frame and landed some significant right hands that had his opponent on the run.
Hopkins (55-8-2, 32 KO) seemed to find something in the third and fourth rounds. He was able to make the fight more tactical and make Smith miss more frequently while making him pay with straight right hands.
2