Monday, Sept. 20, 2004 | 10:18 a.m.
Somewhere, the Chairman of the Board is smiling.
Bernard Hopkins invoked the spirit of Frank Sinatra before, during and after Saturday night's knockout of Oscar De La Hoya in a bout that did a decent job of living up to its billing as fight of the year.
"Just like old Frankie, when they talk about me I want them to say, 'He done it his way,' " said Hopkins, who possesses the oratory skills of a world-class preacherman, though he spikes the oration with a dose of North Philly tough guy street talk.
Hopkins, who retained the undisputed world middleweight championship, spent the days leading up to the fight recounting his stretch in prison as a young man and, later, his battles with former promoters and the boxing establishment.
He painted himself as the sport's ultimate outsider, an iconoclast who trains in Miami's South Beach yet has the discipline to go to bed at 7:30 every night while he's there.
Appropriately, he chose to enter the ring at the MGM Grand Garden Arena to the strains of "My Way," Sinatra's 1969 anthem.
"I need to play Frankie," Hopkins said. "What better place than Vegas?"
He even ended the fight in an unconventional manner, with a sharp left hook to the liver that left De La Hoya writhing in agony and frustration, knocked out for the first time in his brilliant professional career.
"When you look at my record years from now, you'll see that I fought two of the best fighters of my time in De La Hoya and (Felix) Trinidad, and I knocked them both out," Hopkins said. "That's very important to me."
It was the 19th consecutive title defense for Hopkins, extending his middleweight record. In the heavyweight division, Joe Louis successfully defended his title a record 25 times.
"I don't know who the unlucky (No.) 20 will be," Hopkins said. "But I'm looking forward to getting to 20. After that, then I will seek out big fights outside the (middleweight) division."
With the victory, Hopkins (45-2-1, 32 knockouts) kept his IBF, WBA and WBC middleweight titles and won De La Hoya's WBO belt. De La Hoya's record fell to 37-4 with 29 KOs.
De La Hoya tasted the canvas for the first time since his 1999 bout with Ike Quartey, which he rallied to win by split decision.
"Bernard hit me with a good left hook to the body and I couldn't recover," De La Hoya said. "Believe me, I wanted to. But it was right on the button."
The end came at 1:38 of the ninth round, just a minute after Hopkins took control by landing a big uppercut, then following with a crisp straight right. As De La Hoya was collapsing, Hopkins delivered another left to the temple, but the body shot was the decisive blow.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd get stopped by a body shot," De La Hoya said. "It was a perfect body shot. Boom, right there. It paralyzes you. It's like you're stuck, you can't move. I've never felt that before in my life."
Hopkins was leading on two of the judges' scorecards at the time of the stoppage. Dave Moretti had him ahead 79-73, and Paul Smith had it 78-74. De La Hoya was leading on Keith Macdonald's card, 77-75.
The Sun's scorecard had Hopkins ahead 78-74, having awarded De La Hoya the second and sixth rounds.
Nasir Graham, one of Hopkins' sparring partners, said he wasn't at all surprised by the outcome, as he had worked extensively on body shots with the champ in training.
"We worked a lot on body shots and on lateral movement," said Graham, of Newark, N.J. "Out of all the boxers I've worked with -- Livingstone Bramble, Howard Davis, and I've boxed Oscar, too -- I've got to hand it to Bernard as the smartest guy I've ever seen in the ring."
Even as he was drilled with questions about the possibilities for his next opponent, Hopkins took time to reflect on his place in boxing history.
"I know I didn't get here just on my talents," Hopkins said. "I know there's an entity up there that's bigger than all of us on earth. ...
"When my daughter (Latrice), who's 5 now, becomes 18 or 20 and people are telling her about her dad, they're not going to tell her about his money; they're going to talk about (his place in) history. That lives on well after I'm dead.
"That's important to Bernard Hopkins: to go down in history and be spoken of like Ray Robinson is today."
For a short while before the fight, it looked as if controversy might overshadow the card, as so often happens in boxing.
It was revealed Friday that De La Hoya had sustained a freak injury to his left hand -- he was cut with scissors while having the tape removed from his hand after a workout, requiring 11 stitches. He then took a shot of the painkiller Lidocaine, a banned substance that could show up in a drug test.
"It's always something," Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, muttered before the main event.
Afterward De La Hoya said neither the cut nor the painkiller played any role in the result of the fight.
"No factor whatsoever," he said. "He beat me fair and square."
It's quite possible Ratner had said a few words to his own higher entity -- no, not HBO's Larry Merchant -- before the fight, asking that the night remain free of controversy.
For once, divine intervention or not, it did.
Many in the crowd of 16,112 -- the majority rooting for De La Hoya -- seemed to appreciate Hopkins' choice of entrance music, at first laughing, then singing along with the famous refrain.
The fight started off as a tactical match, marked by good defense on the part of both fighters, then built up steam in the middle rounds before reaching its emphatic crescendo.
"I'm not saying I expected him to go down on a body shot, but that is pretty common in boxing," said Floyd Mayweather Sr., De La Hoya's trainer.
"When it was over, he told me he was sorry he disappointed me. I said, 'You haven't disappointed me. You're a champion, man. You continue to be a champion.' "
De La Hoya, 31, was noncommittal on whether he would retire from boxing.
"I know I can be better than I was tonight," he said. "It's eating me inside. ...
"You know us fighters -- it's like a love-hate relationship we have with boxing."
De La Hoya's comments echoed, almost spookily, those once made by Roberto Duran when he was asked what keeps him motivated. "I'm a fighter, man, that's why I fight," Duran replied.
But Duran also reportedly had a lot of debts, man, which likely played a role in his decision to keep fighting until age 50.
That's not the case with either De La Hoya or Hopkins. The erstwhile Golden Boy has multiple business interests and is said to be worth some $150 million. Hopkins, a shrewd investor, is laying the groundwork for a career as a commercial real estate baron when his fighting days are over.
Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns, another great middleweight, suggested Hopkins and De La Hoya should consider going at it again.
"If De La Hoya does continue to fight, I think there should be a rematch," Hearns said.
Promoter Bob Arum, who said he would like to work with Hopkins again but has nothing locked in, was shaken to see De La Hoya knocked out for the first time. The two have a longstanding business relationship and friendship.
"You hate to see somebody you've worked with for years lying like that on the canvas," Arum said. "That does something to you. That kind of shot does paralyze you, even though it only lasts for 30 seconds."
Hopkins' trainer Bouie Fisher, a 76-year-old Philadelphian, was like a rock for his fighter throughout the hysteria of fight week. Fisher's low-key demeanor stood in stark contrast to that of his counterpart Mayweather, who's flashy, flamboyant and frankly, a bit of a loose cannon. ("I went to jail for selling cocaine," Mayweather snapped at an inquiring New York Times reporter last week. "Do you want to buy some?")
Fisher pointed out that in a couple of days, he'll be away from the spotlight, back doing the workaday grind at Champs Gym in North Philadelphia.
"This is one of the highlights of my career, being in Las Vegas, being a part of boxing history," Fisher said. "But when it's all done I'll be back in the gym telling some young kid to remember to keep his hands up."
Hopkins mentioned as possible future opponents Antonio Tarver and Roy Jones Jr., both light heavyweights. Jones beat Hopkins in a 12-round unanimous decision in 1993, and Hopkins has clamored for a rematch.
Hopkins intimated he would secure his 20th defense at middleweight, then consider dropping or moving up in weight class depending on where the big bucks are.
"Let me make it clear," Hopkins said. "I want to fight big fights. I'm almost 40 years old. I need the big fights."
He'll undoubtedly get them. In the week he spent in the city, Hopkins charmed the pants off Las Vegas and, in a phrase Michael Buffer uses but hasn't copyrighted yet, "the millions watching around the world."
On Saturday night, he solidified his claim as the best boxer, pound for pound, in the world.
He scored his biggest payday, upwards of $10 million. He established himself as a bona fide megastar in his sport four months shy of his 40th birthday, ensuring at least a few more fruitful pay-per-view extravaganzas to come.
And more, much more than this, he done it his way.
archive
