A SHUT OUT ALL THE WAY AROUND – HOPKINS 16TH TITLE DEFENSE
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By Ron Brashear
Inside Boxing Writer/Columnist

(IB – March 29, 2003) – Once again, Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins (41-2-1, 30 KOs) demonstrated that his skills are far too superior for any middleweight in the world today. In Hopkins’ homecoming in Philadelphia, & televised on HBO, the outcome was merely watching a champion pitching a shut out. While not so appealing to a die-hard fight fan, these type of Bernard Hopkins fights are just extensions to the history books for most middleweight title defenses (16).

His opponent, Morrade Hakkar (29-4, 18 KOs) of France, was the #1 contender and mandatory challenger if Bernard wanted to keep the streak alive and retain his title. So in essence, how can we fault Hopkins for taking this fight? If we are to have a bone to pick, our energy may be better served challenging the ranking system that placed Hakkar as its #1 contender.

Then again, when I take a closer look at the top ten in the middleweight division, I am not convinced any of them would have presented a serious challenge to Hopkins either.

So what exactly is Hopkins to do? Well, he is doing practically all he can. He continues to call out any/all of the 154 lb champions & top challengers (De La Hoya, Fernando Vargas, Winky Wright, Shane Mosley, etc.) to anyone who is willing to listen to him.

What I find interesting is the fact that the big fights can’t be made. Maybe this is trying to tell us something? Bernard very well may be the best out of all of them in terms of fighting in the ring. However, if anyone of the fighters mentioned above were to take Hopkins up on the challenge, they know that they would need to demand TOP dollar for taking on such as HUGE task with a high possibility of coming away with a loss. Therefore, we may never get the chance to see them in the ring with Hopkins.

So, what we, the fight fans are left with, is continuing to watch Bernard Hopkins rack up the successful title defenses and further secure his place in boxing history. We may look back someday and say, “Hopkins may not have made the most money, but he defeated everyone in the business other than Roy Jones Jr., and he was bad!”

Oh well, I am hoping that one of the 154lb fighters will grant the 38 year old undisputed middleweight champion the opportunity to validate his proclaim to be the best. If they don’t do it for the quest of stardom, do it for the fight fans!

Let us see how great is Bernard Hopkins. I happen to be one of the reporters that believe that at this current time, Hopkins is a huge threat to defeat all of the aforementioned fighters in this article. Only Roy Jones Jr. has the arsenal to deal with Bernard Hopkins and most likely, we will not get to see this rematch either.

You have just gone InsideBoxing.com

Ron Brashear can be contacted at brashear@insideboxing.com, ron@brasheargear.com