SONAHR: Oct. 27, 2013 – Boxing?s version of Old Man River, also known as Bernard Hopkins, washed away the ambitions of yet another younger man in Atlantic City on Saturday. This time, the man who thought his youth would be served was 30-year-old Karo Murat of Germany. The contest was for the 48-year-old Hopkins?s IBF light-heavyweight title. Hopkins came away with a unanimous decision, garnering scores of 119-108 twice and 117-110.
The fight was tougher for Hopkins than the wide scorecard margins would suggest. Coming in with a record of 25-1-1, with 15 KOs, Murat was a creditable opponent. His two best wins were decisions over the useful Gabriel Campillo. However, his lone loss was a 10-round stoppage at the hands of the highly touted Nathan Cleverly, who was himself brutally kayoed by Sergey Kovalev several weeks ago.
Murat turned out to be quite the unexpected handful for Hopkins. Instead of trying to outsmart the sage, or play into Hopkins? hands by trying to slug him into submission, Murat attempted to beat B-Hop at a different aspect of his own game: the rough stuff.
Hopkins is the modern master of boxing?s not-so-finer points: holding, elbowing, sneaky shots after the break, etc. In this fight, Murat did all those things and more, including hitting below the belt. Hopkins found himself facing an apt student of the old school of fistic thuggery.
Hopkins? application of the rough stuff serves to frustrate and annoy his opponents into making mistakes and straying from whatever game plans they hope to employ. Given a dose of his own medicine by Murat, Hopkins responded by fighting more aggressively than he has in years. Come to think of it, that was probably a case of Hopkins straying from his own game plan. By doing so, he was able to outpunch the German, and produce a much more entertaining performance than is usual for him. If Murat?s strategy was to disconcert Hopkins, it sure backfired.
So Hopkins racks up another victory, and continues to pave his road to the record books and boxing?s Hall of Fame. Even if he somehow falls apart in his next fight, he will still be a legend, ranked among the greatest in his division. The last man to decisively beat him, Chad Dawson, has been knocked out in his two most recent fights. The two most-dangerous light-heavies ? Kovalev and Adonis Stevenson ? are made to order for Hopkins. Not counting the forgotten man who beat him in his first professional bout, his other conquerors ? Roy Jones Jr., Jermain Taylor and Joe Calzaghe ? are either retired or otherwise out of the picture.
As long as his body continues to perform as his sagacious mind dictates, Old Man River will keep on rolling as long as he wants to.
Charles R. Saunders is the author of several books including Sweat and Soul: The Saga of Black Boxers in the Maritimes from the Halifax Forum to Caesars Palace, as well as the Imaro series of fantasy/adventure novels. Considered by many to be one of the leading authorities on boxing in Canada, he is the current Vice-President of Boxing for the Society of North American Sports Historians and Researchers. His award-winning novel, Damballa, which centers around a fictional heavyweight title bout, is available at Amazon.com.
