LAS VEGAS – It was the type of matchup that practically begged for smarmy remarks to be made, and those who report on all things boxing had a field day even before aging legends Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. entered the ring for their light-heavyweight bout here Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
“Minutes after college basketball delivers the Final Four, boxing will serve up the Final 40s,” Kevin Iole of Yahoosports.com wrote in what might have been the most prescient assessment of what was about to take place.
The basketball reference was certainly appropriate, given the foul-filled nature of Hopkins’ clear-cut, but hardly easy, unanimous decision over the empty vessel that the formerly brilliant Jones had become. Hopkins went down three times – twice from rabbit punches (Jones’ ode to the Easter Bunny, maybe?) and once from a clearly intentional left hook to the not-so-protective cup. Jones was docked a penalty point after the first illegal shot to the back of the head, in the sixth round, by harried referee Tony Weeks, the busiest guy in the joint along with ring physician William Berliner.
But North Philadelphia native Hopkins wasn’t the only aggrieved party. Jones returned to his corner after the second round with a cut alongside his right eye, the result of a head-butt that might or might not have been delivered with malice aforethought. And, in a bit of legerdemain that would have made this town’s magicians and sleight-of-hand artists envious, he subtly clipped Jones in his protective cup in the fifth round, a violation of the rules that officially went undetected as Weeks’ sightline was blocked by Hopkins’ back.
Had Weeks traded places with an NCAA Tournament official, both fighters would have been shooting one-and-ones by the sixth round, and fouled out by the eighth.
After the Hack-a-Shaq tactics had mercifully concluded, the announcement of the decision was a formality. The slipping-but-not-shot Hopkins (51-5-1, 32 KOs) won going away, by Hoover Dam-sized margins of 118-109 (on judge Dave Moretti’s scorecard) and 117-110, twice (Don Trella and Glenn Trowbridge).
The Daily News scorecard was even more one-sided, 119-108, with Jones winning only a meaningless 12th-and-final round.
What followed were accusations and counter-accusations by the fighters as to the actual instigator of the rough stuff, and trips to the hospital for both. Hopkins went by ambulance to have swelling to the back of his neck checked out after he briefly fell to his knees in his dressing room; Jones to have his latest, and perhaps final, boxing-related laceration stitched closed.
“From the sixth round on, I was seeing spots. My head was killing me,” the 45-year-old Hopkins, who has never been stopped, said after the world finally discovered what his Achilles’ heel is: a glass back-of-the-skull.
Arnold Joseph, Hopkins’ attorney, said the fighter was treated and released.
“Everything’s fine,” Joseph said. “They took a [CT scan] and MRI and the tests came back negative.”
A somewhat miffed Jones suggested that Hopkins had benefited from the same sort of preferential treatment that a lot of college hoops fans believe Duke receives.
“The referee ignored [Hopkins’ head-butts], but every time I did something, I got a warning,” he complained, adding that Hopkins kept going down “to take a rest.”
Jones (54-7, 40 KOs) said he would return to Pensacola, Fla., to assess his options, but there clearly is only one conclusion he can draw from the latest in a disturbing trend of recent beatdowns: retirement. The now-41-year-old hands that once cranked out combinations with machine-gun rapidity have been reduced to single punches as slow and as telegraphed as a 1700s woodsman loading a flintlock rifle.
“I’m going to go home, talk to my team and if they decide to call it a day, we’ll call it a day,” Jones said, although he and the other deep thinkers in his Square Ring Promotions operation might not get to make the final call. The marketplace probably did that, with a 16,000-seat arena scaled down to a capacity of 8,000, and only 6,792 in the house, perhaps half of those admitted on deeply discounted or giveaway tickets. The pay-per-view numbers are apt to be no less depressing.
Of course, apologists could say that the scheduling of the fight was problematic at best, coming as it did on Easter weekend and on the same night as the Final Four semifinals. But, had Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. been the ones mixing it up, the turnout would have been considerably larger, more enthusiastic and profitable, and fans would have instantly switched from hoops to a boxing mindset once Duke had finished off West Virginia in the nightcap of the Final Four doubleheader.
Hopkins-Jones II took place because “The Executioner,” eager to wipe the slate clean nearly 17 long years after his May 22, 1993, points loss to the despised Jones, wanted a redemptive do-over and, as a partner in Golden Boy Promotions, had the clout to make it happen. But the days of Hopkins getting what he wants simply because he wants it could be coming to an end, too.
“Maybe because I got hit over the head they may think I am crazy, but I want David Haye next,” Hopkins said of the 29-year-old WBA heavyweight champion, who stopped two-time former titlist John Ruiz in nine rounds earlier in the evening in Manchester, England. “I want to win the heavyweight championship.”
Apart from the fact the 6-1 Hopkins would have to pack on 25 to 30 pounds of muscle to make a matchup with the 6-3, 222-pound Briton even remotely feasible, his advancing years and potential for injury are becoming more of an issue. B-Hop has been immersing himself in the Fountain of Youth for some time now, but the healing waters could finally be drying up.
“We’ll see,” Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said of Hopkins’ heavyweight hopes. “But I really want to see what the medical reports are. Bernard is 45 years old. As a friend, I am concerned about his health.
“I’m going to have a friend-to-friend conversation with him. After tonight, I’m not so sure it’s such a great idea to go and fight for the heavyweight championship of the world.
“In a way, this fight was like the icing on the cake, or the cherry on top, to cap an amazing career. Who knows? Maybe all of us [tonight] witnessed history . Maybe it was the last fight for one of the greatest fighters of our generation.”
