HOPKINS’ ‘LIVER SHOT’ CHILLS DE LA HOYA IN NINTH

Bernard Hopkins, showing as a complete ringman at 39, never altered his game plan in knocking out courageous Oscar De La Hoya in the ninth round in a sudden finish to retain his undisputed middleweight title for the 19th time Saturday night before 16,210 frantic fans at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.

It was everything Hopkins promised and much more as he methodically wore down the former six-time champion, who was an underdog for the first time in his spectacular career when the Philadelphia Executioner closed as a 11-2 favorite with Nevada’s odds-makers.

Even with the dramatic ending, HBO’s pay-per-view 12-rounder goes down in boxing history as the richest non-heavyweight championship bout with De La Hoya guaranteed $30 million with Hopkins’ assured $10 million. De La Hoya, 30, could earn $40 million with Hopkins’ purse at $15 million when all receipts are counted.

Hopkins, undefeated since that questionable decision to Roy Jones in 1993, improved his credentials to 45-2-1, 32 K0s since winning the vacant IBF title in 1995 before later adding the WBC, and WBA diadems.

For De La Hoya, it was his first knockout defeat since coming out of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with a gold medal and left his glitzy resume at 37-4, 29 K0s.

In the weeks leading up to the glamour pairing, Hopkins, training in South Miami, Fla., told the media how he would rearrange the East Los Angeles charisma champion’s “pretty face to be as ugly as mine”. It was strictly a ploy even though many experts took the bait.

From the opening bell, De La Hoya, a pound lighter at 155, made it clear he had come to fight and though much slower, Hopkins coolly let the partisan audience roar when Oscar boxed well, moving in and out with lightning combinations to the head and body in the first two rounds.

By the fourth round, the fight’s tempo swung to Hopkins as he began to back up the now cautious De La Hoya but still willing to duel his adversary on even terms. Prior to the blitz, Hopkins’s biggest round came in the fifth which he capped with unanswered combinations and two lefts and a right, knocking Oscar off balance and grasping for the ropes at the bell. As round eight ended, Oscar scored with a flurry to the head but it was acedemic.

Quickly in the ninth, Hopkins landed three shots to the head, snapped De La Hoya’s head back with a left. A five-punch salvo drove Oscar into a corner before the Philly phenom drove a perfrect left hook into the challenger’s rib cage.

De La Hoya dropped quietly near the ropes face down. Hopkins later said when the California pride , moaned, he knew he wouldn’t get up and went to a neutral corner.

The Executioner’s lethal weapon was the feared “Liver Shot.”

As referee Kenny Bayless leaned over to count, Oscar pounded the canvas with his left glove but was
clearly unable to rise. Bayless tolled the kayo at 1:38. In an instant celebration, the WBC, WBA,IBF and WBO ruler did a summersault in the ring.

In the judges’ official scoring, Dave Moretti had
it 79-73 and Paul Smith voted 78-74, both for Hopkins, while Keith MacDonald had it 77-75, De La Hoya.

As expected, Hopkins preceded De La Hoya on the podium, dapper in a blue pin-strip suit and savoring the greatest boxing night in his heretofore checkered career.

“I want to thank Top Rank, HBO, MGM, and all my sponsors, they are so spread out , if I don’t thank them all, the check won’t clear. I’m glad all the media is here and the fight lived up as positive it was projected and that is the most we can hope far. I thank Bob Arum, who respected me throughout the promotion. The crowd sounded like it was 90 percent Oscar but that is to be expected,” the total champion reflected.

“As for strategy in the fight, I think it was about the eighth round when my trainer (Bouie Fisher) said we should pick it up after I asked him if i was winning those rounds. I knew there might be some urgency when I was winning the sixth and seventh rounds and he said I would pick it up now. That meant the Liver Shot. I was impressed with Oscar’s determination. He didn’t have to fight me or Shane Mosley, but his drive to take my three titles was obvious.”

Hopkins, who has seemingly overcome all adversities to reach his current stature including a five-year prison term for a teen-age robbery, definitely is not looking at retirement but has a few deals to iron out before he fights again.

“Within in the next two weeks I hope to sit down and talk to Bob Arum. You have to be disciplined to make 20 title defenses and that’s what I want. After I get that 20th defense, which will include 20 percent of the gross, then I am ready to talk about a big fight before I get out of my comfort zone and run. I have some real estate and other interests. If the big if is there, when I talk with Arum, then he would get my first commitment. But don’t ask me who I might fight next,” Hopkins said.

“Right now I am happy I hung in there. I don’t know who is out there. Somebody mentioned Tito Trinidad. I wouldn’t care too much about fighting him again. He is on one-dimensional. I’ll be 40 in January. Long before this I told people I’d be the first to knockout Oscar,” Hopkins said.

”De La Hoya has a tricky jab, it comes up and he can hurt your nose. I had my jab and right hand open, and he tried to trap me with his feints, so I had to adjust. I never left my game plan. I didn’t get discouraged and I give Oscar all the credit in the world for his efforts. But you never saw him in his career in with a pro like he was in with tonight.”

De La Hoya had no excuses for his media questioners.

“My early speed wasn’t to go with my jab, but Bernard didn’t make any mistakes in what he was trying. Then he caught me with that big shot. All during my hard training at Big Bear we worked on that particular left hook.

“Earlier, Hopkins hit me with some left hooks, but I never thought in the world, I’d get caught with that kind of body shot. It was a technical fight rather than who was the best puncher.

“On that Liver shot, it’s not how hard they hit you, but it takes your breath away, You are stuck, you want to get up and you can’t, It was the perfect body punch. He’s a smart fighter. I give him all the credit in the world... a great fighter who has beaten lots of very good fighters.”

De La Hoya said it was “too early to decide making a decision over retirement or fighting again.

“There was never talk about a rematch because I was so focused on this fight, which I considered my defining fight. There is not a fighter out there coming back for a rematch in a major fight who can’t improve himself. I didn’t expect this fight with Hopkins to be as easy as it was. We have some business to take care of in L. A. and then I’ll go with my wife to Puerto Rico. Whatever my decision on fighting again or retiring, there is no rush.”

(Jack Welsh is a syndicated columnist headquartered in Las Vegas and a regular contributor to Ringsports.Com as well as other national sports publications.)