Bernard Hopkins got his revenge tonight, beating Roy Jones Jr. by wide unanimous decision in an awful, ugly, and bizarre fight that lived down to the mostly-dreadful expectations of the public, and frankly was probably even worse than anyone really expected.
Official scores were 118-109, 117-110 and 117-110. Bad Left Hook scored it 118-109.
Hopkins (51-5-1, 32 KO) and Jones (54-7, 40 KO) never stepped on the gas much, except for one point when Hopkins came back from a rabbit punch with a bit of fire in his belly. After that, they nearly brawled to a double disqualification, but then that spirit never returned.
Hopkins -- who landed a blatant low blow that Tony Weeks didn't see and a rabbit punch that Weeks also missed -- would later complain and roll around on the mat again after another rabbit punch, and went into the whole spiel once again after a low blow.
I don't want to sound like I have no respect for these two fighters. I do. But neither of them looked like they had anything left tonight, the fight was hideous, and the tiny violin-worthy actions of Hopkins were despicable. The fight was truly bad in every single way. Neither fighter landed much by way of significant punches (Jones may not have landed one truly good shot all night), Hopkins flopped three times, Jones later called time on a second Hopkins low blow, and overall the whole thing just felt farcical and embarrassing.
After the fight, Hopkins called out David Haye, which I think more than ever is a terrible idea for him.
They both need to retire, and now. Hopkins is not a top 10 pound-for-pound fighter anymore. He didn't look too great against Enrique Ornelas, and he looked worse tonight. Frankly, I think that's enough said about this fight.
- Jason Litzau (27-2, 21 KO) won a technical decision over Rocky Juarez (28-6-1, 20 KO) after seven full rounds and a big mouse under his eye in the eighth caused by a headbutt got the fight stopped by the ringside physician.
- Sergio Mora beat Calvin Green in the Fight of the Night. Green started well, but just wasn't big or good enough. Mora got the sixth stoppage of his career when the referee stopped the fight in the seventh round.
- Ismayl Sillakh improved to 12-0 (11 KO) by disposing of Daniel Judah in two rounds.
- Off TV, Craig McEwan, Yaundale Evans, Frankie Gomez and Ray Narh all won their fights.