Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Saturday, October 26, 2013, live from the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ, the ageless wonder Bernard Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KOs) defeated top contender, Karo Murat (25-2-1, 15 KOs) in the main event of a Showtime Championship Boxing triple header.
The Showtime telecast kicked off at 9 pm, EST with Deontay Wilder (29-0, 29 KOs) vs. Nicolai Firtha (29-10-1, 8 KOs) in a clash of Heavyweights.
Nicolai Firtha suffered an impressive defeat at the hands of Deontay Wilder. It was impressive because Firtha exceeded all expectations by making it to the fourth round, despite having ten losses going into the fight.
Early in the fight, Wilder was forced to fight on his back foot, using his jab to keep Firtha off of him. He seemed to stumble at the sheer aggressiveness of Firtha and even praised Firtha in his post-fight interview, saying his determination was “good for the sport.”
As the fight progressed, Firtha began to respect Wilder’s power. The rest of the fight began to look like a Klitschko fight, with Wilder using his reach and height to keep Firtha away until landing a powerful right hand that stopped him in the fourth round.
Wilder improves to (30-0, 30 KOs). The legendary Emanuel Steward, who passed away a year ago yesterday, believed that Wilder would be the next great American heavyweight. Whether or not that is true remains to be seen.
As his hands were being raised, Wilder said “Who’s next?”
That’s a good question, Wilder.
In the second bout of the evening, Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin stopped Gabriel Rosado in the 10th round via a TKO stoppage due to a cut over Rosado’s left eye. The cut was caused by a jab thrown by Quillin, thus making him the winner of what was looking to be a close fight.
The early rounds were mostly controlled by Quillin, who was able to keep Rosado off of him as he landed jabs and left hooks. Quillin even managed to earn a questionable knockdown of Rosado in the first round. Rosado, who was not discouraged by the knockdown, began to walk Quillin down.
By the fourth and fifth rounds, Rosado’s confidence began to grow and he was able to score points while Quillin was on the ropes. He had felt Quillin’s power and was starting to close the distance on most people’s scorecards, including the Showtime commentators.
Paulie Malignaggi and Steve Farhood had it a draw while Al Bernstein had Rosado winning.
If we look at the scorecards of the judges, we will see something different: 87-83, 89-81, 90-80.
If this fight had not been stopped by a cut, the judges would have had to give some serious explanations. Scoring this fight as a one-sided victory would have been irresponsible and disgusting, and many agreed the fight was very close.
During the post-fight interview, Quillin stated that he respected the judges’ opinions and would consider a rematch and a possible super fight with Sergio Martinez. He made it clear that he works very hard for his fights.
Quillin improves to 30-0, 22 KOs, while a visually upset Rosado descends to 21-7, 13 KOs.
In the main event, the artist formerly known as “The Executioner” proved tonight why we can now call him “The Alien.”
Hopkins outclassed Murat in an out-of-this-world performance. We must remember that when Murat was born, Hopkins was already a man of 18 years.
Hopkins started the fight slowly, utilizing his defensive skills to keep Murat away from him. He also used a wide array of dirty tricks in order to get into his opponent’s head.
This included a punch to the body from the back, talking to the opponent’s corner, and even a kiss to the back of the head.
Hopkins was even willing to trade and take punches, when he could have used his rhythm to outbox Murat all night.
Hopkins won via Unanimous Decision and his superb record improves to 54-6, 32 KOs.
When asked about his impressive conditioning Hopkins only had to say, “I’m a freaking Alien.” When asked for a more serious response he said, “It doesn’t get any more serious than that. I’m going to see a doctor about it Monday morning.”
Besides his performance in the ring, Hopkins also must be lauded for addressing the Cold War between HBO/Top Rank and Showtime/Golden Boy Promotions. He professed his loyalty to Golden Boy and Showtime and believes that it is the fans who should protest the Cold War.
We are being robbed of some great fights because of an unnecessary battle between two major promotional companies.
