Bernard Hopkins vs. Joe Lipsey
Photo by Al Bello/AllSport/Getty Images
On March 16, 1996, Bernard Hopkins made the second defense of his IBF Middleweight title against Joe “The Sledgehammer” Lipsey (25-0 20 KOs) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The fight was a meeting between the two hardest punchers in the Middleweight division and the crowd expected fireworks.
The fight did not disappoint either, as both men traded spectacularly for as long as the bout lasted. Hopkins opened the fight quickly with his staple of the night–his right hand.
After a one-sided first round in which he was caught with a few stiff right hands, Lipsey began to find his groove and landed a couple left hands of his own, but found himself getting tagged by hard combinations to the head from Hopkins.
By only the third round, both fighters started to show wear and tear– Hopkins’ eye swollen and Lipsey’s mouth bleeding. The third and fourth rounds were brilliant displays of trading blows, but Hopkins’ power, combined with his exceptional counterpunching, gave him both rounds on the judges’ cards.
From the beginning of the fifth round however, Hopkins began to switch his angles more and fire more power punches and midway through the round he caught Lipsey with a vicious three-punch combination that would have felled a lesser fighter. Lipsey held on however, attempting to hold onto Hopkins and get out of the round.
This tactic proved to be his downfall however, as he was caught by a brutal uppercut that knocked his mouthpiece out. After he literally stunned Lipsey into standing still, Hopkins fired off a final combination to the head that ended it.
This bout was instrumental in not only demonstrating Hopkins’ exceptional power, but also his ability to fight a harder-hitting southpaw opponent.
