Bernard Hopkins vs Karo Murad

At 48, the defending champion was the busier and more accurate puncher over twelve rounds against an opponent eighteen years younger. Bernard Hopkins retained his IBF light heavyweight title with a unanimous decision over Karo Murat at Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, on 26 October 2013. Before a crowd of 6,324, Hopkins made his first defence of the belt he had taken from Tavoris Cloud seven months earlier. Judges Julie Lederman and Joseph Pasquale each scored the contest 119 to 108, while Benoit Roussel returned 117 to 110.

Hopkins weighed 172 pounds, two pounds less than the mandatory challenger. Murat entered with 25 victories, one defeat and one draw, against Hopkins’s 53 victories, six defeats and two draws. The champion appeared wearing a mask and costume to introduce his new ring identity, “The Alien”, replacing “The Executioner”. Once the preliminaries were over, Murat’s persistent advance required Hopkins to work harder than the eventual margins on two of the scorecards suggested. The challenger pressed forward behind broad punches, attempting to turn the contest into a physical struggle rather than allow Hopkins uninterrupted control of the distance.

The early rounds were comparatively restrained. Hopkins initiated clinches and sought to limit Murat’s opportunities, but the challenger continued to advance. In the third round, Murat landed a substantial right hand; Hopkins answered with a firm right of his own. The champion became more effective in the fourth, establishing his jab and putting punches together as Murat came towards him. The contest was also becoming ill-tempered. In the fifth, Hopkins kissed Murat on the neck and the back of the head during a clinch, and the round ended with both men throwing after the bell.

The rough exchanges continued in the sixth. Hopkins went to the canvas during an entanglement, and Murat attempted to strike him twice while he was down. Referee Steve Smoger issued a warning rather than deducting a point. Hopkins was increasingly successful at close quarters, where his shorter punches reached their target before Murat’s wider swings. In the seventh, the champion hurt Murat with punches to the head and body. When Murat then threw a left hook on the break, Smoger deducted a point. The foul compounded the challenger’s difficulties in a round Hopkins had already controlled.

Hopkins maintained his advantage in the eighth, landing repeated left hands and a damaging right. Murat was bleeding from a cut above his left eye. While continuing to box, Hopkins turned his attention towards the challenger’s corner and urged them to stop the contest. They declined, and Murat continued trying to reach him. The champion’s willingness to exchange had altered the character of the fight: instead of relying principally on restraint and interruption, he was pursuing Murat and winning the heavier passages of punching. Murat rallied towards the end of the ninth and remained competitive in the tenth, but could not sustain enough effective work to reverse the direction of the contest.

The final rounds belonged to Hopkins. In the twelfth, a clean right drove Murat towards the ropes, where he covered up under further pressure. The challenger’s frustration produced more rough work, including low punches and another blow on the break, followed by attempted headbutts at the end. There were no knockdowns, and Hopkins’s attempt to secure a stoppage remained unsuccessful. CompuBox recorded him landing 247 of 565 punches, approximately 44 per cent, against Murat’s 147 of 486, approximately 30 per cent. Hopkins had both thrown more punches and connected more frequently.

The decision advanced Hopkins’s record to 54 victories, six defeats and two draws, with 32 knockouts. Murat left with 25 victories, two defeats and one draw. Hopkins had extended his record as the oldest boxer to win and successfully defend a major sanctioning body’s world championship. Afterwards, he explained his more aggressive approach: “I wanted the knockout so you have to take risks.” Murat acknowledged Hopkins’s ability but maintained that the cuts had impaired his performance. The challenger had forced sustained action and continued fighting through the damage, yet Hopkins’s cleaner punching and stronger second half established a decisive advantage by the final bell.

I reckon this was more impressive than the scorecards suggest. Hopkins had already outboxed Tavoris Cloud, but Murat made him work and landed enough early to demand his attention. At forty-eight, Bernard increased the pace and started winning the exchanges. That takes conditioning and cleverness.

Murat’s problem was that pressure became predictable. He kept coming, but Hopkins beat him to the punch and worked his body. By the seventh, Bernard was hurting him; in the eighth, he was talking to the challenger’s corner while still dealing with the man in front of him. The crowd got the showmanship, but I rate the control underneath it.

I’ve no argument with the winner, though the opening rounds were more competitive than those two widest cards suggest. Murat deserves credit for staying in there, but hitting Hopkins while he was down and punching on the break were fouls, not effective aggression. Hopkins’s antics could be irritating too. Strip all that away and the better boxer won clearly, with plenty left to offer in the final round.