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April 14th, 2001. 2 ring veterans; long reigning IBF World Middleweight Champion “The Executioner” Bernard Hopkins and WBC World Middleweight Champion Keith Holmes collided in the first round of the 2001 Middleweight Unification Tournament. The winner of this round will advance into the final to face the winner of Felix Trinidad vs William Joppy.
Prefight records; Hopkins 38(28)-2-1, Holmes 36(24)-2.
Entering the tournament, Holmes had commendable wins over top oppositions in Quincy Taylor, Paul Vaden, Hacine Cherifi & Richie Woodhall. On the other hand, Hopkins had notable victories over the likes of Dennis Milton, Lupe Aquino, Simon Brown, Segundo Mercado, Glen Johnson, Robert Allen, John David Jackson, Syd Vanderpool & Antwun Echols (2x).
Both champions arguably split the first 2 frames, but from the 3rd onwards Hopkins took control and won every round using a sustained body attack and infighting. He also rocked Holmes several times to the head whilst taking minimal punishment in the process en route to becoming the new WBC World Middleweight Champion.
However, Hopkins connected with low blows at a rather excessive rate. He complained before the fight about Holmes wearing his trunks up too high and expressed his concern about the possibility of being penalized for punches south of the belt line.
"Well, Bernard Hopkins had to go to South America to win his Middleweight title. And he is still going to South America".
Larry Merchant
Bernard’s concern proved to be true as he lost a point in the 5th and warned multiple times throughout the fight for that particular infraction. In the 12th, after being warned for the 5th time referee Steve Smoger cautioned him about the possibility of being disqualified if he continued hitting low.
"The guy had turtleneck trunks on. If a man brings a turtleneck into the ring, what are you going to do? Maybe one or two of the blows were low, but they weren't intentional. I couldn't let it bother my game plan."
Bernard Hopkins
However, Hopkins landed quite a number of punches on the thighs and in some instances just a few inches above Holmes’ knees which could not have been caused by Holmes’ high belt line.
The deduction did little to affect the lopsided 119-108, 118-109 & 117-110 scorecards by the 3 judges.
By CompuBox Punch Stats, Hopkins connected at a rate twice as high as Holmes; 48% to 24%. Additionally, he outlanded Holmes by a total 175 total punches. Interestingly, Hopkins landed merely 3 jabs which is possibly the least number of jabs ever connected in a 12 round fight.
In May 2001, undefeated power punching Trinidad destroyed William Joppy to become the new WBA Middleweight Champion as well as one of boxing’s revered Triple Crown World Champion. Tito had won world titles at Welterweight, Super Welterweight & Middleweight.
Hopkins and Trinidad advanced into the final for the Undisputed World Middleweight Championship on September 29th 2001 in a clash billed as “And Then There Was One” to unify the IBF, WBA & WBC Middleweight Titles. The winner will become boxing’s first Undisputed Middleweight Champion since Marvin Hagler, who earned that distinction back in September 1980 after he decimated Alan Minter in less than 9 minutes before a hostile British crowd to garner the WBA & WBC Middleweight Crowns.
Entering the fight a 2-1 betting underdog, Hopkins utterly outclassed the bewildered Tito Trinidad en route to a 12th round KO to become the first Undisputed World Middleweight Champion in 14 years, in what is considered to be one of his signature victories.
His victory dealt Trinidad his 1st career setback in 11 years as well as his only KO loss in 45 total bouts.
The Executioner’s domination of Holmes is one of his many stunning career triumphs along the likes of his victories over Antonio Tarver, Kelly Pavlik, Beibut Shumenov and Jean Pascal.
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