Hopkins, 48, out-brawls Murat

Boxing | International

 

Bernard Hopkins beat Karo Murat on points to retain his IBF light-heavyweight title on Saturday night.
The 48-year-old American turned the bout at Atlantic City into into a brawl and won by unanimous decision – 119-108 on two cards and 117-110 on the third.
He advanced his record to 54-6-2, with two no-contests and 32 wins inside the distance, but did not get his first knockout victory in nine years as he had hoped to do.
He battered Murat, an Iraq-born German, for most of the seventh, eighth and ninth rounds to impress the fans at the Boardwalk Hall and extend his record as the oldest fighter to defend a major championship.
Murat, whose record dropped to 25-2-1, including 15 knockouts, lost a point in the seventh round for hitting after the break and was warned several times for questionable blows.
Referee Steve Smoger shoved Murat in the face after another hit after the bell to end the 12th.
Hopkins, formerly known as The Executioner, had renamed himself The Alien and walked to the ring in a green mask.


TAUNTS AND KISSING
AFP reports that Murat said after the bout he was not troubled by Hopkins's trademark gamesmanship, which included a tongue-wagging taunt in the third round and a quick kiss on the challenger's neck in a clinch in the fifth.
But Murat, fighting in the United States for the first time, said he was distracted by a cut over his left eye, that hindered him even as he engaged the champion in a string of entertaining exchanges.
"The crowd wants to see skills, but they also want to see a little blood," Hopkins said. "So I've got a bit of blood to give them. Sometimes, if you try to knock a guy out you've got to take risks.
"I took a risk tonight and I got hit with some shots," added Hopkins, who still comfortably claimed his 23rd victory in a world title fight.
Hopkins hurt Murat late and his freshness in the closing rounds backed up his claim that his continued success has something otherworldly about it.
"I'm a freakin' alien," said Hopkins, who entered the ring sporting a space alien mask. "I am The Alien."
REUTERS reports that Hopkins, who made his professional debut in 1988, still refuses to be drawn into talks about retirement.

"Fourteen months from being 50, not a bruise on my face, that's ahead of the game," Hopkins, who also had a decade long reign as the world middleweight champion, said.
"If you duck more than you take, you can count your own money later on."
"Bernard is a good boxer," Murat said. "But if it were not for these cuts, I would have been in better shape and I could have won."
On the undercard, Peter Quillin remained unbeaten and retained his WBO middleweight title with a 10th-round stoppage of Gabriel Rosado.
Quillin improved to 30-0 with 22 knockouts. The bout was stopped on the advice of the ring doctor 40 seconds into the tenth because of a cut over Rosado's left eye.
Rosado, who objected bitterly to the stoppage, had also been knocked down in the second round.