On Saturday, July 21, the 42-year old Bernard "the Executioner" Hopkins showed why he is not quite ready to ride off into the sunset, outfoxing and outboxing Ronald "Winky" Wright over 12 brisk rounds of action at The Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
As I predicted in my Hopkins-Wright preview post, Hopkins successfully lured Wright into chasing him. The "trick" began at the final press conference before the fight, at which Hopkins pushed Wright in the face, seemingly rattling the normally unflappable boxer. After the near dust-up, Wright would claim that he was in Hopkins’ head, but his aggressive approach in the fight told a different story – that Hopkins’ pre-fight antics had gotten into his.
Rather than being forced to expand extra energy chasing and forcing the action, Hopkins was able to play his preferred role of counter-puncher, as Wright seemed to fight with a chip on his shoulder. This was exactly what Hopkins wanted. With Wright more reckless than usual, Hopkins used an array of sneaky counter right hands and well-placed body shots to keep Wright out of his comfort zone for most of the fight.
Although Wright was game throughout, it was all Hopkins in the last four rounds of the fight. Perhaps feeling the effects of carrying the extra weight, Wright was visibly winded down the stretch. Hopkins took full advantage by mauling, brawling and probing at the deep cut over Wright’s left eye (opened up in the third round by an accidental head butt). The final scores read 117-111 (twice) and 116-112 in favor of Bernard "the Executioner" Hopkins, adding another notch on his considerable belt. Winky Wright undoubtedly will move down in weight to pick on someone closer to his own size, as the move up in weight appeared to be too much to overcome.
In the first bout of the evening, lightweight contender Michael Katsidis earned a bloody, brutal 12-round unanimous decision win over the tough Czar Amonsot. Entering the ring in Greek gladiator garb, Katsidis’ costume was "fitting," as he scored two crunching knockdowns against his opponent while taking severe punishment along the way. Amonsot’s razor-sharp punches turned Katsidis face into a bloody mess, almost forcing a stoppage in the middle rounds, but the courageous Katsidis survived the onslaught and escaped with a well-earned decision.
Katsidis improved to 23-0 (20) and appears ready to challenge for the lightweight title within a year. Despite losing, Amonsot, now 18-3-1 (10), has probably earned himself another big fight down the road with his eye-opening (pun intended) performance. In the co-featured bout of the evening, undefeated featherweight Jorge Linares stopped former junior featherweight titlist Oscar Larios in the 10th round for a portion of the featherweight title. Linares improved to 24-0 (15) while Larios dropped to 59-6-1 (37).
