Middleweight great Bernard Hopkins knocked out of ring in career finale
Fellow American Joe Smith ends proceedings with a series of blows that included one of his punishing right hands
Bernard Hopkins’s bid to add a last chapter to a storied ring career ended on Saturday with the 51-year-old former world champion spent sprawling out of the ring by Joe Smith.
In a fight that Hopkins vowed would be his last the 27-year-old Smith – who wasn’t born when Hopkins launched his career in 1988 – ended proceedings with a series of blows that included one of his punishing right hands.
Hopkins, who sagged against the ropes and then through them as Smith landed a final left, fell backwards, hitting his head and twisting an ankle.
When Hopkins was unable to make it back into the ring within the mandatory 20 seconds referee Jack Reiss called a halt, making it a technical knockout for Smith at 53 seconds of the eighth round.
“The fighter got hit with a legal punch, went out of the ring and was injured. It’s over,” Reiss said.