Hopkins Proves Hungry. Holmes? Needs Change of Diet
(an editorial from BoxingInLasVegas.com)
If being a vegetarian had anything to do with it, then screw Foot & Mouth disease, cook my steak rare . . . . or don’t cook it at all.
Saturday night saw a timid Keith Holmes practically hand over his WBC Middleweight title to IBF champ Bernard Hopkins. Hopkins was hungry. Hopkins was hostile. Hopkins took the fight to Holmes.
Of course, it’s unfair to say Holmes lost due to a steady diet of tofu and vegetables, and a lack of dead flesh in his stomach. There is no proof that a carnivore makes a better athlete. Holmes lost because he was surprisingly passive and unresponsive.
Holmes lost because he was trigger-shy.
Hopkins set the pace early on in the fight, playing the aggressor and getting inside and making the brawl. Holmes forgot about his jab and chose instead to tie Hopkins up whenever possible.
“You got to let your hands go!” Holmes’ trainer yelled at him and but for a brief flurry in the 8th Round, Keith Holmes seemed apparently too coy to do so.
Yet, despite losing every single round, Holmes still came close to winning last night. He had no jab, he had no drive . . . but he had an elevated beltline that nearly cost Hopkins the fight.
Fighting mainly on the inside while Holmes tried to tie up, Hopkins let his hands go to the body. Many others landed on the beltline; some landed on the hips and upper thigh. Round Four saw referee Steve Smoger warning Hopkins for low blows. One round later, Hopkins lost a point for a low shot. In Round Six, Hopkins was warned yet again. Holmes, too, was warned, for excessive holding. Yet, another warning to Hopkins occurred in Round 8.
“They won’t let you throw to the body, so hit ‘im on the chin!” yelled Hopkins' trainer in between the 8th and 9th.
For a while, Hopkins played it safe, hurting Holmes with straight right hands in Round 10. But he soon went back to the body, flirting with a DQ.
It was nerve-wracking to watch. Anyone watching the fight knew Holmes had lost this fight and Hopkins had naught to do but coast to the finish line. But Hopkins didn’t want to just win. He wanted a knockout.
Round 11 saw Hopkins swarming, damaging Holmes with left hooks and more body shots. If Holmes hadn’t been holding so much, the fight would’ve been over. But finally showing resolve in some aspect, Holmes wanted to be decisioned, not floored. Plus, there was that ever-growing chance that Smoger would catch Hopkins' descending shots and DQ him.
That almost happened in the last round. Hopkins hit Holmes yet again, low or borderline, depending on how you viewed Holmes’ beltline. Holmes clutched his crotch and was sent to his corner to recuperate. Hopkins was assigned the neutral corner.
Referee Steve Smoger suddenly held the fate of this fight in his hands.
He could warn Hopkins again, or deduct yet another point off Hopkins, which would hardly make a difference in the obvious outcome.
Or he could disqualify Hopkins, giving the fight to an undeserving Holmes.
What a place to be! It was bad enough that Don King’s Middleweight Unification Series had started with a one-sided fight . . . but how could we look forward to Keith Holmes fighting the winner of Trinidad-Joppy?
I had a brief vision, of Holmes up against Trinidad (my pick for his bout with Joppy—Trinidad, Trinidad is also well-known for hitting south of the border, especially when in trouble) . . . of Tito, too, DQ’d and having the ultimate winner, Keith Holmes, by default.
But Smoger saved the day and let Hopkins off just a warning.
Disaster narrowly averted.
Now, thanks to Smoger, we got something to look forward to.
May 12th will see Felix Trinidad taking on WBA champ William Joppy. It’s a fight that should prove to be what Hopkins vs. Homes wasn’t—a dogfight. Both fighters have much to prove: Trinidad, that he is the #1 Pound-for-Pound, be it superwelter or middle; and Joppy, that time’s up for being overlooked.
Joppy, a 4-to-1 underdog by the kindest oddsmaker, is being underestimated. Although I see Trinidad winning (by decision, and in a way reminiscent of De La Hoya vs. Trinidad), Joppy will, unlike Holmes, come to fight.
Either man will make the fight in the ultimate showdown against Bernard Hopkins in September. This unification series may have started out dull, but it’s not going to end that way.
Then again, this is boxing . . . . |
