LAS VEGAS, NV – Oscar De La Hoya professed he saw something.
He sure did… a devastating body shot to the liver.
Bernard 'The Executioner' Hopkins knocked out Oscar De La Hoya with a left hook to the body in the ninth round to retain the undisputed world middleweight championship in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Saturday night.
De La Hoya surprised everyone by attempting to stand toe-to-toe with Hopkins from the opening bell. However Hopkins had a surprise of his own. It was predicted he would come charging at De La Hoya and press the fight, but an intelligent Hopkins simply laid back and boxed a superb technical fight of his own.
"I wanted to show everybody I could box, that's why I went down to 156 (pounds)," said Hopkins, who turns 40 in January. "In my opinion I out boxed him early in the fight. What surprised me was his movement and his willingness to fight. He didn't run. That really surprised me."
It was Hopkins' superior boxing skills and not strength that began to take their toll in the middle rounds as the Golden Boy started to wear down.
Hopkins started to press the action in the fourth round, repeatedly finding De La Hoya's grill with his stinging jab and hard right hand. Midway through the fight Hopkins invited De La Hoya to throw his right hand, but a tentative De La Hoya could never land a scoring blow.
Despite Hopkins dominance, the Philadelphia native was only ahead on two of the three judges' cards when he connected with a big left hook to the right side of De La Hoya’s body, sending him sprawling to the canvas.
Hopkins, not known for his one punch power, added a right to the head before De La Hoya went down, but it was clearly the body blow that did most of the damage.
"I set him up with a jab and then I hit him with a left," Hopkins said. "I heard an 'Ugh' sound. The wind came completely out of him. I knew it was over."
De La Hoya writhed in pain as referee Kenny Bayless counted him out at 1:38 of the ninth round. De La Hoya remained on the canvas for more than a minute, pounding the floor in frustration after being stopped for the first time in his professional career.
"When I tried to get up I couldn't breathe," said De La Hoya, whose record dropped to 37-4 (29 KOs). "He hit me with a couple of shots right on the button. I never thought I would ever get stopped by a body shot."
Entering the ninth round, Hopkins was surprisingly only ahead 79-73 and 78-74 on two cards, while De La Hoya led 77-75 on an absurd third scorecard.
Infinite Boxing had Hopkins winning the match 78-74 at the time of stoppage.
De La Hoya was surprisingly only a 2-1 underdog in only his second fight as a middleweight and was taking on a champion who hadn't lost in 11 years.
"I tried to do the impossible on paper – beat the middleweight champ coming up from 130 pounds," De La Hoya said. "He's a great middleweight champion, but I'm very proud of my career and what I've accomplished."
Before the fight, De La Hoya's promoter Bob Arum confirmed that De La Hoya had sustained the cut that needed 11 stitches, between the middle and ring fingers, when he was having the hand wrapping sliced off with scissors after a workout Wednesday.
Fortunately the cut had no bearing on the results.
With the win, Hopkins made his 19th title defense and moves to 45-2-1 (32 KOs). He also becomes first fighter to hold the IBF/WBC/WBA/WBO titles simultaneously.
At the post fight press conference, a proud Hopkins alluded to his presence with boxing greats such as Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran.
"I've got living legends right here with me," Hopkins said. "To even be mentioned with these guys, I don't care if it's at the bottom of the list, I don't care if you come up with a hundred middleweights and I'm 99, I'm humbled. It's a great feeling to go down in history."
Kofi and Juan
In other action, junior middleweight Kofi Jantuah took out Marco Antonio Rubio in 33 seconds of the first round. The African connected with an incredible left hook that dropped Rubio for the count. With the win, Jantuah becomes the WBC's #1 rated contender.
WBA/IBF featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez won an uneventful 12 round unanimous decision over IBF mandatory challenger Orlando Salido. Marquez won by scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 117-111.
De La Hoya writhed in pain as referee Kenny Bayless counted him out at 1:38 of the ninth round. De La Hoya remained on the canvas for more than a minute, pounding the floor in frustration after being stopped for the first time in his professional career.