The legendary Bernard Hopkins (53-6-2-1, 32) made history once again as he claimed the IBF Light Heavyweight title thanks to a clear decision win over the much younger Tavoris Cloud (24-1, 19) who suffered his first professional loss.
The 48 year old Hopkins did what he has made a career out of and controlled the pace and distance of the fight excellently by using his movement to stop Cloud from setting his feet and throwing flurries. Although Hopkins was some 17 years older than the defending champion he looked the more energetic as well as the more technically solid.
Whilst Hopkins often made Cloud look silly and took advantage of the champions lack of finesse, Cloud was dangerous himself and did appear on at least 1 occasion to hurt Hopkins to the body. Sadly for Cloud however his work was so limited due to Hopkin's excellent movement that he really failed to force the action as he should of done. In fact what little success Cloud did have came after he suffered a nasty cut on his eye that threatened to see Hopkins scoring his first stoppage in the better part of a decade.
It's been a whilst since Hopkins "executed" an opponent mentally, like he did to Kelly Pavlik though this was pretty close and I honestly think that Cloud will be a forgotten fighter, a lot like Pavlik is now a days. Cloud was made to question himself, he was made to look clueless at times and he was bullied up close by the veteran who showed his ability to control fighters once again.
After the fight Hopkins and Andre Ward shared a few words though it's highly known that the two share huge respect for each other so it's likely they were doing little more than giving each other props. Whilst many consider Ward to be "this generations" Hopkins it's fair to say that the original Hopkins still refuses to go away and the way he's been fighting in recent years there is every chance he could still be a champion come his 50th birthday.
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