Bernard Hopkins vs. Oscar De La Hoya
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Oscar De La Hoya Oscar De La Hoya ( , ; born on February 4, 1973) is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2008. His accolades include winning 11 world titles in six weight classes, including the lineal championshi ...
vs. Bernard Hopkins, billed as ''It's History'', was a
professional boxing Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse bid, purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regula ...
match contested on September 18, 2004 for Hopkins' WBA (Undisputed),
WBC WBC may stand for: Business *Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, a former large India broadcaster now folded into CBS *Westpac (New Delhi Exchange code: WBC), a multinational Financial services company *Wholesale Broadband Connect, BT Wholesale's ...
,
IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...
, and '' The Ring'' middleweight championships, and
Oscar De La Hoya Oscar De La Hoya ( , ; born on February 4, 1973) is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2008. His accolades include winning 11 world titles in six weight classes, including the lineal championshi ...
's
WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxing ...
middleweight championship.


Background

After losing the WBA and WBC
light middleweight Light middleweight, also known as junior middleweight or super welterweight,PeBoxRec/ref> is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing The light middleweight division (also known as junior middleweight in the IBF or super welterweight in the WBA an ...
titles to
Shane Mosley Shane Mosley (born September 7, 1971), often known by his nickname "Sugar" Shane Mosley, is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2016. He held multiple triple champion, world championships in three weight classes, incl ...
in September 2003, five-division world champion Oscar De La Hoya decided to move up to the middleweight division to challenge
undisputed middleweight champion This is a list of undisputed champions in professional boxing. Eras that are not listed do not have any undisputed champions. Championship recognition Titles have been awarded by: *New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC), founded in 1920 * ...
Bernard Hopkins, who had been middleweight champion for nearly a decade and had not lost a fight in over 11 years. Before the two would fight each other, De La Hoya and Hopkins would first have to get past
Felix Sturm Adnan Ćatić (born 31 January 1979), known as Felix Sturm, is a Bosnian-German professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO middleweight title from 2003 to 2004, the WBA middleweight ti ...
and Robert Allen, respectively. In a doubleheader event broadcast by HBO pay-per-view, Hopkins easily defeated Allen by a lopsided
unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighter ...
to retain his undisputed title, but De La Hoya struggled in his match with Sturm and only narrowly escaped with a unanimous decision (115–113 on all three scorecards) to capture Sturm's WBO middleweight title (becoming the first six-division champion in boxing history) and officially put his anticipated match with Hopkins on. Many, including Sturm himself, felt that De La Hoya had clearly lost the fight and had been gifted the decision for the lucrative Hopkins–De La Hoya bout to continue forward. Sturm and his promoter filed a protest with the Nevada Athletic Commission in an attempt to have the decision overturned, but commission head
Marc Ratner Marc Ratner is an American entrepreneur who is the current Vice President of Regulatory Affairs with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Formerly, he was the Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Background Ratner was born ...
turned it down, stating there was no basis for a review. With Sturm's protest out of the way, De La Hoya and Hopkins would proceed with their fight and agreed to a catchweight – a rarity for championship fights – of 158 pounds, in order to level the playing fields for the smaller De La Hoya, who had only one middleweight bout to his credit. Because of Hopkins' size advantage and his vast experience in the middleweight division, De La Hoya, for the first time in his professional career, was considered the "underdog", with the odds makers in Las Vegas favoring Hopkins at 2–1. De La Hoya, however, was scheduled to make a career high $30 million, while Hopkins would net $10 million, also a career high.


The fight

Through the first eight rounds, the two boxers fought a largely tactical, defense-oriented match. Going into the deciding ninth round, Hopkins was well ahead on two of the judges' official scorecards with scores of 79–73 and 78–74, while De La Hoya held a narrow lead on the third with a score of 77–75. In the ninth, Hopkins began to aggressively attack De La Hoya, and with 1:34 left in the round, sent De La Hoya down with a well-executed left hook to De La Hoya's liver. De La Hoya crumpled to the mat in pain and made no effort to answer the referee's 10-count as he was counted out at 1:38 of the round, giving Hopkins the knockout victory. For De La Hoya it was his first knockout loss in his professional career. It also remains the final knockout victory of Hopkins' career to date. The ten wins he picked up since were all by way of decision.


Aftermath

Prior to the fight, there had been talks of De La Hoya retiring after the Hopkins fight, but after his loss, he hinted that he would continue his career, stating, "I know I'm a better fighter than I howed. Instead, De La Hoya took a 20-month hiatus, sitting out all of 2005, before announcing in January 2006 that he would return to fight
Ricardo Mayorga Ricardo Antonio Mayorga Perez (born October 3, 1973) is a Nicaraguan boxing, professional boxer and former mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist. In boxing he is a former two-weight world champion, having held the unified WBA (Unified), World ...
for the WBC light-middleweight title in May of that year. Despite his lengthy layoff, De La Hoya dominated Mayorga en route to a sixth-round knockout victory to recapture the WBC light-middleweight title. Hopkins, meanwhile, followed his victory over De La Hoya with a unanimous decision victory over the highly ranked British fighter Howard Eastman in February 2005. The victory was a historic one, as Hopkins tied Larry Holmes' record of 20 consecutive successful title defenses. The victory over Eastman marked both the final successful defense of his middleweight title and his final win as a middleweight. He dropped the titles in his next fight to Jermain Taylor and, after an unsuccessful bid to regain the titles in a rematch with Taylor, moved up to the light-heavyweight division.


Sales

The fight drew approximately one million pay–per–view buys and grossed $56 million in revenue. For a time, this made the fight the second most lucrative non-heavyweight bout in boxing history, behind only De La Hoya's 1999 match with
Félix Trinidad Félix Juan Trinidad García (born January 10, 1973), popularly known as "Tito" Trinidad, is a Puerto Rican former professional boxer who competed from 1990 to 2008. He held multiple world championships in three weight classes and is said to b ...
, which drew 1.4 million buys and $71 million in revenue. This gave De La Hoya the top four most lucrative non-heavyweight fights in boxing history, as his 2002 bout (935,000 buys) against
Fernando Vargas Fernando Javier Vargas (born December 7, 1977) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1997 to 2007. He was a two-time light middleweight world champion, having held the IBF title from 1998 to 2000, and the WBA title from 200 ...
and his 2003 rematch with
Shane Mosley Shane Mosley (born September 7, 1971), often known by his nickname "Sugar" Shane Mosley, is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2016. He held multiple triple champion, world championships in three weight classes, incl ...
(950,000 buys) were also on the list.


Undercard

* WBA (Super)/
IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...
featherweight championship bout: Juan Manuel Márquez vs. Orlando Salido Márquez defeats Salido by unanimous decision (118–110, 117–111, 117–111) *
WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxing ...
light middleweight eliminator bout:
Kofi Jantuah Kofi Jantuah (born 16 June 1974) is a Ghanaian professional boxer that fights at middleweight. He was born in Kumasi, Ghana and now lives in Las Vegas. IBF light middleweight title fight Kofi fought Kassim Ouma for the IBF light middleweight w ...
vs.
Marco Antonio Rubio Marco Antonio Rubio (born June 16, 1980) is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 2000 to 2015. He held the WBC interim middleweight title in 2014, and challenged twice for a middleweight world title in 2009 and 2012. Professi ...
Jantuah defeats Rubio by first-round knockout *Middleweight bout:
Kelly Pavlik Kelly Robert Pavlik (born April 5, 1982) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2000 to 2012. He won the unified WBC, WBO, ''Ring'' magazine and lineal middleweight titles by defeating Jermain Taylor in 2007, and made three ...
vs. Carlton Holland Pavlik defeats Holland by second-round knockout


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, De La Hoya 2004 in boxing De La Hoya
Hopkins Hopkins is an English, Welsh and Irish patronymic surname. The English name means "son of Hob". ''Hob'' was a diminutive of ''Robert'', itself deriving from the Germanic warrior name ''Hrod-berht'', translated as "renowned-fame". The Robert spell ...
Boxing in Las Vegas 2004 in sports in Nevada September 2004 sports events in the United States MGM Grand Garden Arena