WATCH: Joe Smith Jr knocks Bernard Hopkins out of the ring
Irish-American light heavyweight Joe Smith Jr brought the curtain down on Bernard Hopkins’s legendary career last night at The Forum.
The big-punching New Yorker became the first ever man to stop ‘The Executioner,’ in what was Hopkins’s ‘Final 1’ in Inglewood, California.
A delicately poised fight up until the stoppage, Smith Jr sent Hopkins careening through the ropes in the eighth round with a succession of big hooks.
Hopkins, who claimed that he twisted his ankle in the fall, did not beat the mandatory twenty-count, handing ‘The Irish Bomber’ another shock win.
Watch Bernard Hopkins v Joe Smith Jr in full below (Boxnation commentary):
–
Joe O’Neill and Gavan Casey look ahead to 2017 in episode 1 of The Irish Boxing Show