“He went down swinging- no respect loss there”

These were the words of one of the fans as they left The Forum in Los Angeles where former boxing champion Bernard Hopkins was TKO’d in the eighth round by Joe Smith Jr.

TKO though doesn’t really paint the right picture. “Smashed out of the ring” would be more accurate.

The odds were always stacked against Hopkins. It had been more than two years since his last fight, which he lost badly.

His opponent Smith Jr is almost half Hopkins’ age at just 27.

#ICYMI A 27 year old professional boxer just knocked a 51 year old professional boxer out of the ring. #BernardHopkins pic.twitter.com/KLdwUdC8kG — ramel (@itsRamel) December 18, 2016

Already ahead on points on two of the judges’ scorecards, Smith ended the fight with a series of blows to Hopkins’ head, finishing with a left hook that sent the veteran between the ropes and onto the Forum floor amongst the crowd and cameramen.

Hopkins believes it was here that he “hit his head” and that he had still been in the contest prior to the fall.

“I’m really still in shock they going to give him the fight,” he told HBO television.

“He shoved me out of the ring. I believe I hit my head. My ankle (twisted) when I hit the ground. I couldn’t stand up on my feet. I know for a fact if I wouldn’t have got pushed out of the ring… I believe he was started to fade out and I was starting to come on stronger.”

Bernard Hopkins, at age 51, was literally knocked out of the entire boxing ring tonight. #HopkinsSmith pic.twitter.com/bPd3gAT6A5 — 120 Sports (@120Sports) December 18, 2016

The victorious Smith was humble when describing the final moments of the bout.

“I seen him fall and I kept hitting him,” the 27-year-old said in a post-fight interview.

“I landed that left hook at the end there to finish the job. I hit him with four or five clean shots there, good shots right on the button. I didn’t expect him to get up but he is a true champion. I came here to do my job. This is my coming out party. I had to finish him.”

Following the loss Hopkins declared that it would be his last ever fight. Hopkins has had a decorated career with highlights including his battles with Roy Jones Jr and his 2004 victory over Oscar De La Hoya.

He finishes with an enviable record of 55-8-2-2.

Let’s hope this really was his last fight. The sight of boxing legends stepping into the ring past their prime is nothing new but it doesn’t make it right.

There is no doubt it was difficult to watch such a legend have his career ended in such a brutal manner.

To be fair to Hopkins, he is still in great shape and has beaten the living suitcase out of plenty of blokes younger than him before.

In 2014 Hopkins’ victory over Beibut Shumenov saw him become the oldest boxer in history to unify titles in a weight division. But it all has to come to an end eventually and the writing was on the wall in his loss to Sergey Kovalev in November 2014.

But champions jumping into the ring always brings the dollars, even if the champions are seen as “past it”.

Next February we will see Danny Green and Anthony Mundine jumping into the ring for their second bout at 41 and 43 years of age respectively. It will be the biggest fight to hit Australia since the pair fought over a decade ago.

Mundine is hardly going to be in top shape having rushed to the UK earlier in the year to have major surgery on his hip. The two will be fighting at a catch weight of 83 kg which will also give Green a ridiculous size advantage.

Like the Hopkins fight over the weekend, this fight probably shouldn’t happen. But when there’s big dollars involved whether it “should or should not happen” means very little…

by Michael T. Lynch – contributor