More Than Belts

LAS VEGAS – The sweat fell like an autumn rain at twilight on Bernard Hopkins’ storied career.

Fighting back the encroaching shadows of retirement, he buried shot after shot into Jermain Taylor’s abdomen dousing both fighters in sweat, waging one final rally to stand as champion of the world. At the bell, Hopkins broke out into a wide smile and leapt atop the ringpost. It might’ve been under the hope that he’d won enough rounds to reclaim his undisputed middleweight championship. It certainly was a well-earned celebration for one of boxing’s most astounding careers.

There would be no Hollywood ending for Bernard Hopkins on this night but there would be a quiet recognition for one of boxing’s best. In a fight where the stakes were as much about legacies as about championship belts, one fighter won and the other didn’t lose.

“I don’t have anything to be mad about,” Hopkins said. “I’ve changed my life from being in the penitentiary to being a positive role model and one of the best in the middleweight division. I can’t fight forever…. My time has come to pass. It’s time to pass the torch whether it’s next year or now. It’s time to pass the torch.”

The torch has been passed. Jermain Taylor, 27, handsome, good-natured and unfailingly polite, is now the undefeated and undisputed middleweight champion, and a boxing promoter’s dream, a LeBron James in a sport full of Dennis Rodmans. His next fight will be back in his hometown of Little Rock, Ark. -- “I want to thank all the people back home who support me,” he said -- and the opponent likely won’t be anyone capable of lifting the middleweight’s belt. Only Winky Wright, a fight sure to happen down the road, stands as a potential roadblock in Taylor’s path.

But the next challenge for Taylor is not in the ring: It’s the American public square. In a sport starved for a star, Taylor may be just what the promoter ordered.

“Jermain has all the tools he needs to put boxing on his shoulders,” says “Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya, who found himself in Taylor’s shoes a decade ago, boxing’s poster boy. “He’s a clean-cut, good-looking guy that people can respect and relate to. He can be great for the sport.”

In the Hopkins corner, there is little talk of the future. He’ll likely have one final farewell fight in January, after a decade atop the middleweight division, his greatest bouts are now behind him and the only ones left to be fought are in the pages of history.

“A nearly 41-year-old man tonight showed why he’s one of the great champions,” said Lou DiBella, Taylor’s promoter and former promoter for Hopkins. “He deserves a round of applause because his career has been fabulous.” Hopkins left the fight with more than just a round of applause. He left a legend.

“You got champions and then people’s champions,” Hopkins said later, without a hint of either rancor or self-pity. “The people will never let you forget. When I left the dressing room, people said, ‘Champ…. Good luck, champ. Good fight, champ.’” That’s the respect people will give me until I die. As long as I put in good hard work and discipline through the years, people will look and respect that.”

From the start, Hopkins knew he was fighting for his legacy. He wore his executioner’s mask for the first time in four years, partly, he said, to give his fans one last chance to see it. He fought with hard, bull-rushing the younger Taylor and occasionally giving up his counterpunch to keep pushing the fight.

“I wanted to make a statement….” he said. “I wanted to let [the fans] know this is one of the last fights of my career.” But the former champion’s grace and his will was no match for the younger man’s skill.

“Jermain Taylor put on a young-lion performance tonight,” Hopkins said. With a remarkable twenty successful title defenses, two losses to Taylor will do little to diminish his legacy.

“Champions very rarely finish their career with a win and that doesn’t make them any less great,” boxing historian Bert Sugar said. “So many of the greats, Sugar Ray Robinson, Leonard, Muhammad Ali, they end their career with a loss.”

As the crowds filtered out of the arena and the cheers drifted into the Las Vegas night, only a question remained as evidence of the fight that had been:

Was he the greatest of all time? Probably not.

Was he the greatest of our time? Without a doubt.

Hopkins has his financial affairs in order and his senses seem firmly intact after twenty years of boxing. “I understand when you get to that level like Michael Jordan, Jerry Rice did, where you fight just to perform at a respectable level,” Hopkins said. “No one can box forever.”

Not even Bernard Hopkins, a winner, even if no the longer champion.