BOXING: Jermain Taylor battled his way to a stunning upset victory over Bernard Hopkins yesterday, the challenger edging a split decision to become the new undisputed middleweight world champion.
Suffering a first loss in more than 12 years, Hopkins failed in his bid to record a 21st straight defence of his crown after letting Taylor dictate the early rounds of the contest while never being able to recover the deficit.
After a subdued start, the 40-year-old Hopkins connected with a solid right in the 10th round and continued to attack his tiring opponent, but was unable to deliver the knockout blow he needed to retain his titles.
After the 12-round bout, two of the judges scored it 115-113 in favour of the undefeated Taylor, while the third judge had Hopkins ahead by a 116-112 margin.
"He got some good punches in but he never hurt me," said the 26-year-old Taylor, who improved his record to 24-0. "He's not a big puncher, but an accurate one."
Taylor, who won a bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, admitted he was shocked to have been awarded the fight but was keen to face Hopkins again.
"I almost cried when the decision was announced," he said. "I learned so much tonight, I can't wait for the rematch."
The defeat was the first for Hopkins since a points loss to Roy Jones jr in May 1993, but despite seeing his record fall to 46-3-1 the Philadelphia native is expected to fight on. "I felt I won the fight," a disgruntled Hopkins said. "From the fifth or sixth round on, I felt I dominated it. I hurt him at least twice. I guess the only thing I did wrong was not knock him out." Hopkins had planned to leave the division after a victory and move up to challenge the light-heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver. However, those plans have been put on hold with Hopkins saying he would "certainly" take the rematch with Taylor that was written into the contract.
Defeated duo Brian Magee and Howard Eastman have both vowed to make triumphant returns to the ring after suffering controversial points losses in Nuremberg, Germany, on Saturday night. Eastman fumed over a disputed unanimous points verdict in favour of hard-hitting WBA Intercontinental middleweight champion Arthur Abraham, while Magee found himself on the wrong end of a controversial split decision against newly crowned European champion Vitali Tsypko.
In a country that is becoming notorious for such disputed decisions, a further two undercard fights were surprisingly handed to the German boxers, which comically prompted an Italian manager to pelt a judge with plastic bottles in Nuremberg.
