SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- On the rare occasion when a legendary fighter gets to call his shot and close his career in a pre-planned retirement match, it tends to go down like the one we saw on Saturday night in California.
The one in the boxing ring in Southern California, that is. Bernard Hopkins, one of the sweet science’s most dignified warriors, had his career come to a most undignified conclusion, as he was knocked through the ropes and out of the ring by an opponent whose name only hardcore fight fans knew.
It’s enough to make you all the more appreciative of what we saw a couple hours prior about 400 miles north, up in California’s capitol.