The knockdown was not counted/allowed tho...seeing as how the ref was breaking it up and holding Hopkins arms down.
Obviously, if you are not acclimated to a new environment, such as high humidity, hot weather, extreme cold, or high ALTITUDE, it will impact your performance. That is why typically, when a boxer goes to fight at a location with a much different environment or climate, they try to get over at least 2 weeks before hand to get their body acclimated to the new environment. In regards to the video, it looks like Hopkins was exhausted and he didn't have his legs under him. He got hurt by the uppercut then stumbled and leaned forward on the other guy and was then pushed back. Yeah, he was hurt, but he seemed exausted as well. The second one seemed definitely like a push down. Nevertheless, Hopkins seems to have a good chin... Many great boxers have been knocked down in one point of their career or another. There was another post about Winky getting knocked down in another fight overseas. I was surprised as well, in the sense that he seems to take punches pretty well. There is always circumstances in which a boxer can be hurt and many variables come into play such as exhaustion, balance, not seeing a punch, etc. The question is how do they react and come back from that knock down. If they are on wobbly legs, then changes are they were really hurt. In both knock downs, Hopkins got up and didn't really look hurt.
I seriously doubt that the elevation was over 9000+ feet. Well, actually, i know it wasn't that high. Maybe you got the feets mixed up with meters.
OMG, you are so right. That is UNBELIEVABLE. I can't believe their is an arena that high up in the mountains. 9,300 feet is way, way up there. That completely excuses Hopkins for the KDs. He did look somewhat lethargic in that fight. My respect for Hopkins has gone up even more with this new knowledge. :good
I'm amazed Hopkins even made it 12 rounds after arriving just 4days before the fight. What was his manager/trainer thinking? He should have been there at least a month before, and probably training in Denver the 4 weeks prior to that. That said, huge credit to Hopkins for making the distance and not picking up the loss in hostile territory.
To show that Glass-Jawed Hopkins got floored by feather-fisted Mercado God Hopkins is such a *****! He's like a middleweight version of Michael Grant!!!! only with better defense.....:nut
Amazing accomplishment. Man, almost 10,000 feet in elevation? That's so crazy. That's almost 2 miles up from most cities in the world.
Oddly enough, this was Hopkins' only fight outside the US. Kind of weird when you consider how adverse the conditions were.