The Best of the Rest: 175lbs Tier II Tournie - QF 2: Virgil Hill UD15 Bernard Hopkins

The second QF is almost sure to deliver another boxing clinic with the wily Hopkins set another very clear task of nullification in the form of another great lead hand. Is it the quickness and mobility of Hill or the read, the slyness, the hyena that is Hopkins?

VIRGIL HILL (51-7)
Hill glided past Mickey Walker in the second round, grabbing, jabbing, and out-sizing his much smaller opponent in as intelligent a display as we saw in the second round. It should not be forgotten though that Hill emerged from a first round scrap with an overconfident Jimmy Slattery by a single point on a single card. Even a draw would have seen Hill eliminated on countback - he was one round away from elimination. More, Slattery seemed to fade in the last few rounds of that fight and although Hill was brilliant in grasping at the sliver of light that appeared in a losing performance, there are those that feel Slattery non only deserved the nod on the night but would have taken it on any other night. Still, Hill do the grasping and proved himself versus Walker; he's one old man away from the semis.

BERNARD HOPKINS (55-8-2)
Bernard Hopkins put people to sleep with his fifteen round domination of Eddie Cotton in the first round, snarling and thinking his way to a rough and tumble fight that was roundly booed by a frustrated audience. But it was a wide win where Bernard absorbed hardly any punishment that left him fresh for his second round contest with Dariusz Michalczwski. Michalczwski caused Hopkins serious problems in the early going, landing trailing hands on several occasions that seemed to trouble him, but that type of unerring consistency allows Hopkins to adjust, and adjust he did, boxing round the lead and trailing attacks Dariusz seemed unable to alter to regather himself late in the fight. It was easily as close as Hill-Slattery but the decision went to Hopkins.

 

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Only Bernard Hopkins was baffled about Virgil Hill's wide unanimous decision as Hill controlled the fight from the outset and Hopkins did very little to deny him that control. For once, an opponent was able to score successfully and often with the jab upon Hopkins as Hill eschewed power for regular, accurate jabs to the body and chest, throwing in enough right hands to the body up close and to the head at distance that Hopkins generally more punishing work was far too rare to make the difference. Hopkins won the occasional round with a lead right that troubled Hill in patches, but never enough to see him hurt, quick feet getting him out of trouble whenever Hopkins tried for a controlled rush.