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HBO Championship Boxing De La Hoya vs. Sturm Hopkins vs. Allen
June 5, 2004 MGM Grand Garden Arena - 6pm PT Las Vegas, Nevada On HBO PPV
WBC, WBA & IBF Middleweight Title Bout (12 Rds) Champ Bernard Hopkins (43-2-1, 31 KO's) vs. Robert Allen (36-4, 27 KO's)
Juan Lazcano (33-2-1, 25 KO's) vs. Jose Luis Castillo (49-6-1, 45 KO's)
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This Saturday night, Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins will step into the ring, not to face each other...yet, but with hopes of coming out victorious so that their planned September 18th (2004) bout in Las Vegas, Nevada will go through.
First up, undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins will face the seventh ranked WBC, second ranked WBA, and the # 1 ranked IBF middleweight Robert Allen. These two are no strangers as this will be the third meeting between the two. Back in August of 1998, Hopkins made his eighth title defense of his IBF championship belt against Allen. In a scene out of the WWE, the fight was ruled a no contest in the fourth round when referee Mills Lane, in trying to break up a clinch between the two fighters, accidentally pushed Hopkins out of the ring. Hopkins ended up injuring himself and the fight was stopped. Roughly four months later, they did it again. And this time, sans Mills Lane, Hopkins stopped Allen via seventh round TKO. Hopkins since then, has rolled off eight wins in a row including victories over Felix Trinidad (12th round TKO in Sept. of ' 01) and William Joppy (12 round decision in Dec. of ' 03) in his last bout. Hopkins hasn't tasted defeat since his loss to Roy Jones Jr. via 12 round decision back in 1993.
Since losing to Hopkins, Allen has gone 13-1, losing only his bout to Ali Ennebati after his defeat by Hopkins. Hopkins will be looking to make a statement to Oscar De La Hoya, so look for Hopkins to try to make quick work of Allen. It won't be a walk-over but considering all of Allen's defeats have come by TKO, Hopkins will be too much for Allen to handle and will be stopped in the later rounds - Hopkins by ninth round TKO.
Next up, the only title Hopkins doesn't have (yet?), the WBO middleweight title will be defended when undefeated champion Felix Sturm faces former Jr. middleweight champion Oscar De La Hoya. Sturm has fought mainly in his homeland of Germany and hasn't faced the quality of opponents De La Hoya has. This will surely be a test for him but unfortunately, he will fail. De La Hoya has always stepped up to a challenge, facing such top fighters as Julio Cesar Chavez, Pernell Whitaker, Ike Quartey, Felix Trinidad, Fernando Vargas, Arturo Gatti, and Shane Mosley. De La Hoya either won impressively or lost a close decision (Mosley & Trinidad). De la Hoya will be looking to send Hopkins a message as well - letting Hopkins know that he will be bringing his power up to the middleweight division. De La Hoya should be stalking and countering, looking for a way in to load up on some combos and put the champ down and out. Unless Sturm starts to get on his bicycle, De La Hoya will take this by TKO in the middle rounds. Lets say seven.
Also on the card, the WBC number one ranked lightweight Juan Lazcano will face the WBC second ranked lightweight Jose Luis Castillo for the interim WBC lightweight title. This could be the best fight of the night. Castillo is a former WBC lightweight champion who has gone the distance twice, and lost, to current WBC lightweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.. Lazcano has an 11th round TKO win over Stevie Johnson in his last bout (Sept., 2003), who by-the-way, took Castillo 12 rounds twice, losing a majority decision to Castillo and then fighting him to a draw.
This one is almost too close to call but I'll give the slight edge to Castillo. Castillo by split decision.
SN
Card subject to change
(6/3/04)
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