On this day in 2001, Bernard Hopkins pulled off one of the biggest wins of his career.
It was only earlier this month that boxing crowned a new undisputed champion following Terence Crawford’s victory over Canelo Alvarez.
While we’ve seen this achievement be accomplished by some incredible boxers in recent years, this wasn’t always a feat that came around often.
The middleweight division was a testament to this for a long time, until Bernard Hopkins was put into a four-way race to accomplish this goal.
Hopkins went on to record massive wins over the likes of Oscar De La Hoya, but it’s his bout that took place on September 29 of 2001 that kicked his undisputed reign off.
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Bernard Hopkins ended Felix Trinidad’s undefeated run after causing a lot of controversy with his pre-fight actions
In 2001, three of the middleweight division’s top fighters were thrown into a tournament, along with the arrival of a new conquering force.
After the first round of matchups saw two men emerge victorious, many thought that Bernard Hopkins faced an uphill battle to try and stop Felix Trinidad from continuing his undefeated streak in another weight class.
The build to their ‘And Then There Was One’ undisputed clash at Madison Square Garden was noteworthy for several reasons.
Hopkins didn’t just bet $100,000 on himself to win the fight as a big underdog, he riled up his opponent’s fans by throwing the Puerto Rico flag onto the ground at multiple press conferences, including one in Puerto Rico itself, which unsurprisingly resulted in riots.
Trinidad may have been ranked as the #2 pound-for-pound fighter in the world by The Ring at that point, but this didn’t show itself in the fight.
Hopkins not only flipped the script on his opponent by choosing to outbox him instead of engaging in a brawl, he put the undefeated fighter away in the final round as Trinidad’s father stepped into the ring to wave the bout off.
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Felix Trinidad later blamed the fight being delayed for his poor performance against Bernard Hopkins
The undisputed middleweight clash between Bernard Hopkins and Felix Trinidad was originally set to take place on September 15.
After it was rescheduled to September 29 due to the 9/11 attacks, Trinidad claimed years later that this significantly impacted his performance on that night.
He told Jose Sanchez in 2010 that the aftermath of the attacks, and an issue in his personal life regarding an affair that became public several days before the bout, clouded his mind.
“If the fight had been on 15th, the story would have been different,” Trindade claimed.
After this loss, he only competed four more times before retiring, ending his career with a defeat to Roy Jones Jr. in January of 2008.