by David P. Greisman

It was a bizarre yet highly entertaining moment — Bernard Hopkins had opened a cut over Karo Murat’s eye in the eighth round of their fight, and suddenly Hopkins turned his back and moved into Murat’s corner, speaking to members of his team while his opponent pursued him and then attacked him with shots.

“I was talking to his corner. I was trying to negotiate with them to stop the fight,” Hopkins said at the post-fight press conference. “This guy was coming, bleeding, and taking a lot of punishment. … I looked at the corner, I said, ‘This guy’s all cut up, I’m going to keep beating him, and it’s going to get ugly.’ That’s what I did. They didn’t listen, though.”

Hopkins went on to win a unanimous decision, improving to 54-6-2 and 32 knockouts. Murat fell to 25-2-1 with 15 KOs.

Pick up a copy of David’s new book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com