It wasn't even close.

Bernard Hopkins made good on his promise to make the bigger man miss and look stupid, as he dominated Antonio Tarver for twelve rounds before taking his light heavyweight title from him in Atlantic City, New Jersey last night. Tarver, 24-3 (18), said that Hopkins wouldn't see the seventh round; instead, the ex-champion lost virtually every round and was dropped in the fifth.

Hopkins, 46-4-1 (32), who lost his last two fights against Jermain Taylor, fought aggressively and purposefully from the first round on, and a lethargic and stunned Tarver never had an answer for him. The "Executioner" feinted, led with right hands, and bullied the "Magic Man" around the ring, almost closing his left eye and leaving him discouraged by the halfway mark of the fight. In the fifth, a Hopkins right hand sent Tarver stumbling back at which point his glove touched the canvas, for the only knockdown of the fight. Hopkins looked sharper, stronger, and quicker then he did against Taylor, even peppering Tarver with quick combinations mixed in with his potshots. During the last four rounds of the fight, with the crowd clearly on his side, B-Hop appeared to be having fun in the ring, as he used angles and slips to avoid Tarver's artillery. Tarver looked much like Roy Jones did in their first fight, when Jones had to lose the weight he gained when he fought John Ruiz at heavyweight. Tarver wasn't making any excuses, but perhaps the weight he put on for the Rocky movie played a factor in his lethargy. He looked sluggish and complacent, and was thoroughly outboxed by Hopkins.

It was a masterful performance by the 41-year-old veteran, and if this is truly Hopkins' last fight, he went out like a true champion. After twenty successful defenses of his middleweight title (twenty-two if you don't acknowledge the Taylor losses), Hopkins packed on fifteen pounds of muscle and outclassed the light heavyweight champion of the world.

The rags to riches tale is the stuff of Hollywood movies, and Bernard Hopkins gets to do it his way after all.