© Tom Hogan / Golden Boy Promotions

Like all fights of latter period Bernard Hopkins, last night's greatly anticipated showdown with Joe Calzaghe at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas was an ugly, untoward bout that proved difficult to score and generated a great deal of controversy as to who actually won.

Hopkins jumped out to an early lead on the strength of his patented leaping right hand lead, which he throws with perfect timing particularly against southpaws, which had Calzaghe on the seat of his pants in round one.

Calzaghe wasn't hurt and carried on but was clearly troubled by the type of spoiler tactics that have greatly lengthened the career of wily veteran Hopkins, who continued to slug and hold the visiting Welshman to build a commanding edge in the first half of the bout.

But while recent opponents Antonio Tarver and Winky Wright couldn't overcome the tactics of Hopkins, Calzaghe proved he was more resourceful and gradually began to box, finding a home for a lighting quick left hand that never truly hurt Hopkins, clearly disrupted the Philadelphian's game plan and built up points.

From that point on, Hopkins began to focus on trying to land one big counter at a time between the grappling and he did manage to shake Calzaghe several times with hard shots but "The Pride of Wales" kept up a higher volume of punches and simply outworked the 43 year old "Executioner".

On of Calzaghe's body shots strayed south of the border in the tenth and Hopkins took two minutes to recover but was not able to keep up with Calzaghe's work rate for the remainder of the bout.

Calzaghe was awarded the split decision victory on scores of 116-111, 115-113 and 114-113 for Hopkins and although there was no title at stake, Calzaghe has gone from being the best super middleweight in the world to defeating the top light heavyweight in the sport and now sits atop the 175 lb class.

Also on the bill were a trio of southpaws with Mexican middleweight David Lopez, 34-12 (22), stopping late replacement Ryan Davis, 20-8-2 (8), in the fifth,
British veteran heavyweight Audley Harrison, 22-3 (17), bombed out Jason Barnett, 10-7 (4), also in the fifth and Welsh light heavy prospect Nathan Cleverly, 12-0 (3), outpointed Antonio Baker, 6-10 (3), over eight.

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Boxing News Tags: Antonio Baker, Audley Harrison, Battle of the Planet, Bernard Hopkins, David Lopez, Frank Warren, Golden Boy Promotions, HBO Boxing, Jason Barnett, Joe Calzaghe, Joe Calzaghe Vs Bernard Hopkins, Nathan Cleverly, Ryan Davis