Hopkins fulfils lifelong dream the hard way

It was about history, about respect and in the end, as the brutal punches sent Felix Trinidad to the canvas in the final round, it was just about the ability of Bernard Hopkins to overcome tremendous odds and survive a fight of ferocious intensity to emerge as the winner.

The ancient ring at Madison Square Garden is possibly the only place in the world where a fight like this involving such drama, such passion and ultimately such a brutal conclusion could have taken place. In the Garden legends of the ring have won and lost under various roofs and at several locations during the last 100 years in fights, like this one on Saturday night, that have become part of the sport's rich pantheon of great meetings.

Hopkins won the Sugar Ray Robinson trophy and the right to be called the first undisputed middleweight champion since Marvin Hagler in 1987, but what he really achieved was the right to declare with certainty that in the manipulative complexities of modern boxing he had done it his way.

"I'm the dream, man," he said. "I'm the American dream. When they said I couldn't do it, I did it. When they said it was impossible, I made it possible. I had that dream, I have had that dream every day since I left prison."

Trinidad was the clear favourite, the unbeaten darling from Puerto Rico, and most of the 19,000 fans inside the Garden were on his side, but their devotion, their rabid flag-waving, was simply not enough to save him from a slow beating from the calculating fists of Hopkins. Before the fight, Hopkins had thrown a Puerto Rican flag on the floor and insulted the nation but the first thing he did after the fight was apologise to all Puerto Ricans for his statements. It had been a plan to unsettle Trinidad and it worked because there was an edge of real anger to Trinidad's early work as he frustratingly lunged and missed.

Hopkins was able to absorb the punches that have left 33 of Trinidad's previous 40 opponents crawling in pain across the canvas and on Saturday night, as the fury increased in each round, it was Hopkins and his ring brilliance that started to take control.

Hopkins, 36, simply looked too strong and hard at times, which is odd in a fight involving such accomplished fighters, but then Hopkins has a past life.

He was 17 when he was sentenced to five years for aggravated assault and when he was released at 22 he ended up under the control of the Philadelphia fight veteran Bouie Fisher. The pair are still together. Hopkins has never hidden from the reality of his failings.

"This was my personal war and it started when I was just a child on the streets of Philadelphia," Hopkins added. "I turned my back on my situation and that is hard when there is no food in the refrigerator and it is easy to say I will go and rob a bank or sell a bit of dope. I walked away from that and I have proved I'm a man."

Hopkins had total control by round nine and was able to lead Trinidad gently from one side of the ring to the other and open up with counters and then move off with ease. In Trinidad's corner the confusion was real and when the fighter stepped from the attention of his trainer and father, Felix Snr, for the last round he had a rare look of defeat on his face.

The fight was officially stopped after 1:18 of the last with Trinidad struggling with his defiant spirit to get up and continue. But his father's hand came to rest on the shoulder of the referee, Steve Smoger, finally to end the fight. The subdued crowd of Trinidad fans started to leave immediately and by the time the end was announced the lights were on, the seats empty and this memorable fight was most definitely over.