Bernard Hopkins knocked out of the ring by Joe Smith (Video)

Bernard Hopkins’ last fight did not really go as planned, as it ended with him literally on the floor

Saturday night, we were all saying goodbye to one of the best boxers of this generation, as Bernard Hopkins was calling it a career. He would step into the ring against Joe Smith in Inglewood, California, and he can only hope to end his career with some dignity.

Well, that didn’t exactly happen.

While Hopkins did make it to the eighth round of the bout on Saturday, this is exactly where one of the more embarrassing moments of his career took place. During that Round 8, Smith landed a flurry of shots, and one was so vicious that Hopkins was knocked right out of the ring and onto the floor.

"Watch: @beastsmithjr knocks @THEREALBHOP out of the ring 53 seconds into round 8, ending the fight. #Final1 https://t.co/Pj2svLUlC9— HBOboxing (@HBOboxing) December 18, 2016"

That right there, of course, signaled the end of the fight and the career of Hopkins. Although, you never really know with that latter statement, because we all know how boxers are.

Now initially, Hopkins claimed that he was pushed out of the ring, not punched out. But of course, when you watch the video and all the replays that came along with it, it was pretty clear that it was the force of Smith’s punch that put Hopkins out on the floor in front of the crowd.

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This is certainly not the way that Hopkins will want to be remembered, so it will be interesting to see whether or not he does rethink this as his swan song. Although, when you suffer something like that, maybe it is a wake-up call to just walk away from the sport and call it a career after 28 years.