51 year old boxer gets knocked out on last fight

Bernard Hopkins' last fight in his 28 year middleweight boxing career didn't go according to plan as he was knocked out of the ring in the 8th round. 

The 51 year old veteran boxer had announced that his bout against Joe Smith Jr would be his last fight and made a good account of himself as he gave 27 year old Smith a good fight. However a combination of five punches from Smith sent him out of the ring and to the floor, he couldn't make it back into the ring.

Hopkins nicknamed 'The Executioner', ended his career with an impressive professional boxing record of 55-8-2 which included 32 knockouts. Hopkins successfully defended his middleweight title on 20 occasions from the year 1994 and in 2013 he became the oldest boxer in history at 49 to win a major title with his IBF light heavyweight success against Tavoris Cloud in 2013.

A year later, Hopkins defeated Kazakh boxer Beibut Shumenov by split decision to become the oldest boxer ever to unify world titles, picking up the WBA 'Super' light heavyweight title.

"I'm really still in shock," said Hopkins. "This is my last fight, I promised it would be and you come to that point in life where it is final and I'm happy with my retirement.