Hopkins annihilates former champ

Bernard Hopkins completed a comfortable 17th middleweight title defence against William Joppy in Atlantic City.

Hopkins was never able to knock Joppy down, but he gave the former champion such a beating that the right side of his face swelled up.

Hopkins won 11 of 12 rounds on two scorecards and 10 rounds on the third.

"I don't know what it was, but I just couldn't get off," Joppy said. "I couldn't do what I wanted to do.

"He hit me with some good shots, but he never hurt me."