New York, NY (BoxingGurus.com) - IBF Middleweight Champion Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins out-worked, out-muscled and out-skilled WBC Middleweight Champion Keith Holmes and won a landslide unanimous decision Saturday night in the first leg of the Middleweight Championship Series held at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.

Hopkins, who is 36 years old, used blazing combos, great bodywork and total ring generalship to beat Holmes and he looked like he was not the old man some claim he is.

In his biggest fight since Roy Jones Jr. in 1993, Hopkins (39-2-1-1, 28 KO) showcased his still polished skills and made a statement to both Felix Trinidad and William Joppy that it will not be easy to beat him and he is ready to become the undisputed Middleweight Champion.

Hopkins lands an uppercut.   (AP)

Hopkins predicted a knockout of Holmes, but retracted that after the fight, "First of all, I did predict I would knock him out and if I didn't knock him out I didn't deserve to be the champ and second I lied."

Holmes (34-3, 23 KO) just could not get anything started, as the southpaw only used his jab, but did not use it to set up any combinations. He used it to just try to keep Hopkins away. Hopkins did get inside and that is where he did his damage and totally dominated the fight.

Holmes did give his props to Hopkins after the fight, "Bernard was the better man tonight... The man was fighting. No excuses, no excuses. If I had been busier, it might of helped me."

After a very slow first round, the action picked up, but had only occasional periods of high action. Holmes defensive style did not lend to many exchanges, and if things did heat up he would tie up Hopkins.

Hopkins hurt Holmes a few different times throughout the fight (3rd, 6th and 11th rounds), but Holmes was never in serious trouble. There were a few times though that Hopkins hit Holmes low and Holmes went to a knee. Hopkins even got a point taken away in the 5th round and Holmes took about 3-4 minutes to recover. Holmes also went down in the 12th round due to an apparent low blow, but that appeared to most ringside observers to be Holmes faking and trying to get points taken away from Hopkins as he knew he was getting beat.

The judges scored the fight 118-109, 119-108 and 117-110 all for Hopkins. We at BoxingGurus.com, who was ringside for the fight, had it scored 117-110 for Hopkins. We had it 9-2-1 in rounds only giving Holmes the 1st and 8th rounds, with the 5th being a 9-9 round due to the point deduction.

The punch numbers can sometimes be deceiving, but not tonight as it showed how truly lopsided this fight really was. Hopkins threw 544 punches, landing 261 of them at 48%. Holmes threw only 354 punches and landed a meager 86 punches for a 24% connect rate. Hopkins also landed an amazing 258 power punches and many of those were body punches, which just wore put Holmes.

OTHER NOTES:

- On the undercard, Nelson Dieppa won the WBO Junior Flyweight by knocking out Andy Tabanas in the 11th round. Dieppa caught Tabanans with a huge right uppercut and knocked him unconscious for sometime and Tabanas had to be carried away on a stretcher. At the press conference after the main event, Don King informed the media that the doctors said Tabanas would be fine.

- Felix "Tito" Trinidad looked a lot bigger than last time I saw him and appears to put on the weight very well.

- I spoke with Kery Davis, HBO executive, about a few different topics. On negotiations on Roy Jones Jr./Dariusz Michalczewski: "I think the fight is bigger here (in the US). I don't think the fight is enormous there. We got their (Michalczewski) ridicules offer, which had Michalczewski making more than Jones Jr., but at least it is something to work with." On Hopkins' win: " Hopkins did what he had to do. Holmes was just trying to survive the body shots." On a possible Lennox Lewis/Mike Tyson fight: "The heat will be turned up June 3rd after Tyson faces David Izon." Davis gave the impression that there is still much hope things can get done, but wanted to wait till both fighters win their next fight before getting heavy into negotiations.