Bernard Hopkins successfully defended his light-heavyweight world champion title wining by a unanimous decision over Winky Wright on Saturday. He protected his Middleweight title 20 times, more than any middleweight in history.

Judge Glenn Hamada scored 116-112 for Hopkins with Glenn Trowbridge and Dave Moretti agreeing on a 117-111 score for the champion, who improved his record to 48-4-1 with 32 knockouts.

Hopkins, aka The Executioner, managed to contain the more aggressive Wright with his ability to slip many of his blows and suffocate his offense by strapping him up when the two were close, scoring with short, sharp counter right hands on the counter attack.

The Philadelphia native landed his big blow in the third round when he opened a gash over Wright's left eye with a head-butt.

Hopkins landed 152 of his 640 punches, and Wright landed 167 of his 618 blows. As the punch statistics show the fight was much disputed and neither boxer imposed a clear dominance.

"It was a tough fight, a very close fight," Hopkins said.

As expected after a close fight, one of the boxers, in this case Wright (51-4-1, 25 KOs), contested the official decision arguing that he should have won the title.

"I won the fight. It was a dirty fight. He was head-butting all day," he said. "I thought I won the fight, but it was a close fight. I'm good, though."