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The March of Ides

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Date	March 29, 1997
Venue	Las Vegas Hilton, Paradise, Nevada, U.S.
Title(s) on the line	IBF heavyweight title
Tale of the tape
Boxer Michael Moorer Vaughn Bean Nickname Double M Shake and Bake Hometown Monessen, Pennsylvania, U.S. Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Purse $3,600,000 $500,000 Pre-fight record 38–1 27–0 Age 29 years, 4 months 22 years, 6 months Height 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) 6 ft 0 in (183 cm) Weight 212 lb (96 kg) 212 lb (96 kg) Style Southpaw Orthodox Recognition IBF heavyweight champion IBF No. 5 ranked heavyweight
Result
Moorer wins via majority decision (116–113, 115–113, 114–114)

Michael Moorer vs. Vaughn Bean, billed as The March of Ides, was a professional boxing match contested on March 29, 1997, for the IBF heavyweight title.

Background

Michael Moorer, in his second reign as IBF heavyweight champion, was coming off a TKO victory over Francois Botha on the undercard of first Mike Tyson–Evander Holyfield fight on November 9, 1996. Following his victory, Moorer was given the opportunity to headline his own pay-per-view by taking on the undefeated but little-known Vaughn Bean. Bean came in to the fight with a 27–0 record and was ranked by IBF as the number-five heavyweight contender, but had faced marginal competition up to that point and he was installed as sizeable 5–1 underdog. Just before the fight, Moorer took ill with the common cold forcing him to no-show a pre-fight press conference the week of the fight, though his manager John Davimos dismissed the illness and insisted Moorer would be "100 percent" come fight time. Moorer had a lot riding on the fight as a victory over Bean all but insured him a chance to face the winner of the Holyfield–Tyson rematch

Hopkins, who had made boxing history the previous year as the sport's oldest world champion after capturing the IBF title from Tavoris Cloud, was looking to make history once again as the oldest fighter to unify two major world titles.

The fight

Hopkins got off to slow start, losing the first two rounds on all three scorecards, but found his footing in the third and dominated most of the remainder of the fight. After Shumenov came back to take the ninth and tenth rounds, Hopkins would rebound to score his fist knockdown since knocking down Joe Calzaghe six years prior, sending Shumenov down to his knees after landing a big overhand right. Though Shumenov was clearly hurt, he was able to continue the fight and survive the round. Following the knockdown, Hopkins would land punches at will for the next round and a half with Shumenov clinching throughout in order to make it to the end of the fight. With the fight going to the judge's scorecards, two judges, Jerry Roth and Dave Moretti, scored the fight for Hopkins with identical 116–111 scores, while the third judge, Gustavo Padilla, shockingly had Shumenov the winner with a score 114–113. While Hopkins shrugged off Padilla's scoring stating "It's not my job to deal with that", Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer called the scoring "bullshit" and called for Padilla to retire, while ESPN writer Dan Rafael would write that Padilla's scoring "will go down among the worst in modern boxing history."

Fight card

Confirmed bouts:

Weight Class	Weight		vs.		Method	Round	Notes
Light Heavyweight	175 lbs.	Bernard Hopkins (c)	def	Beibut Shumenov (c)	SD	12/12	Note 1
Middleweight	160 lbs.	Peter Quillin (c)	def.	Lukáš Konečný	TKO	10/12	Note 2
Welterweight	147 lbs.	Shawn Porter	def.	Paulie Malignaggi	TKO	4/12	Note 3
Welterweight	147 lbs.	Sadam Ali	def.	Michael Clark	KO	1/10
Super Middleweight	168 lbs.	Dominic Wade	def.	Marcus Upshaw	TKO	2/8
Super Lightweight	140 lbs.	Zachary Ochoa	def.	Hector Marengo	TKO	5/6
Super Middleweight	168 lbs.	D'Mitrius Ballard	def.	Quincy Miner	TKO	2/4
Super Welterweight	154 lbs.	David Grayton	def.	Howard Reece	TKO	1/4
Lightweight	135 lbs.	Lamont Roach Jr.	def.	Victor Galindo	UD	4/4

^Note 1 For WBA (super), IBF and IBA light heavyweight titles
^Note 2 For WBO middleweight title
^Note 3 For IBF welterweight title

Broadcasting

Country	Broadcaster
United States	Showtime