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22 HOPKINS will hang up his gloves at the age of 51 after taking on fellow American Smith in his 65th and final fight at the Fo- rum in Los Angeles. 'The Executioner' has won multiple world titles at middleweight and lightweight, boasts a record of 55-7-2, with 32 knock- outs, and has never been stopped. He has fought some of the biggest names of his career, including Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad and Joe Calzaghe, and will return to the ring after losing his WBA and IBF light heavyweight titles to WBO champion Sergey Kovalev in November 2014. The Philadelphia-born fighter turned to boxing after a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence for armed robbery and lost his first bout as a professional in 1988. However, he went on to dominate the middleweight division for a decade, mak- ing a record 20 consecutive defences be- fore suffering back-to-back defeats to Jer- maine Taylor in 2005. Hopkins lost to Britain's Calzaghe in 2008 before winning the WBC light heav- yweight title in 2010. "A lot of people will focus on my age, the history of my run in the sport, the titles, et c... but I'm focused on one thing - knock- ing Joe Smith out," said Hopkins. "We want to make this Bernard Hopkins' retirement party," said boxer-turned pro- moter De La Hoya, who was stopped in nine rounds by Hopkins when they met in a middleweight unification fight in 2004. "It will be a whole week of festivities and celebration of his great career. We're going to put something together that will com- plement his farewell fight. "Joe Smith is a big knockout puncher, and he is coming off a great win over Fonfara, who had knocked out (Julio Cesar) Chavez Jr," added De La Hoya. "He will bring the fight to Hopkins. He is aggressive. It's a legitimate fight." Smith, 27, who was born roughly three months after Hopkins laced up his gloves for the first time, has lost only one fight since his 2009 debut, compiling a 22-1 re- cord with 18 knockouts. "I'm very excited about fighting on HBO," said the New Yorker. "I know now all my hard work and dedication has paid off. I am looking forward to retiring a boxing legend." maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 19 OCTOBER 2016 Sport CRICKET Luxembourg celebrate series win over Malta THE Malta Cricket team hosted the Lux- embourg national team over the weekend, in which the visitors sealed a series win. After recent victories over Hungary, Rus- sia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic; the Malta team were in confident mood but missed chances would prove costly in all three matches. Proceedings began with Friday's opening ceremony as both teams stood for their re- spective national anthems and were greet- ed by Hon. Chris Agius, Parliamentary Secretary for Research, Innovation, Youth and Sport. Friday T20 After Luxembourg were sent in to bat, William Heath (67) and Tim Barker (31) laid the foundation for a decent score with a second wicket partnership of 61 runs. Vikram Vijh shifted the momentum in Luxembourg's favour with seven bounda- ries in his 48 runs from only 25 balls. His cameo catapulted Luxembourg from 65 in the first 10 overs to a total of 164 for 3 from their allotted 20 overs. For Malta, Andrew Naudi and George Agius took a wicket apiece. Malta's reply lacked the re- quired conviction and application. Captain Nowell Khosla (27) and Andrew Naudi (22) provided some resistance but it was to be a convincing victory for Luxembourg by 63 runs. Off-spinner Chris Fry was the main wicket-taker with 4 for 18 runs. Saturday 30 overs Luxembourg once again batted first and posted an imposing 30 over score of 271 for 9, led by Tim Barker (83 off 50) and Vikram Vijh (56 off 32). Opener, Joost Mees also contributed a valuable 42 runs. The visi- tors were particularly severe on all of the nine Malta bowlers used. For the home side, Niraj Khanna and Feroz Ahmed took 2 wickets apiece, John Grima was particu- larly tidy behind the wickets and Mark Sacco held two excellent catches in the outfield. Malta's riposte began poorly with the early wicket of Sam Aquilina. Nowell Khosla (31) and Andrew Naudi (15) saw Malta recover to 52 for 1, before both bats- men fell in quick succession. Niraj Khanna scored his highest international score (65) as he shared in a 79 run partnership with Bikram Arora (15). Luxembourg's compre- hensive victory was complete as a f lurry of Maltese wickets followed (6 wickets for on- ly 15 runs). Paul Bradley and George Agius saw Malta to the close, as they reached a respectable score of 158 for 9. For Luxembourg, youngsters Luka Dacic (2 for 21) and Chris Fry (2 for 27) were the pick of the bowlers. Captain Tony White- man also chipped in with 2 timely wickets. Sunday 45 overs Luxembourg won the toss and elected to bat in the all-important 3rd match of the series. The Malta team were looking for some consolation after two disappointing losses. Luxembourg's batting did not disappoint with contributions from all their batsmen. Chris Fry (72) and William Cope (40) pro- vided a solid base for some late hitting by Tim Barker (34 off 18 balls). Malta's spin- ners Andrew Naudi and Ronnie Sacco kept the Luxembourg batting line-up in check throughout the late overs and Malta went into lunch content with restricting the vis- itors to 266 for 7. For Malta, David Marks took 2 wickets for 48, while wicket-keeper Sam Aquilina snared a stumping and a catch. After losing Aquilina with the score at 13, Nowell Khosla and Frank Spiteri set about consolidating the Malta innings. The pair reached the first drinks break with Malta at 60 for 1 from 15 overs. By the 30th over, they put on a further 100 runs and brought up their individual fifties. After a superb 144 run partnership, Khosla was finally caught in the deep for 70 runs. Niraj Khan- na joined Spiteri and the pair put on an- other 32 in quick succession before Spiteri was adjudged LBW just 5 runs short of his century (95). With 60 runs required off the final 10 overs, Malta were still well placed for victory, however the dismissal of Khan- na (25) and Naudi (23) saw the momentum shift again in Luxembourg's favour. The Maltese lower order failed to see the home side through to victory, falling short by just 18 runs. The bowling honours for Luxem- bourg went to pace bowler Atif Kamal with 2 wickets for 28 from his 9 overs, while Vikram Vijh captured 2 for 29. The series saw Frank Spiteri become the first Maltese batsmen to pass 1500 inter- national runs while Andrew Naudi became Malta's most capped international crick- eter with 55 caps, overtaking Malta's all- time great all-rounder Michael Caruana (53 caps). At the presentation ceremony, Luxem- bourg captain Tony Whiteman received the Winner's Trophy, while Chris Fry was voted the Player of the Series with 77 runs and 7 wickets. Score Summaries Fri 14 Oct - T20: Luxembourg 164 for 3 (Heath 67, Vijh 48; Agius 1-24) defeated Malta 99 all out (Khosla 27; Fry 4-18). Play- er of the Match: Chris Fry (Luxembourg). Sat 15 Oct - 30 overs: Luxembourg 271 for 9 (T.Barker 83, Vijh 56; Ahmed 2-36) defeated Malta 158 for 9 (Khanna 65; Dacic 2-21). Player of the Match: Niraj Khanna (Malta). Sun 16 Oct - 45 overs: Luxembourg 266 for 7 (Fry 72, Cope 40; Marks 2-48) de- feated Malta 248 for 7 (Spiteri 95, Khosla 70; Kamal 2-28). Player of the Match: Frank Spiteri (Malta). Umpires: Les White, Joy Ghoseroy, Kevin Krishna, Subhas Roy. Scorers: Eric Balakrishnan & Paula Calleja Bernard Hopkins to retire Bernard Hopkins has announced he will bring the curtain down on his 28-year career when he faces Joe Smith in his farewell bout on December 17 Bernard Hopkins