Bernard Hopkins rolled back the years to pull off arguably the most amazing win of his long and distinguished career when easily outpointing world light-heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver in Atlantic City.
The 41-year-old Executioner claimed wins over ring legend Oscar de la Hoya and the great Felix Trinidad during a 10-year reign as world middleweight champion which included a record 20 successful title defences.
However, those opponents were moving up in weight, while this time it was Hopkins who was venturing into the unknown by stepping up two divisions and over a stone.
But Hopkins made light of that disadvantage by continuously outworking and outthinking Tarver, who entered the ring on the back of wins over Glencoffe Johnson and Roy Jones.
Hopkins had the better of the early exchanges and forced Tarver to touch down and take a standing eight count after a superb straight right in the fifth. Tarver tried to dominate the centre of the ring but there was little spark in his punches and he rarely looked like penetrating Hopkins' superb defence.
Hopkins craftily caught the judges' eyes with well-timed bursts of action, often pinning Tarver on the ropes with quick and accurate combinations. His two latest defeats to new middleweight sensation Jermain Taylor were cast aside as Hopkins toyed with his taller opponent, who suffered swelling under both eyes.
And there was no need to wait for the scores to be announced once the final bell rung, although for the record Hopkins prevailed by 118-109 on all three cards.
Hopkins insisted he had always been confident of beating Tarver, declaring: "I could have moved up to this weight five years ago and I've always been good against southpaws.
"Tarver has a good punch, I could see why he knocked Roy Jones out, but I didn't give him a clean target. I didn't run, I used a Jersey Joe Walcott and Archie Moore type of style - keep spinning and rolling my shoulders without running and wasting energy.
"I was there to be able to counter and that was how I was able to put him down."
Hopkins claimed before the fight that this would be his final bout, but he admitted after his win that could change if he was offered enough money for a rematch with Tarver.
He added: "I wanted to make history in the middleweight division and then go up and fight the winner of Roy Jones and Tarver - that was my plan last year and I've completed that.
"But Tarver is a great champion, a man that I've got a lot of respect for, and if I was to consider coming back, this is the only man that I'd give a rematch to and not Roy Jones Jr."
Meanwhile Derry boxer John Duddy beat Freddie Cuevas with a seventh-round technical knock-out to successfully defend his WBC Continental Americas middleweight title in New York.
This was Duddy's first defence of the title he won last March and his 17th straight win since turning pro.
The fight had to be stopped when Cuevas's broken nose and cuts above the eye meant the bout became dangerous for the boxer. It means 14 of Duddy's 17 wins have now been by knock-outs.
Elsewhere Israel Vazquez retained his WBC super-bantamweight title when fellow Mexican Ivan Hernandez was forced to retire at the end of the fourth round due to cuts.