Like him or not and whether you find his fighting style boring or entertaining, fans everywhere have to admit Bernard Hopkins has had some incredible career – and some eventful life. Hopkins, at almost 52, will see out his long and incredibly successful career this Saturday, against young, ambitious and dangerous punching Joe Smith Junior.
Hopkins promises this will be “The Final 1,” and that he will then exit the sport satisfied – “I’m about to be 52 with more than 60 fights and I can still hold a sentence. I’m most proud of that,” B-Hop, AKA The Alien, AKA The Executioner told The Las Vegas Review Journal this week. Hopkins hopes a movie will be devoted to his life, and let’s face it, there’s plenty of material there.
Hopkins beat the system that saw him put in jail and given no hope at the age of just 17, and he became something truly special in the prize ring. A superb middleweight, who holds the record for number of successful title defences, ‘Nard was also a great light-heavyweight (in fact he still is!) Smith, a big puncher who is coming off a stunning one round stoppage upset of the usually ultra-durable Andrzej Fonfara, has the opportunity of becoming the only man to have stopped or KO’d the Philly legend.
Could it happen? Sure – but don’t bet on it. Hopkins may have come into the sport a loser (dropping a four-round decision in his pro debut way back in 1988) but he will do his utmost to go out a winner. Hopkins, as has often been the case according to his critics, may not look exciting on Saturday night, but he will use all of his experience and savvy to get the win – his 56th to go along with 7 losses and a couple of draws.
Hopkins, quite simply, fought everyone during his near 30-year pro career, and even though he didn’t always win, each fight was competitive and memorable in a number of ways.
Let’s look at Hopkins’ finest victories:
1: Felix Trinidad, TKO12 September 2001
Given no chance by most “experts,” Hopkins was too old at 36, they said. Trinidad, unbeaten at 40-0 and a murderous puncher, was expected to become the unified middleweight king. Instead, with a thorough dismantling of a very good fighter, Hopkins boxed beautifully and dominated all the way. Hopkins put the finishing touches to his masterpiece by stopping a tired and hurt Trinidad in the final round, the beaten fighter’s father coming into the ring to rescue his son.
2: Kelly Pavlik, WU12 October 2008
Hopkins, then aged 43, was definitely pushing his luck too far by taking this fight, against another unbeaten puncher. But, as he had done before, Hopkins again tore up the script and defied all logic. B-Hop schooled the middleweight king who he was meeting at a catch-weight just below light-heavyweight, never losing a single round. A classic case of a good fighter being ruined by a great one. Like Trinidad, Pavlik was never the same after facing “The Executioner.”
3: Oscar De La Hoya, KO9 September 2004
De La Hoya may not have been a natural middleweight (Hopkins came in well below the 160-pound limit anyway) but he had never been stopped, he was faster than Hopkins and he had all-round skills to equal those of the defending champ. De La Hoya managed to keep it quite close for a half-dozen rounds or so, before an ever-patient Hopkins took him out with a stinging body punch in the ninth. Until Manny Pacquiao stopped a badly dehydrated version of De La Hoya right at the end of his career, nobody held the distinction of stopping “The Golden Boy.”
The next three:
Jean Pascal, WU12, May 2011
Hopkins makes history by becoming the oldest world champion in boxing with the light-heavyweight title win.
Antonio Tarver, WU12, June 2006
Another dominant decision win over a fighter who was expected to beat him. Tarver even had the nerve to present Hopkins with a rocking chair at the pre-fight presser!
Glen Johnson, TKO11, July 1997.
Defending his middleweight belt, Hopkins stopped an unimaginably tough and durable warrior – one who would not be stopped again for 17 long years!
