Bernard Hopkins to end career

By Boxing News - 10/18/2016 - Comments

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By Adam Godfrey: Middleweight legend Bernard ‘The Executioner’ Hopkins will draw the curtain on an illustrious and lengthy career on December 16th when he faces off against 27 year-old New York Light Heavyweight Joe Smith Junior at The Forum, California. A destroyer of records and opponents alike, Hopkins holds the distinction of being the oldest man to ever win a World Championship strap, achieved for a third time when he defeated Tavoris Cloud in March 2013 at the ripe old age of 48 years.

Hopkins also defended his Middleweight crown an incredible and record-breaking 20 times, an accolade which is currently under threat from Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin, but which, for now at least, stands as a symbol of Hopkins’s complete dominance of that division for an entire decade.

The freakish longevity of the Philadelphian’s career warrants serious consideration if one is to fully appreciate the man’s eminence. Although his most recent loss to Russian Light Heavyweight champion Sergei Kovalev was his career seventh defeat, it is nothing short of remarkable that Hopkins was able to last the entirety of the battle, especially considering the usual way that Kovalev disposes opponents’ considerably younger and less battle scarred than Hopkins. Hopkins weathered considerable pressure for eleven rounds following a first round knock down, and although his age had finally begun to show, the performance of the near 50 year old should still be held in high regard. Age may have dulled his reflexes and power, but his heart remained intact.

Hopkins won his maiden World Title in 1995 (1995!), defeating Ecuadorian Segundo Mercado via TKO in a rematch in which the IBF title was up for grabs, and would defend his belt 12 times by the start of the new millennium. Hopkins notably prevailed against previously undefeated Glen Johnson, outworking the Jamaican en route to an eleventh round TKO.

September 2001 saw the first of Hopkins’s first signature wins, as well as the occasion that he became the first Undisputed Middleweight Champion since Marvin Hagler in 1988, when he defeated future Puerto Rican Hall of Famer Tito Trinidad. Hopkins dominated the WBA Middleweight title-holder, and was comfortably ahead on the scorecards when he knocked Trinidad down in the final round, prompting the latter’s father to intervene and stop the fight. The build up to the fight has become infamous (more on that later) and was the first indication of the abrasive manner that often marked Hopkins’s dealing with his opponents and the press.

The opportunity to unify all four major Middleweight titles, for the first time in Boxing history, came in 2004 with a fight against ‘Golden Boy’ Oscar De La Hoya. The bout was conducted at a catch-weight of 158lb (a reasonable compromise considering De La Hoya’s smaller physical stature) and was a tense, tactical affair with the scorecards showing a split decision in Hopkins’s favor going into the ninth, whereupon Hopkins unleashed a pin-point left hook to the Mexican-American’s liver; the resultant knockdown ended the fight with De La Hoya making no effort to answer the referee’s count, such was the savage nature of the blow he had sustained.

The following year Hopkins defended his title for a record, and final, twentieth time, defeating Briton Howard Eastman at a full 40 years old, an age which usually signifies that a Boxer is fighting considerably past their sell-by date. Not Bernard.

However, 2005 would also see the end of Hopkins’s Middleweight reign when he relinquished his belts to Arkansas native Jermaine Taylor. Many Boxing writers had the fight scored a draw or in Hopkins’s favor, and thus the defeat remains a controversial one. Hopkins would attempt to avenge the loss to Taylor, only to be beaten again in less controversial circumstances.

Following his record breaking stay at Middleweight, Hopkins would step up two divisions to Light Heavyweight, and while he would never again match the dominance of his glory days, he would remain a potent force, immediately defeating the man who had recently become the first to knock out future ‘Fighter of the Decade’ Roy Jones Junior; Antonio Tarver. Tarver had become one of the names near the top of most P4P lists following his win over Jones, and was a heavy 3-1 favorite over his 41-year-old opponent. Hopkins would defy the odds and was dominant in victory, scoring 118-109 on all three cards. So confident was Tarver of besting his opponent that he bet the challenger $250000 that he would suffer a KO loss within 6 rounds; suffice to say, Tarver was shortly a quarter of a million dollars poorer.

A workman-like defeat of Winky Wright and a demolition of Kelly Pavlik sandwiched a high profile loss to Joe Calzaghe, which brings us to another aspect of the Hopkins persona; the trash talking. Hopkins attacked the Puerto Rican flag during the build-up to his fight with Tito Trinidad, an ill-advised symbolic action that would incite a riot, and had Hopkins literally running out of New York’s Bryant Park in fear of his safety. He also engaged in particularly unsavory (and unnecessary) behavior when he met Welsh Super-Middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe backstage at the Mayweather/Hatton fight in Las Vegas. During a heated encounter Hopkins would repeatedly tell Calzaghe that he would ‘never be beaten by a white boy’, a barb which was both inflammatory and untrue; Hopkins lost handily to the Welshman despite knocking him down in the first round. Hopkins would later claim that he was merely trying to sell the fight to the public, but it’s up to the individual reader whether this was merely an attempt to cover up his arguably racist attitude towards Calzaghe.

Hopkins would continue to test himself, avenging his loss to Roy Jones, drawing against and then defeating Jean Pascal, again becoming the oldest World Champion in history (by beating Light-Heavyweight Tavoris Cloud), and notching up wins against solid Light-Heavyweights Karo Murat and Beibut Shumenov. During this period he would also assume a more prominent role as minority partner in former foe Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. It is safe to say that Hopkins will remain a dynamic voice in the world of Boxing post retirement.

Hopkins will go down in Boxing history as one of the sport’s master craftsman and tacticians, who fought against virtually all of his prominent peers. Fans of the future will marvel at his ability to fight as valiantly as he has done against Father Time and few will argue against his inevitable induction into the Boxing Hall of Fame. Love him or hate him, his achievements inside the squared circle deserve to be saluted.