Bernard Hopkins: Does He Have the Biggest Balls of Any Boxer of His Generation or is He Just Plain Crazy to Want to Face IBF Super Middleweight Champion James DeGale at the Age of 50?

By Travis “Novel” Fleming

Bernard Hopkins, 55-7-2, 32 KO’s, is a glutton for punishment, and a crazy old man. He also happens to be the oldest champion in boxing history, and the most elite level 50 year old in the history of sports. This feat is even more impressive when you consider it’s in one of the most dangerous sports in the world, where, due today the amount of physical punishment involved, most men are past their best days by their early 30’s. What he has accomplished will likely never be beaten, he’s an all time great, a living legend, and perhaps the best fighter since Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard. He has out-lasted all of his contemporaries and continued to pile on the accolades at an age where most fighters are making nursing home arrangements. What kind of 50 year old wants to get punched in the head by bigger men with devastating power? B-Hop, that’s who.

Hopkins has made a career of defying the odds. He spent his early twenties in prison and seemed destined to lead a life of crime, becoming another victim of the revolving door system. Instead, he emerged from prison with an education in art of pugilism, and after being released he became a professional fighter in 1988 at the age of 23.

He lost his first fight as a light heavyweight, and didn’t appear to be on the way to fistic glory, by any means. He took a year off and came back as a middleweight, and between 1989 and 1993 he notched 22 wins and earned himself a shot at the vacant IBF middleweight title against the man who would go on to be the most dominant fighter in boxing for the next decade in Roy Jones, JR., who at the time was 21-0, 21 KO’s.

Hopkins started boxing late so he didn’t have the experience necessary for a prime Roy Jones, JR. who would be a favorite, or at least a major problem, for any all time great ever at 160 lbs. Hopkins lost to Jones by decision, but an inexperienced Hopkins would give Jones what proved to be the most difficult fight of his unstoppable prime. Hopkins would later avenge this loss in 2010 when both he and Jones were past their best days, Jones being further past his best.

Hopkins would bounce back with four wins which positioned him to challenge Ecuador’s Segundo Mercado, at the time 18-2, 12 KO’s, for the vacant IBF middleweight title in 1994. Hopkins would begin his incredible road warrior career by giving Mercado the advantage of fighting in front of his hometown fans in Ecuador. Hopkins had trouble adjusting to the thin air, and altitude, by not arriving in Ecuador with enough time before the fight to get acclimated. In a bout marred with controversy, most felt Hopkins deserved the decision but, as is usually the case, the judges showed a glaring bias for the home fighter and called the fight a draw.

They would rematch for the very same vacant title in 1995, this time in Landover, Maryland, USA. Hopkins proved that the circumstances in Ecuador were dubious at best by scoring a seventh round knock out to capture his first world title at the already advanced fighting age of 30.

Six years later at age 36, when most boxers are retired shells of their former selves, after a six year reign as middleweight champion, and after already sealing a solid legacy with 13 title defenses, surpassing Marvin Hagler’s record, Hopkins upset the odds by facing the power punching superstar Felix “Tito” Trinidad, at the time 40-0, 33 KO’s. Hopkins dominated every second of the fight, scoring a twelfth round knockout over the much younger, favored Puerto Rican.

At age 37 in 2002, Hopkins beat the all time defense record for middleweight champions, surpassing the great Carlos Monzon, 87-3-9, 58 KO’s, with fifteen defenses. B-Hop would end up with an incredible twenty successful title defenses by 2005, before losing his title in a pair of controversial decisions to the much younger Jermain Taylor, at the time 23-0, 17 KO’s, in two closely contested battles.

After the Taylor loss, people felt that at the age of 40 Hopkins would hang up his gloves for good, but instead he did the unthinkable for someone his age and at 41, he moved up two weight divisions to light heavyweight to fight champion Antonio Tarver, at the time 24-3, 18 KO’s, in 2006. Most expected old man Hopkins to get knocked out into retirement by the much bigger, and power punching, light heavyweight champ, but he turned back the clock once again to capture a title in his second weight class against all odds via lopsided unanimous decision.
Hopkins was now a two division champion at 41 years old, he could have retired a hall of famer, but he wanted more. He beat a blown up Ronald “Winky” Wright, 51-3-1, 25 KO’s, in his first defense and he was looking for the next big fight. It was clear that at this point he was no longer the same fighter physically, but his craftiness and ring IQ were enough to beat most. In 2008 at age 43, Hopkins would find another big fight. Welshman Joe Calzaghe was 44-0, 32 KO’s, and the dominant king of the super middleweight division that Hopkins skipped over when he went straight to light heavyweight from middleweight, after the Taylor fights.

Calzaghe was also seven years younger than Hopkins. Calzaghe had been accused of ducking challenges from the bigger names in America for many years and wanted to shut up the critics, while claiming a championship in his second weight division. In a very boring fight where neither man did much, Hopkins dropped Calzaghe in round one, but Calzaghe was awarded a split decision that could have just as easily been awarded to Hopkins. With that, B-Hop was left without a title and had accomplished beyond what anyone dreamed of. He was expected to retire once again, but once again he would stay true to character and seek another challenge.

Later in 2008, he would defy the odds when he took on undefeated, power punching, middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. Pavlik was 17 years B-Hop’s junior and won his title with two dominating victories, one knockout, over the man who wrestled the title from Hopkins in Jermain Taylor. People were genuinely concerned for Bernard in this fight. What business did a 43 year old coming off of a loss have with the most feared puncher in the sport at the time? Many felt that Hopkins would not only lose, but that he would get seriously hurt.
What happened shocked even the biggest fans of B-Hop as he took the young powerful champ to school, winning nearly every round. It would appear that Hopkins took Pavlik’s heart in this fight as Pavlik would never notch another significant win despite being red hot, and on the verge superstardom, before facing Hopkins. What a way that to retire right? Wrong, all that win did was further motivate Hopkins to keep going long after his physical gifts had dissipated. He was now just a few months away from his 44th birthday and he started to realize that he could beat George Foreman’s record for oldest champion in history in just two more years.

Hopkins craved a rematch with Calzaghe, as he felt he deserved the decision in their first fight, and he wanted that belt back. Calzaghe retired without giving B-Hop his rematch, so he sought out lineal light heavyweight champ Jean Pascal, at the time 26-1-0, 17 KO’s, to try and make history. In 2010, he would give Pascal the advantage of fighting in front of his hometown fans in Quebec. Most felt Hopkins deserved the decision, and the title, but the judges favored the hometown fighter Pascal in scoring the fight a draw, and setting up an immediate rematch, much like what happened in B-Hop’s early career vs Mercado.

In 2011, Hopkins would travel to Pascal’s home province of Quebec once again, this time he would get a fair shake on the judges cards. Hopkins was declared the winner by unanimous decision, and with that he picked up the lineal light heavyweight title, and the distinction of being the oldest champion in boxing history, beating out George Foreman, at 46 years old! Nothing left to prove now, right?

Hopkins being the warrior he is didn’t just sit on the title, or fight a few tune ups, he went straight for the consensus best fighter in the division in the slick operating former king of 175 lbs Chad Dawson, at the time 30-1, 17 KO’s. The fight was ruled a no contest after Dawson practically body slammed Hopkins due to frustration over Hopkins’ dirty veteran tactics. They would rematch in 2012, and the highly skilled Dawson’s youth and speed was too much for a 47 year old Hopkins to deal with. Hopkins lost a clear, but competitive, decision.
Surely, at this point, most felt there was no way he would think about coming back again. What more could he do? He was already the oldest champ ever, so he decided to try and break his own record by challenging undefeated, power punching, IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud, at the time 24-0, 19 KO’s. Hopkins reverted to the form he was in for the upset over Pavlik, and took another power punching young champion, 17 years his junior, to school.

Hopkins made it look easy, winning every round en route to a lopsided decision win that landed him the IBF title and beat his own record for oldest world champion at 48 this time. Like Pavlik, Cloud would never notch another significant win after being embarrassed by Hopkins, despite being young enough to regroup. There’s something in the way that Hopkins beats an opponent that tears their heart out of their chests, and leaves them as broken men.

The following year in 2014, after winning a bout against mandatory challenger Karo Murat, at the time 25-1-1, 15 KO’s, Hopkins would attempt to beat his own record yet again. At age 49, he unified the IBF and WBA titles by easily beating WBA champ Beibut Shemenov, at the time 14-1-0, 9 KO’s, to become not only the oldest champion ever, but the oldest unified champion at 49.
The allure of being a champion on top of the world at age 50 proved too much for B-Hop to walk away from. It would appear that he must have had a death wish, because just a few weeks before his 50th birthday day, he would fight another power punching beast, this time though it was not only the most heavy handed fighter in the sport, but it was one with an excellent skill set in Sergey Kovalev, at the time 25-0-1, 23 KO’s.

Kovalev is one of the best fighters in the sport, and has been red hot, knocking out everyone that steps in the ring with him as he steadily climbs the pound for pound rankings. This was an insane fight for a 35 year old to take, let alone a 50 year old. Hopkins gave a valiant effort in being one of only three men to go the distance with the brutal punching Russian, but in the end the Russian’s youth, power, and size proved too much to handle as he won a lopsided decision, giving Hopkins the most clear cut loss of his career.

Since 2001 at age 36, Hopkins has regularly sought out, and gotten in the ring with, the sports hardest punchers, giving up between 10 to 19 years in youth, and doing it, for the most part, against top tier fighters with a significant natural size advantage over him. It’s as if he wants to keep fighting until he dies in the ring. You would think the most lopsided loss of his career that included getting rocked with power punches from the hardest puncher in the sport would be enough to force anyone into retirement, but not Hopkins, he still has two more goals in mind: To become a champion at age 50, and to win win a world title in the super middleweight division to make him a three division champion. When Hopkins left middleweight to fight Antonio Tarver, he skipped over the super middleweight division, going straight to 175 lbs, winning the title, defending it, losing it, and gaining it back again, without ever looking at the super middleweight division. Now at age 50, he sees two more goals that he can achieve with just one fight, and he’s already put the wheel in motion to make it happen.

In pursuit of this third division title, he has thrown his name into the hat to face another dangerous young puncher in newly crowned IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale, 21-1, 14 KO’s. To make this even harder on himself, he is willing to play road warrior once again by going to England to fight DeGale in front of his hometown fans. B-Hop is the ballsiest human being I have ever witnessed, and an inspiration for not only old men everywhere, but anyone chasing the American dream.

To go from a young criminal in prison to having any success at all is remarkable, to go from a life destined to become criminal to the longest reigning middleweight champion, and the oldest champion in history, is nothing short of amazing. This man should be a national icon, a role model for how to turn your life around, a source of inspiration for aging athletes everywhere. He should be a house hold name, but credit has never come easy to Hopkins and it’s perhaps this which motivates him to keep going 15 years longer than his average contemporary.

DeGale is 21 years younger than B-Hop at 29 and just came off of an impressive showing vs the highly talented Andre Dirrell, 24-2, 16 KO’s, in one of the fights of the year so far for 2015. He showed his dangerous power when he dropped Dirrell twice in the second round en route to winning a twelve round decision to capture the IBF super middleweight belt. DeGale was an outstanding amateur who capped off an impressive amateur career by capturing a gold medal for England at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. In beating Andre Dirrell, DeGale became the first British Olympic gold medalist to win a professional world title. DeGale is a dangerous opponent for any young championship level fighter, for a 50 year old coming off of a losing effort, where he repeatedly took punches from the hardest hitter in boxing, it’s downright insane! But this is Bernard Hopkins, so it’s just about right.

If this fight were to happen, and Hopkins somehow defied the odds again, he would beat his own record for oldest champion ever, and he would become a three weight division champion at 50, by capturing his first title at super middleweight. Hopkins has specifically chosen certain fights in his late career against opponents in which he saw something that he felt he could exploit. Antonio Tarver and Kelly Pavlik were both expected to end B-Hop’s career but both were comprehensively schooled. Tavoris Cloud and Beibut Shumenov were also champions that Hopkins specifically sought out because he noticed chinks in their armour that were yet to be taken advantage of. Could he see the same thing in DeGale? It’s hard to say if at 50, after taking punches for 12 rounds from boxing’s hardest hitter Sergey Kovalev, that Hopkins is still capable of exploiting an opponents weaknesses the way he was just a couple of years ago. Boxers get old overnight, looking great one fight then looking completely shot the next time they step in the ring, and Hopkins is long overdue for this, about 15 years late. If Hopkins is still in the same form he was for Tavoris Cloud in 2013, I would give Hopkins an excellent chance of beating the classy DeGale. A further declined Hopkins would be in trouble vs DeGale. Hopkins did lose to Kovalev, but DeGale is no Kovalev. Kovalev is much bigger than DeGale, much harder hitting, and better technically, so a loss to Kovalev really doesn’t work as a gage to see if Hopkins has enough left to beat DeGale, or if he has finally declined below the championship level at 50 years old.

Hopkins says that regardless of the outcome, he is retiring after one last fight. He’s said this before and come back again on several occasions. It seems as if he will never retire, but at 50 years old you have to give his last fight claim a little more credence than previous claims of the same nature. Other than capturing a title at super middleweight to become a three weight champ, there is nothing else out there that Hopkins could accomplish. He’s already the man who holds the record for middleweight defenses and he’s already the oldest champion in history. Considering he showed he cannot beat the best light heavyweight in Kovalev you have to think his business at 175 lbs is done. Realistically, a super middleweight title is all that’s left for Hopkins, and I actually believe him that his next fight will be his last. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years it’s to never bet against the ageless wonder Bernard Hopkins no matter how heavily the odds are stacked against him. Could you imagine him retiring as a champion at 50? I’ll be cheering him on and wishing him a happy retirement void of brain damage resulting from a career that’s been spent taking punches in head from championship level fighters for over two and a half decades.

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