ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Bernard Hopkins, the ageless "Alien," has been lacing on the gloves for 26 years and been near the top of boxing for most of that time. But how much longer can he stay there?
Hopkins-KovalevWhere: Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New JerseyWhen: Saturday, 10:45 p.m. ET/PTTV: HBO
It's a question that has been asked for more than a decade, but Hopkins, who turns 50 on Jan. 15, continues to defy Father Time. Hopkins won't be able to do it forever but has been making him look like a fool for years.
Even after a division-record 20 middleweight title defenses, three title reigns at light heavyweight and multiple upsets (Felix Trinidad, Antonio Tarver and Kelly Pavlik being the most notable), Hopkins is still going strong. And every time he steps into the ring he adds to his age-related boxing records.
He is already the oldest fighter in history to win a world title (first at 46, then at 48), to hold a world title and to defend a world title. Philadelphia's Hopkins is also the oldest fighter to unify titles, doing so in April when he dropped Beibut Shumenov in a masterful decision win.
"He is not only the oldest boxing champion, he is [one of] the oldest [champions] in any sport," said Naazim Richardson, Hopkins' trainer. "We can't even reduce him to boxing anymore; he's no longer just ours."
Many were calling Hopkins old back in 2001 before he waxed Trinidad in a major upset to become undisputed middleweight champion. He was 36 then.
Now Hopkins is 49, but the only thing that gives away his advancing years is his gray beard stubble. Yet he will climb into the ring to face one of the most fearsome fighters in boxing today, Russian destroyer Sergey Kovalev, in an attempt to unify two 175-pound titles with Kovalev's on Saturday night (HBO, 10:45 ET/PT) at Boardwalk Hall, a building where Hopkins has already written history with his victories against Tarver and Pavlik.
"I bloomed late. I didn't bloom by the timing of the experts," Hopkins said. "I want to make it as difficult as possible for you to come up with a headline for me. I don't want to be on the pound-for-pound list, because that would make me human. What I'm doing now is making a new legacy and a new list and a new way to judge. 'Where do we put this man? We can't put him in the top 10. He's doing things no one has done.'"
Hopkins has been doing that for a long time, and he thrives on it. His age has been part of his story for years but becomes even more magnified every time he wins another fight because it is not normal for a man nearly a half-century old to still be fighting, much less at the elite level of boxing.
"There's no pressure on me, but one thing that is on Bernard Hopkins -- that no other fighter really has to do deal with because they've never been in my situation -- is how I continue to keep making history," he said. "Come [Saturday] on HBO, you get to watch artwork. You're watching Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong with gloves on.
"It's such a testimony to see a 50-year-old man -- less than [75] days from now -- go 30-plus minutes with a young, strong Russian puncher and not get a scratch on him. I understand humans have a timeline of when they are supposed to go. Age 35 and you're done. I don't care what sport you're in. It's a fact. I don't know what type of evidence I need to show I'm an alien other than what is there."
Said Kovalev: "Fifty is just a number. I think nothing of his age. If he was old, he would be retired, but he's still in there. He's not an old man. He's a young alien."
Age aside, what makes Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KOs) so extraordinary is that he did not have to take the most dangerous fight possible. Hopkins long ago earned the right to pick any opponent he wants. But while "Krusher" Kovalev is a fighter most want to avoid, that is what drives Hopkins.
"When I hear or read or get asked a question like, 'You didn't have to take this fight; you could have taken a different fight,' I think, 'Have you paid attention to my career?'" Hopkins said.
Said Main Events chief executive Kathy Duva, Kovalev's promoter: "Bernard is a great fighter. There is no other way to describe him. I know what this legacy means to him. Taking this fight at this point in his life proves that."
[+] EnlargeRogerio Barbosa/AFP/Getty ImagesWhen Bernard Hopkins took Jean Pascal's light heavyweight belt in 2011, he also robbed Canada of its only titleholder at the time.
Division lineal champion Adonis Stevenson wanted no part of Kovalev, and his flight from HBO to Showtime in March appeared to be made to avoid the fight. And if you ask Duva or the executives at HBO, they say the same thing: They could not get a top opponent to fight Kovalev -- that is, until Hopkins stunned everybody in late July by not only asking for the fight but getting the deal done in a matter of days, which is unheard of.
"I want the best. [Marvin] Hagler fought the best. Ray Leonard fought the best," Hopkins said. "The [Muhammad] Alis of the world, they fought the best. I'm from the era where I fought the best, and that's important to me. I received undisputed [middleweight] status in 2001, and that was special.
"Enjoy this while you can and come see it. Don't worry about when or how I'm going to leave or break down. You guys are all humans. I understand you, but you don't understand me."
Said Kovalev, "Bernard Hopkins is a legend. He is a professor of professional boxing. This fight is dangerous for me, but this fight is also dangerous for him because of me."
One reason Hopkins has lasted for so long in a young man's game is because of the fanatical way he takes care of himself. He doesn't drink or smoke. He eats healthy, trains year-round and stays near his fighting weight between bouts.
He also rarely gets hit cleanly. Kovalev is a monstrous puncher, but Hopkins has all-time great defense.
"I've been in the game for almost three decades. I look for more of what a guy brings to a gunfight other than bullets," Hopkins said. "The sweet science is not based on only one thing you can do particularly well. If he comes in the game thinking a punch is all he'll need, he might be right, so you should watch. I'm walking a tightrope hundreds of feet in the air. He crushes people. Only three or four people survive his hammer."
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Indeed, Kovalev (25-0-1, 23 KOs), 31, who moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when he left Russia in 2009, owns an 88.5 percent knockout ratio, second best among active titleholders behind only middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin's 90.3 percent. He has scored nine consecutive knockouts, including in all four of his world title bouts, since he had a fight end in a second-round technical draw because of an accidental foul in 2011. Only one time has Kovalev been as many as eight rounds, which happened in a 2010 split decision win against Darnell Boone, whom Kovalev drilled in two rounds in the 2012 rematch.
"Kovalev is a monster. He's a beast. He punches harder than Hercules," Richardson said. "But I don't want people to defang him on Sunday. If Kovalev is all of these things that people say he is and Bernard beats him, you better start that car and drive him straight to Canastota [New York] and induct him into the Hall of Fame right now."
Win or lose, Hopkins will be in the Hall of Fame when he is eligible five years after his last fight. But the way things are going, who knows when that will be?
"We're not talking about just a fighter, any ordinary fighter," said Golden Boy's Oscar De La Hoya, Hopkins' promoter, business partner and 2004 knockout victim. "We're really talking about an alien, Bernard Hopkins, who at, the age of 49, going on 50, is still fighting the toughest and the very best.
"This man tells it old-school. We will never ever in our lifetime see a fighter like Bernard Hopkins, probably ever again."
- 2013 BWAA Nat Fleischer Award winner for excellence in boxing journalism
- ESPN.com boxing writer since 2005
- Five years at USA Today
Source: http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/11835329/bernard-hopkins-looking-enhance-legacy
