Boxer Bernard Hopkins is almost 50, but that doesn’t mean he has to stop doing what he’s good at – beating people up for a living.
The 49-year-old heads to the ring in Atlantic City on November 8 live on HBO to fight Russian light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev, who is 18 years younger. Hopkins is already in possession of the IBF and WBA light heavyweight belts, but wants to become the oldest world champion in history in any sport.
So what’s his strategy?
“When you’re two months and seven days shy of 50, you can do anything you want,” says Hopkins. “Right now, I’m still having fun whipping these young boys butts and beating them at their own game. I’m really having fun. Fun can be painful sometimes, and this is a dangerous job but I’m really having fun.”
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George Foreman was the oldest boxing champion until Hopkins broke his record. At one point, an aging Foreman was going to fight
Mike Tyson, something that Hopkins thinks would have been a mistake.
“I’m glad he didn’t fight Michael at that time. Not that age and that early 90’s Mike Tyson. I was on the undercard in Mike Tyson’s earlier fights when I started my career. George would have made those grills earlier if he’d have done that. Mike Tyson is the hardest punching heavyweight of all time,” Hopkins says.
Kovalev is considered a dangerous opponent, given his KO ratio, but Hopkins doesn’t seem intimidated.
“I have two titles. I will take my two up against Kovalev’s one title and I will unify it and beat Sergey for the undisputed light heavyweight of the division for the second time in my career.”
On his end, Kovalev has been quoted calling Hopkins “A boring and dirty fighter, but smart.”
One boxer that has Hopkins’ admiration is Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight champion, who died in 2011.
“I met him a long time ago and befriended him and his family,” Hopkins says. “Jackie, Marvin, his son and daughter – great family and now we’re working on taking that furniture store [in Philadelphia]that is what the Joe Frazier Gym became and turning it into a community center in 2015,” Hopkins says. “We’re carrying his legacy.”
Hopkins believes that it’s up to the boxing community to continue to carry on the legacies of those fighters who’ve come before them, like Frazier, Foreman, Tyson and Archie Moore, the oldest fighter in history.
“It’s really a small community,” says Hopkins. “It’s not as mainstream as baseball or football or hockey. We’re sort of fourth of fifth on the totem pole so guys like me and guys around the world have to look at it as we’re all we got. It kept me out of the penitentiary and maybe the graveyard so I look at this as being an outlet for me and it’s an outlet for a lot of women and men who choose to do it. If you can do it respectfully and make something for yourself do it. Isn’t that the American dream?”
(Photo: Greg Gorman)
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