Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins (born January 15, 1965, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American boxer. He is best known for his ten year reign as Middleweight World Champion in which he defended his title a record 20 times and also becoming the oldest man ever to hold the Middleweight Championship of Earth.
Background
Born to Bernard Hopkins Sr. and his wife Shirley. Hopkins turned to crime early in his life, by the age of thirteen he was mugging people and had been stabbed three times. At seventeen Hopkins was sentenced to 18 years in prison for nine felonies. While in prison he witnessed rapes and the murder of another inmate in an argument over a pack of cigarettes, but also discovered his passion for boxing.After serving almost five years, Hopkins was released from prison and decided to use boxing as an escape from his previous life.
Professional career
He immediately joined the professional boxing ranks as a light heavyweight, losing his debut on October 11, 1988, in Atlantic City, New Jersey to Clinton Mitchell. After a sixteen-month layoff, he resumed his career as a middleweight, winning a unanimous decision over Greg Paige on February 22, 1990.
Between February 1990 and September 1992, Hopkins scored 20 wins without a loss. He won 15 of those fights by knockout, 11 coming in the first round.
Roy Jones Jr.
His first chance at a world title came on May 22, 1993 in Washington, DC, against American great Roy Jones Jr. for the vacant IBF middleweight belt. Hopkins lost by unanimous decision in a tactical bout. However he retained his world ranking and defended his USBA belt three more times.
Winning the IBF middleweight championship
Jones abandoned the middleweight ranks in 1994, and the IBF came again knocking at Hopkins’s door on December 17 of that year, matching him with Segundo Mercado in Mercado’s hometown of Quito, Ecuador. Mercado knocked Hopkins down twice before Hopkins rallied late and earned a draw. This remains the only time Hopkins has ever been knocked down. The fight was also contested in a bull ring and in the midst of the civil war of Ecuador. Hopkins was also not properly acclimated to the altitude of nearly 10,000 feet.
April 29, 1995, Hopkins became a world champion with a seventh-round technical knockout victory in Landover, Maryland.
In his first title defense he defeated Steve Frank, whom he stopped in twenty-four seconds. By the end of 2000, he had defended the IBF title 12 times without a loss, while beating such standouts as John David Jackson, Glen Johnson (undefeated at the time and later went on to knock out Roy Jones Jr), Simon Brown, and Antwun Echols.
2001 middleweight unification tournament
The arrival of multiple-division champion Félix Trinidad, a Welterweight into the middleweight ranks set off a series of unification fights between major titleholders. The fights involved in the tournament would be reigning IBF Middleweight Champion, Bernard Hopkins. WBC Middleweight Champion, Keith Holmes. WBA Middleweight Champion, William Joppy. The fourth contestant was former Welterweight & Light Middleweight World Champion and the undefeated Félix Trinidad.
Keith Holmes
On April 14, 2001, Hopkins won a unanimous decision over WBC champion Keith Holmes in New York City. Trinidad, however, knocked out Middleweight mainstay William Joppy in an impressive five rounds. This led to many to believe that Felix Trinidad was simply too much, too strong for Bernard Hopkins.
Felix Trinidad
Then, on September 29, WBA champion Trinidad challenged Hopkins for middleweight unification in Madison Square Garden.
For the first time in many years, Hopkins was an underdog in the betting which led the confident Hopkins to place a $100,000 bet on himself to win the bout. During promotion for the bout, Bernard Hopkins caused huge controversy by throwing the Puerto Rico flag on the floor leading to a riot in which Hopkins had to be escorted from the arena.
By the time the fight was here, Bernard Hopkins was on his way to a lopsided decision victory when, in the 12th and final round, he floored Trinidad and referee Steve Smoger called a halt to the fight after Trinidad’s father entered the ring to stop the fight. It was the first loss of Trinidad’s career, and made Hopkins the first undisputed world middleweight champion since Marvin Hagler in 1987. The Ring magazine and the World Boxing Hall of Fame named Hopkins as the 2001 Fighter of the Year.
Undisputed middleweight champion
He defended the undisputed title six times. Hopkins bested Carl Daniels on February 2, 2002, by tenth-round technical knockout; Morrade Hakkar on March 29, 2003, by eighth-round TKO; William Joppy on December 13, 2003, by unanimous decision; and Robert Allen on June 5, 2004, also by unanimous decision.
Oscar De La Hoya
In the highest paying fight of his career, Hopkins fought six-division titleholder Oscar de la Hoya, another welterweight for the undisputed middleweight championship on September 18, 2004, in Las Vegas. Hopkins won the bout with a knockout in the ninth round and thus became the first boxer ever to unify the titles of all four major sanctioning bodies.
In November 2004 de la Hoya invited Hopkins to join his boxing promotional firm, Golden Boy Promotions, as president of its new East Coast chapter.
Reaching Number 20 - Howard Eastman
Aged 40 years old, an age in which most boxers are retired. Bernard Hopkins reached the middleweight record of 20 title defenses on February 19, 2005, against ranked #1 WBC Middleweight contender Howard Eastman, the European middleweight champion. Hopkins dominated the fight from start to finish winning 119-110, 117-111 & 116-112
Losing The Titles - Hopkins vs. Taylor I & II
In his next fight on July 16, 2005, Hopkins lost his undisputed middleweight championship to Jermain Taylor via split decision.
On December 3, 2005, Hopkins lost his rematch against Jermain Taylor by unanimous decision. All three judges scored the fight 115-113 for Taylor.
Moving Up To Light Heavyweight - Antonio Tarver
Following his two losses to Jermaine Taylor, Hopkins at 41 decided not to retire and made the decision to jump two weight divisions to face off against The Ring light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver on June 10, 2006. Going into the fight, Tarver was a 3-to-1 favorite and had been the first man ever to knock Roy Jones Jr. out, he also defeated Jones Jr. in the rematch with many now placing Tarver among the sports top competitors. He was constantly ranked in the P4P rankings. However, Bernard Hopkins picked up a lopsided unanimous decision, scoring 118-109 on all three judges scorecards.
Antonio Tarver also lost a $250,000 bet with Hopkins, after he failed to stop Hopkins in the first six rounds.
Return in 2007 - Winky Wright
On July 21, 2007, at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Hopkins defended The Ring light heavyweight championship against former undisputed junior middleweight champion Winky Wright. During the weigh-in, Hopkins shoved Wright with an open-hand to the face, igniting a brawl between both fighters entourages.Hopkins was fined $200,000 for instigating the brawl.Hopkins struggled to figure out Wright in the early rounds, but began landing effective punches as the fight progressed.An accidental head butt opened a nasty cut by Wright’s left eye in the third round. Referee Robert Byrd warned Hopkins repeatedly for using his head, but he never deducted a point. Hopkins looked fresh late in the bout, luring Wright in and snapping off combinations. In the final round, Hopkins wobbled Wright with a right hand as blood streaked down his cheek. Hopkins prevailed with a unanimous decision victory by scores of 117-111, 117-111 and 116-112.
Joe Calzaghe
On April 19, 2008, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Hopkins lost The Ring light heavyweight championship to Joe Calzaghe by split decision.Hopkins got off to a great start by knocking Calzaghe down with a straight right hand in the first round. Hopkins mostly threw one punch at a time and often initiated clinches to prevent Calzaghe from punching in combinations. The first half of the fight had lots of hitting and holding, but Calzaghe slowly landing flurries of short quick punches. In the end, judges Chuck Giampa (116-111) and Ted Gimza (115-112) scored the fight for Calzaghe, while judge Adalaide Byrd (114-113) scored the fight for Hopkins.
After the fight, Hopkins was upset with the official decision and said that he was robbed of a clear points win. Hopkins said, “I just really feel like I took the guy to school. I feel like I made him fight my fight, not his. I wanted him to run into my shots. I think I made him do that, and I think I made it look pretty easy. I think I controlled the pace, and I controlled the fight.”
Kelly Pavlik
On July 17, 2008, ESPN.com reported that Pavlik promoter Bob Arum reached a deal with Golden Boy Promotions, securing an October 18, 2008 fight between Kelly Pavlik and Bernard Hopkins, the former undisputed Middleweight champion, Ring Magazine Light Heavyweight champion, and top ten pound-for-pound mainstay. The non-title fight took place at a catch-weight of 170 lbs., five pounds below the Light Heavyweight limit. The fight aired on HBO pay-per-view, with Hopkins defeating the then-undefeated Pavlik via unanimous decision.