I have never seen an athlete more committed to his sport than Bernard Hopkins. That is why he is still competing at the highest level in one of the toughest sports there is.
On Thursday, Hopkins turns 50 years old. “He is a freak of nature," according to his Golden Boy Promotions partner and former World Champion Oscar De La Hoya. How else do you explain a middle-aged man beating opponents half his age in the ring?
I have been covering Hopkins for 15 of his 26 years as a professional boxer. I have always been amazed at how he appears the day after a fight, even a loss. No cuts, bruises or swelling on his face. He always gets back in the gym the day after he fights. There are very few days off for Bernard Hopkins. His secret to success — and there has been an abundance of success in his career — is quite simple: Train harder than anyone else, treat your body the right way, and prepare outside the ring so you know every tendency of your opponent.
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These three things have treated Bernard well. The final component to his success is his history. Lessons learned from a troubled youth, which saw him incarcerated for 56 months, have motivated Hopkins his entire life. He was determined to never go back to prison. The weight of the world was on his shoulders after losing his first professional fight in 1988. Bernard knew there were many people living vicariously through him. After 66 professional fights, Hopkins made everyone proud.
The “King of Germantown” turned out to be a Hall of Famer, and he is not done fighting yet. During the CSN taping of Hopkins at 50, which debuts tonight at 6:30, Hopkins told me he plans to fight one or two more times in 2015 before calling it a career. If you saw his last fight versus Sergey Kovalev, Hopkins lost all 12 rounds to the Russian. It wasn’t pretty. Hopkins doesn’t want to embarrass himself or tarnish his legacy by staying in the ring too long. He has never ducked the best fighter available. Bernard knows the time is near for him to hang up the gloves.
“2015 is a year that whatever band, group, player that you wish you could see one more time, no matter the era, I’m that person you want to see in 2015,” he said.
Bernard has had many nicknames over the years. B-Hop, The Champ, The Executioner, and now, The Alien. Whatever you call him, he is a Philadelphia treasure, and we will likely never see anyone like him again.
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Happy 50th, Champ!