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, the 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.”