Bernard Hopkins
Bernard Hopkins | |
|---|---|
| File:BHop.jpg | |
| Born | Bernard Hopkins January 15, 1965 |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | The Executioner |
| Statistics | |
| Weight(s) | Middleweight |
| Stance | Orthodox |
| Boxing record | |
| Total fights | 52 |
| Wins | 47 |
| Wins by KO | 32 |
| Losses | 4 |
| Draws | 1 |
| No contests | 1 |
Bernard Hopkins (born January 15, 1965) —nicknamed The Executioner— is a retired professional boxer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA), and is regarded by experts to be one of the best middleweight fighters of all time. Until his controversial loss to Jermain Taylor in July 2005 and a second time, in early December, of 2005, Hopkins was the undisputed holder of the championship belts from all 4 major sanctioning bodies (WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO). In addition, he was awarded the coveted linear Ring Belt after defeating Felix Trinidad in September 2001. On June 10, 2006 he defeated Antonio Tarver to become The Ring light heavyweight champion. His career record stands at 47 wins, four losses, one draw, and one no contest with 32 knockouts.
Biography
Hopkins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in a rough section of town, where he got involved in crime and gang activity at a young age. Today, he describes himself as a "thug" in his youth and regrets that it took a stint in prison for him to turn his life around.
Late in 1982, when Hopkins was in the 11th grade, he was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in the state penitentiary for "strong-arm robbery" (not armed robbery - beating people and taking their money). For fifty-six months, from 1984 through 1989, Hopkins was one of three thousand inmates in Graterford State Penitentiary in Pennsylvania. While incarcerated, he decided to turn his life around. Hopkins studied for and earned his high school diploma, and also began to take part in boxing again, which he had done off and on as a youth. During four years and eight months in prison, Hopkins won the national penitentiary middleweight championship three times.
He converted to Islam [1] during his incarceration and was paroled in 1988, as soon as he was eligible. His dedicated approach to the faith helped him build his successful monastic boxing career by instilling discipline in the once troubled young adult [2]. He immediately joined the professional boxing ranks as a light heavyweight, losing his debut on October 11, 1988 in Atlantic City, New Jersey to a fighter named Clinton Mitchell. But he showed enough in the loss that respected trainer Bouie Fisher took him on. After a 16-month layoff, resumed his career as a middleweight, winning a unanimous decision over Greg Paige on February 22, 1990.
Between February 1990 and September 1992, Hopkins worked his way through the ranks of middleweight journeymen, scoring 20 wins without a loss. He won 15 of those fights by knockout, 11 coming in the first round.
That earned him an opportunity for his first title, the USBA regional middleweight belt. True to form, he knocked out fringe contender Wayne Powell in the first round on December 4, 1992 and moved into the list of top 10 contenders for a world title shot.
His first chance at a world title came on May 22, 1993 in Washington, DC, when he faced Roy Jones Jr. for the vacant IBF middleweight belt. Hopkins, who was still inexperienced against top fighters, nevertheless went the distance with Jones before losing a unanimous decision. Hopkins retained his world ranking and defended his USBA belt three further times while waiting for another world title shot.
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 and built a big lead on the scorecards before Hopkins rallied late and earned a draw. The IBF called for a rematch, and on April 29, 1995, Hopkins became a world champion with his seventh-round technical knockout of Mercado in Landover, Maryland.
After winning the title, Hopkins followed the example of former world middleweight champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler and followed a strict training regimen to always keep his weight close to the division limit of 160 pounds (73 kg). Meanwhile, he fought the toughest available competition and was soon considered by many as the best world middleweight titleholder. By the end of 2000, he had defended the IBF title 12 times without a loss, while beating such standouts as John David Jackson, Glencoffe Johnson, Simon Brown, and Antwun Echols. His second fight with Antwun Echols on December 1, 2000 was one of the strangest in boxing history, as Hopkins was the victim of a wrestling-like takedown in the 6th round which injured his right arm. The referee offered Hopkins the win as a result of disqualification, but Hopkins decided to fight on and eventually stopped Echols via TKO in the 10th round using mostly his left arm. This helped Hopkins gain the reputation of a true "old-school" fighter and was a testament to his toughness.
The arrival of multiple-division champion Félix Trinidad into the middleweight ranks set off a series of unification fights between major titleholders. On April 14, 2001, Hopkins won a unanimous decision over WBC champion Keith Holmes in New York City. Then, on September 29, WBA champion Trinidad challenged Hopkins for all three belts in Madison Square Garden.
For the first time in many years, Hopkins was an underdog in the betting. He 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, as Hopkins had predicted. 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.
He has defended the undisputed title five times since. 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.
In the biggest fight of his career, Hopkins fought six-division titleholder De La Hoya for the undisputed middleweight championship on September 18, 2004 in Las Vegas. Hopkins won the bout with a knockout in the ninth round. He said he ended the De La Hoya fight with a perfect punch to the liver. "Chopped liver with Hopkins sauce," he said.
De la Hoya soon thereafter invited Hopkins to join his boxing promotional firm, Golden Boy Promotions, as president of its new east coast chapter. Their alliance was announced publicly on November 20, 2004. Hopkins is expected to sign and guide the careers of young east coast fighters, including several from his hometown of Philadelphia.
Hopkins reached his stated goal of 20 title defenses on February 19, 2005 against Howard Eastman, the European middleweight champion. However, in his next fight on July 16, 2005, Hopkins, who had not been defeated since 1993, lost his undisputed middleweight title to the undefeated Jermain Taylor. Hopkins started slowly against his younger opponent, dropping the first four rounds. Finally Hopkins heated up, becoming more active in the middle rounds, then battering Taylor throughout the tenth and eleventh rounds, staggering him with a series of punches. Despite his late fury, it was apparently not enough to overcome his inactivity in the first half of the fight. Taylor won by a controversial split decision. It should be noted however, that press row had the fight almost unanimously for Hopkins with 116-112 being the most common score.3
Previous plans to step up to 175 pounds to face the consensus light-heavyweight champion, Antonio Tarver and rival Roy Jones Jr. were dashed after the loss to Taylor. Hopkins maintains that he was robbed due to a judge scoring the last round in favor of Taylor, which is almost unanimously thought of as a round that Hopkins dominated. Critics stated that he started too slow and lost the fight in the early rounds. Hopkins himself admits that he did not finish Taylor when he had the chance.
On December 3, 2005, Hopkins lost his rematch against Jermain Taylor by a unanimous, albeit still controversial, decision. All three judges scored the fight 115-113 for Taylor. Compubox statistics showed that Hopkins outlanded Taylor 130-124 in total punches and 101-60 in power punches. This decision was also controversial, though not as controversial as the decision in the first fight.
On June 10, 2006, Hopkins defeated Antonio Tarver in a completely one-sided fight by a unanimous decision to win Tarver's recognized Light Heavyweight Title. Hopkins knocked Tarver down in Round 5. Hopkins played to the crowd (made up mostly of Hopkins fans) throughout the fight including one moment, in round 10, where Hopkins turned his back to Tarver, raised his arms, and then turned back around and ran after Tarver, hitting him with a flurry of punches before the bell rang. Hopkins has stated that this fight will likely be his last. All three judges had him winning the bout 118-109.
Hopkins adheres to a vegetarian diet [3].
Record
- Amateur boxing: 95-4
- Professional boxing: 47-4-1-1 (32 KO)