Bernard Hopkins
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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. [1]
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[edit] 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.[2] After serving almost five years, Hopkins was released from prison and decided to use boxing as an escape from his previous life.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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. [3]
The IBF called for an immediate rematch, and on 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] References
- ^ Rec, Box (2006-06-10). "Bernard Hopkins - Awards and Other Achievements". BoxRec.com. Retrieved on 2008-08-26.
- ^ Doogan, Brian. "Bernard Hopkins: 10 things you didn’t know"13 April 2008. Times Online URL accessed 13 April 2008.
- ^ Rafael, Dan (2008-01-15). "Can Jones be serious?". ESPN. Retrieved on 2008-08-23.
[edit] See also
- List of IBF world champions
- List of WBA world champions
- List of WBO world champions
- List of WBC world champions
- Ring Magazine pound for pound
- Bernard Hopkins vs. Joe Calzaghe
