Bernard Hopkins is a professional American boxer. He was born on January 15th of 1965 with the full name of Bernard Humphrey Hopkins Jr. in Pennsylvania. He is quite popular with the nicknames B-Hop and the Executioner.
Currently, Hopkins is the Light Heavyweight Champion of both the Ring Magazine and likewise the WBC. He was proclaimed as the oldest fighter to have ever won a world title when he beat Jean Pascal on their bout on May 2011. He was aged 46 during that time he defeated Pascal through a unanimous decision and has surpassed the previous record of George Foreman.
Bernard Hopkins was a former world well-acknowledged world middle-weight champ. He was the first boxer to have retained his four world titles and likewise his “The Ring” belt during the same fight. He had defended his world middle weight championship title for 20 times and thus has been considered as one of the greatest world middle weight boxer of all time. He was ranked as number 3 by The Ring Magazine lists’ of the last 50 years Top 10 Best Middleweight Title Holders. Bernard Hopkins Jr. has also a minor share of the Golden Boy Promotions.
During the earlier life of Hopkins, he was involved with a number of crimes which some of them led him to get imprisoned. Hence, it was during his stay in the prison that he discovered his passion for boxing.
He started his boxing career professionally as a light heavyweight boxer but lost his debut fight to Clinton Mitchell on October 11th of 1988 during their fight at Atlantic City located in New Jersey. He resumed his boxing career 16 months later as a middleweight boxer and unanimously won the bout over Greg Paige. He first won his fight on February 22nd of 1990 in Blue Horizon.
From February of 1990 to December 1992, Hopkins made a record of 21 wins with no lost. Sixteen of those bouts were won by KO, 12 of them through a first-round knockout. However, his unbeatable record broke when he lost his fight with Roy Jones Jr. during their first bout.
Some of his awards and achievements include: (2001) Fighter of the Year by the BWAA, The Ring, The World Boxing Hall of Fame, World Middleweight Champion Longest reign, Most Title Defense as World Middleweight Champion by 20 title defenses. Other recognitions he acquired are the following:
- Oldest Fighter in the boxing history to hold a World Middleweight Title
- Oldest Fighter in the boxing history to hold a World Lightweight Title (which has surpassed Archie Moore)
- Oldest World Champion in the boxing history (which has surpassed George Forman)
