Bernard Hopkins

Bernard Hopkins Jr. (born January 15, 1965) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2016.

After serving almost five years, Hopkins was released from prison in 1988.

He then decided to use boxing as an escape from his previous life, and converted to Islam.

While Hopkins was leaving the prison for the final time, the warden told him he'd "see [Hopkins] again when you wind up back in here", to which Hopkins replied "I ain't ever coming back here."

Later, Hopkins attributed his personal discipline to his experiences and time spent in Graterford Prison.

Hopkins completed his amateur career with a 95–4 record, although all of these fights took place in prison during a rehabilitation program so they weren't official amateur bouts.

Hopkins 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 at the Blue Horizon on February 22, 1990.

Between February 1990 and December 1992, Hopkins scored 21 wins without a loss.

He won 16 of those fights by knockout, 12 coming in the first round.

Hopkins met Roy Jones on May 22, 1993, for the vacant IBF middleweight title.

Hopkins was out-pointed throughout most of the fight, en route to losing a unanimous decision.

All three judges scored the fight 116–112 for Jones.

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 split draw.

It has been argued that Hopkins was also not properly acclimated to the altitude of nearly 10,000 feet.

This made Hopkins the oldest boxer in history to win a world championship, at the age of 46, breaking George Foreman's record set in 1994.

Hopkins first became a world champion by winning the vacant IBF middleweight title in 1995.

He compiled 20 defenses against 17 opponents, with 19 wins as a result of his no-contest bout against Robert Allen.

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.

He is one of the most successful boxers of the past three decades, having held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the undisputed middleweight title from 2001 to 2005, and the lineal light heavyweight title from 2011 to 2012.

In 2001, Hopkins successfully unified the middleweight division by defeating Félix Trinidad to win the WBA (Super), WBC, Ring magazine and lineal titles.

In 2001, Hopkins was voted Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the Boxing Writers Association of America.

A victory over Oscar De La Hoya for the WBO title in 2004 cemented Hopkins' status as undisputed champion, while also making him the first male boxer to simultaneously hold world titles by all four major boxing sanctioning bodies.

After losing the undisputed title to Jermain Taylor in 2005 and failing to regain it in a rematch the same year, Hopkins achieved further success in 2006 when he moved up to light heavyweight, winning the IBO and Ring titles from Antonio Tarver at 41 years of age.

Two defenses of the Ring title were made before a loss to Joe Calzaghe in 2008.

Three years later, Hopkins defeated Jean Pascal for the WBC and lineal light heavyweight titles, as well as regaining the Ring title.

In 2011, The Ring ranked Hopkins as third on their list of the "10 best middleweight title holders of the last 50 years."

As of April 2021, he is ranked by BoxRec as the seventh greatest boxer of all time, pound for pound.

Hopkins later broke his own record by winning the IBF light heavyweight title from Tavoris Cloud in 2013, and again in 2014 when he won the WBA (Super) title from Beibut Shumenov, at ages 48 and 49, respectively.

Nicknamed "The Executioner", and later "The Alien", Hopkins was known among observers for his longevity and ability to continue competing successfully at an advanced age.

Widely considered one of the greatest boxers of the modern era, he was a highly strategic and defensive boxer known for carrying good speed and power along with counterpunching skills.

He credits mastering the boxing fundamentals and a great defense for his longevity in the sport.

He was also a very seasoned fighter, being able to take advantage of a wide variety of situations in the ring and implement rough and dirty tactics while fighting on the inside or in a clinch.

In the last years of his active career, Hopkins also became a minority partner with Golden Boy Promotions, with which he still remains post-career.

Born to Bernard Hopkins Sr. and his wife Shirley, Bernard grew up with his family in the Raymond Rosen housing project in Philadelphia.

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 Graterford Prison for nine felonies.

While in prison he witnessed the murder of another inmate in an argument over a pack of cigarettes, but also discovered his passion for boxing.