NEW YORK ? Bernard Hopkins? beard had a little more gray in it than usual Tuesday as the 49-year-old boxer worked out at Gleason?s Gym in Brooklyn.
As usual, there is a method to the legendary light heavyweight champion?s madness. In this case, the older he looks to Sergey Kovalev, his dangerous opponent Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, and to others, the better.
It?ll be difficult to truly know whether wearing a beard full of gray hairs will have any impact on Russia?s Kovalev, but Hopkins has mastered making people think differently about him than they should.
Take Monday, for example. In an interview with ESPN.com, Hopkins suggested he hasn?t received more mainstream attention for being the oldest world champion in boxing history because he is black.
Hopkins is entirely too smart to believe that.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. has received more mainstream attention than any boxer since Mike Tyson in his prime. And George Foreman, previously the oldest fighter to have won a recognized world title, captivated sports fans and non-sports alike during his remarkable return from a 10-year heavyweight hiatus and well into retirement.
Mayweather and Foreman, as we well know, are black. Like Hopkins, Mayweather employs a style that, while very effective, isn?t especially appealing and generally doesn?t knock out his opponents.
The polarizing Mayweather remains the most famous boxer in the world. Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KOs, 2 NC) knows all this, yet needed an attention-grabbing way to express his real point ? that, two months shy of his 50th birthday, he doesn?t receive nearly enough attention for being an elite-level boxer at an age when most accomplished boxers have been retired for 10 years or more.
It?s unfortunate Hopkins attempted to use race as his rationale, but his prowess at such an advanced age, for whatever reason, hasn?t been as appreciated outside the boxing world as much as it warrants.
Think about how much praise Cris Carter, who?ll turn 49 on Nov. 25 and retired after the 2002 season, would receive if he were still a Pro Bowl receiver, rather than an ESPN analyst. Or how much we?d revere Reggie Miller if the former Pacers guard, 49 and retired since 2005, were still raining threes throughout the NBA.
That?s the type of respect Hopkins deserves, no matter how he fares against Kovalev (25-0-1, 23 KOs), who?s about a 2-1 favorite entering their fight. And that, really, was Hopkins? point.
