Bernard Hopkins was born nine years before the Rumble in the Jungle, the 40th anniversary of which Muhammad Ali and George Foreman celebrated last week.
Hopkins took time out from a fledgling career of mugging grown-ups and being stabbed three times himself in the crime-ridden streets of Philadelphia to watch film of the legalised fist fight beamed into US cinemas from distant Zaire.
Just eight troubled years after Ali famously knocked out the hitherto indestructible Foreman, Hopkins was sentenced to 18 years in jail for nine felony convictions.
Upon being paroled six years later, at the age of 23, he replied to a taunt from the prison warden who predicted he would see him again soon by saying: ?I ain?t ever coming back here.?
Hopkins had identified boxing as the means for reforming his life. Now it appears he has discovered the secret of eternal youth.
In Atlantic City on Saturday night Hopkins will contest the 66th fight of his seemingly ever-lasting career.
Already, at 49, he is boxing?s oldest world champion of all time. If he wins in the Boardwalk Hall this coming weekend he will be a reigning world champion when he turns 50 on January 15.
But not for him a soft-touch opponent to help him make more history.
At this age when many sportsmen are reaching for the carpet slippers and regaling their grandchildren with tales of glories past, Hopkins is taking on one of the most devastating punchers in the hardest of all games.
Not for nothing is Sergey Kovalev nicknamed Krusher.
Nathan Cleverly, who lost his world title when he was flattened by the Russian knockout machine in Cardiff 15 months ago, testifies: ?This man has serious power. He hits harder than anyone I?ve fought. I fear he will stop Hopkins and end his career.?
