Just a week ago, the rumors became signatures . The deal is done. The newly crowned leader of the Light Heavyweight division, 27-year old Jean Pascal (16-1, 16 KO) will attempt to follow a career best win over Chad Dawson by accepting the challenge of one of his leading contenders.
That he is still a leading contender is incredible in it?s own right. That he will be seen as having a very real shot at winning his second Ring Magazine belt at 175 lbs. is as well. After all, at 45, fighters who are not retired are usually being begged to head towards the gates.
Not every 45-year old is Bernard ?The Executioner? Hopkins.
It does not look like the sort of potential war capable of forcing every fan to the edge of their seats at the opening bell, but as part of the ongoing story of a master of the fistic craft, Pascal-Hopkins is fascinating. Is this the moment, the fight, when Hopkins finally gets old?
It is not the first time the question has been uttered. Almost a decade ago, Hopkins was an already long reigning beltholder at Middleweight who the oddsmakers expected to be too old to hold off a streaking Felix Trinidad. The oddsmakers were wrong.
A little over four years ago, fresh off two narrow losses to Jermain Taylor for the undisputed Middleweight crown, Hopkins was again the oddsmakers underdog against Light Heavyweight leader Antonio Tarver. The oddsmakers were even more wrong.
This time, they appear to be hedging their bets. Hopkins has earned that respect. Many of the reasons why are apparent as the question is asked:
How good is Hopkins, measured against all-time.
In answering the question, five categories will be examined: 1) Accomplishments 2) Competition Faced 3) Competition Not Faced 4) Reaction to Adversity 5) What?s Left to Prove
It begins with?
The Tale of the Tape Age: 45 Height: 6?1 Hailed From: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Turned Professional: October 11, 1988 (L4 Clinton Mitchell) Record: 51-5-1, 32 KO Record in Title Fights: 21-4-1, 13 KO, 1 No Contest Lineal World Titles: World Middleweight (2001-2005, 6 Defenses) Other Major Titles: IBF Middleweight (1995-2005, 20 Defenses); WBC Middleweight (2001-05, 7 Defenses); WBA & Ring Magazine Middleweight (2001-05, 6 Defenses); WBO Middleweight (2004-05, 1 Defense); Ring Magazine Light Heavyweight (2006-08, 1 Defense) Current/Former Lineal World Champions Defeated: 5 (Simon Brown TKO6; Felix Trinidad TKO12; Oscar De La Hoya TKO9; Ronald ?Winky? Wright UD12; Kelly Pavlik UD12) Current/Former Lineal World Champions Faced in Defeat: 2 (Jermain Taylor L12, L12; Joe Calzaghe L12) Current/Former Alphabet Titlists Defeated: 8 (Lupe Aquino UD12; John David Jackson TKO7; Glen Johnson TKO11; Keith Holmes UD12; Carl Daniels TKO10; William Joppy UD12; Antonio Tarver UD12; Roy Jones Jr. UD12) Current/Former Alphabet Titlists Faced in Defeat: 1 (Roy Jones Jr. L12)
Accomplishments
It took three tries for Hopkins to win the IBF Middleweight title after rising near the top of the organizations ratings. The first shot came in a May 1993 decision defeat for the belt, vacated by James Toney, against Roy Jones Jr. Shot number two came when Jones vacated the belt, Hopkins settling for a draw in December 1994 against Segundo Mercado. Hopkins would wait only about four more months to finally snare the diadem, stopping Mercado in the seventh round of their rematch.
It wasn?t known at the time but from the Mercado rematch forward, every ring outing for more than a decade would be a part of an accomplishment that largely defines Hopkins. Hopkins would defend the IBF belt 12 times, including a ?No Contest? in the first of three defenses against Robert Allen, before engaging in his first unification contest. As part of a Don King/HBO organized Middleweight tournament, Hopkins added the WBC belt with a lopsided decision over Keith Holmes in April 2001. One fight later, he stopped Felix Trinidad in the final round in September 2001 to add the WBA and Ring Magazine straps along with universal recognition as the true Middleweight king. Ultimately, he would defend the lineal crown six times.
Hopkins was not done adding to his trophy case, winning the WBO belt in September 2004 with a ninth-round stop of Oscar De La Hoya. Hopkins made one defense of his full haul of belts before suffering a hotly debated decision defeat to 2000 U.S. Olympic Bronze Medalist Jermain Taylor in July 2005. Hopkins failed to regain the title in December of the same year in another contested decision and ended his tenure at 160 lbs.
Altogether, he had made 20 consecutive defenses of the IBF belt, a record for any recognized title in the division (though Carlos Monzon still holds the record for consecutive lineal title defenses at 14). He was, since the birth of the WBO in 1988, the first fighter to have held all of the four most notable sanctioning bodies titles simultaneously.
Hopkins was far from done. Six months after the second Taylor loss, aged 41, Hopkins skipped over the Super Middleweight class to challenge Ring Magazine Light Heavyweight titlist Antonio Tarver. While not strictly the lineal title of the division (see: Dariusz Michalczewski), the Ring?s line of champions ran from a Roy Jones who unified the WBC, WBA and IBF belts and later included Tarver and Glen Johnson. It was representative to most of the best Light Heavyweights in the world when they reigned. Hopkins earned a unanimous decision over Tarver and made a single defense before losing a competitive split decision to Joe Calzaghe in April 2008.
Hopkins has not challenged for a notable title since. That will change in December. It remains to be seen if he will add yet another accomplishment to a laudable list.
Among outside the ring honors, Hopkins was named in, or as, the: ? Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year: 2001 ? BWAA Fighter of the Year: 2001 ? Ring Magazine Round of the Year: 2001 ? Ring Magazine Upset of the Year: 2008 ? #50 of the best 80 Fighters of the Last 80 Years by Ring Magazine, 2002 ? #2 All-Time Title Reign by Ring Magazine, 2005 ? #16 All-Time Middleweight by Ring Magazine, 2001 ? #7 All-Time Middleweight by BoxingScene, 2009
Competition Faced
Hopkins arguably answered more about the quality of his career competition after the age of 40 than he did before it, something that may never be seen again. For years, Hopkins was open for criticism. Despite impressive numbers, the case could be made Hopkins had been defeated by the best fighter he?d faced (the young Jones Jr.) without enough quality wins to compensate for it.
The young Jones may still be the best fighter he?s ever faced, but Hopkins wins post-40 added tremendously to his resume. What Hopkins did before 40 in terms of competition can be underrated, especially when one considers the ease with which he won for most of a decade.
Jones, despite the defeat, was a phenomenal talent and Hopkins comported himself well in winning a solid four rounds on all three judges cards. A win over former Jr. Middleweight titlist Lupe Aquino three fights later was a place for growth. Mercado was not, before or after Hopkins, a notable foe but he had to get through him to win a belt and one could make a case the beating Hopkins dished out the second time ruined Mercado. Of his early title defense victims, Joe Lipsey had shown promise but chose retirement after a fourth round bomb; John David Jackson was faded but capable; and Glen Johnson, while far from the peak form he?d reach at Light Heavyweight, was undefeated in 32 contests to then. Hopkins is still the only man ever to stop Johnson, the product of a sustained beating.
Among other foes prior to his unification run was former Welterweight champion Simon Brown who was admittedly a shell of his once fearsome self along with big punching Antw
