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1.0 Background

2.0 Professional career

2.1 Roy Jones Jr.

2.2 Winning the IBF middleweight championship

2.3 2001 middleweight unification tournament

2.4 Undisputed middleweight champion

2.5 Moving Up To Light Heavyweight — Antonio Tarver

2.6 Future Plans

3.0 Professional boxing record

4.0 See also

5.0 References

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Bernard Hopkins Wiki Information

Bernard Hopkins , known as the Executioner (born January 15, 1965, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American boxer. He is best known for his ten year reign as middleweight world champion in which he successfully defended his title a record 20 times. He is the first fighter to retain all 4 major boxing governing body belts including the Ring Magazine belt in the same fight. He is the oldest man to ever hold the middleweight championship in professional boxing. ^[1]

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Background

Born to Bernard Hopkins Sr. and his wife Shirley. Bernard grew up in the Raymond Rosen projects with his family. 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 rapes and the murder of another inmate in an argument over a pack of cigarettes, but also discovered his passion for boxing. After serving almost five years, Hopkins was released from prison in 1988 and decided to use boxing as an escape from his previous life, and converted to Islam. ^[2] While leaving the prison for the final time, the warden told Hopkins that he'll "see [Hopkins] again when you wind up back here," to which Hopkins replied "I ain't ever coming back here." ^[3]

Professional career

He 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 September 1992, Hopkins scored 20 wins without a loss. He won 15 of those fights by knockout, 11 coming in the first round.

Roy Jones Jr.

His first chance at a world title came on May 22, 1993 in Washington, DC, against American great Roy Jones Jr. for the vacant IBF middleweight belt. Hopkins lost by unanimous decision in a tactical bout. However he retained his world ranking and defended his USBA belt three more times. During a November 7, 2008 interview on XM/Sirius' Opie & Anthony Show, he said that he's been trying for another fight with Jones Jr. but Jones has been dodging him saying that he already defeated Hopkins. Hopkins argues he has floored two guys that beat Jones and that he thinks he's earned the right for another fight. Hopkins says that his first big payday was the Jones Jr. fight. Hopkins' purse was $700,000 but after everyone got their hands into it, he only received $80,000 and after taxes, it was less than $50,000. He said he didn't know to ask the questions "how and why" but that all changed when he learned the truth of his purses in federal court.

Winning the IBF middleweight championship

Jones abandoned the middleweight ranks in 1994, and 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 draw. This remains the only time Hopkins has ever been knocked down. The fight was contested in a bull ring and in the midst of the civil war of Ecuador. It has been argued that Hopkins was also not properly acclimated to the altitude of nearly 10,000 feet. ^[4]

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.

In his first title defense he defeated Steve Frank, whom he stopped in twenty-four seconds. By the end of 2000, he had defended the IBF title 20 times without a loss, while beating such standouts as John David Jackson, Glen Johnson (undefeated at the time and later went on to knock out Roy Jones Jr), Simon Brown, and Antwun Echols.

2001 middleweight unification tournament

The arrival of multiple-division champion Félix Trinidad, a Welterweight into the middleweight ranks set off a series of unification fights between major titleholders. The fights involved in the tournament would be reigning IBF Middleweight Champion, Bernard Hopkins. WBC Middleweight Champion, Keith Holmes. WBA Middleweight Champion, William Joppy. The fourth contestant was former Welterweight & Light Middleweight World Champion and the undefeated Félix Trinidad.

Keith Holmes

On April 14, 2001, Hopkins won a unanimous decision over WBC champion Keith Holmes in New York City. Trinidad, however, knocked out Middleweight mainstay William Joppy in an impressive five rounds. ^[5] This led to many to believe that Felix Trinidad was simply too much, too strong for Bernard Hopkins. ^[6]

Felix Trinidad

Then, on September 29, WBA champion Trinidad challenged Hopkins for middleweight unification in Madison Square Garden.

For the first time in many years, Hopkins was an underdog in the betting which led the confident Hopkins to place a $1,000,000 bet on himself to win the bout. During promotion for the bout, Bernard Hopkins caused huge controversy by throwing the Puerto Rico flag on the floor in press conferences in both New York and Puerto Rico, the latter conference leading to a riot in which Hopkins had to be run to safety from the angry mob. ^[7]

During the fight, Hopkins was on his way to a lopsided decision victory when in the 12th and final round he floored Trinidad and referee Steve Smoger called a halt to the fight after Trinidad's father entered the ring to stop the fight. It was the first loss of Trinidad's career, and made Hopkins the first undisputed world middleweight champion since Marvin Hagler in 1987. 'The Ring' magazine and the 'World Boxing Hall of Fame' named Hopkins as the 2001 Fighter of the Year.

Undisputed middleweight champion

He defended the undisputed title six times. Hopkins bested Carl Daniels on February 2, 2002, by tenth-round technical knockout; Morrade Hakkar on March 29, 2003, by eighth-round TKO; William Joppy on December 13, 2003, by unanimous decision; and Robert Allen on June 5, 2004, also by unanimous decision.

Oscar De La Hoya

In the highest paying fight of his career, Hopkins fought six-division titleholder Oscar de la Hoya, another welterweight for the undisputed middleweight championship on September 18, 2004, in Las Vegas. The fight was fought at a catchweight of 158 lbs, two pounds below the middleweight limit of 160 lbs. ^[8] Hopkins won the bout with a knockout in the ninth round with a left hook to the body and thus became the first boxer ever to unify the titles of all four major sanctioning bodies. At the time of the stoppage, Hopkins was ahead on two of the scorecards, while De La Hoya was ahead on the other scorecard. ^[9]

In November 2004 de la Hoya invited Hopkins to join his boxing promotional firm, Golden Boy Promotions, as president of its new East Coast chapter.

Reaching Number 20 - Howard Eastman

Aged 40 years old, an age in which most boxers are retired. Bernard Hopkins reached the middleweight record of 20 title defenses on February 19, 2005, against ranked #1 WBC Middleweight contender Howard Eastman, the European middleweight champion. Hopkins dominated the fight from start to finish winning 119-110, 117-111 & 116-112

Hopkins vs Taylor

In his next fight on July 16, 2005, Hopkins lost his undisputed middleweight championship to Jermain Taylor via a split decision. Hopkins started slowly but came on strong over the second half of the fight. Many press row writers scored the fight for Hopkins. ^[10]. Compubox round-by-round punch stats showed Taylor outscoring Hopkins 6-5-1 in total punches. Hopkins out landed Taylor in power punches 78-50.

On December 3, 2005, Hopkins lost his rematch against Jermain Taylor by unanimous decision. All three judges scored the fight 115-113 for Taylor.

Compubox statistics indicated that Hopkins landed more overall punches and significantly more power shots over the course of the fight, however these statistics may not accurately reflect the judging as rounds are scored in isolation.

Moving Up To Light Heavyweight — Antonio Tarver

Following his two losses to Jermaine Taylor, Hopkins at 41 decided not to retire and made the decision to jump two weight divisions to face off against The Ring light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver on June 10, 2006. Going into the fight, Tarver was a 3-to-1 favorite and had been the first man ever to knock Roy Jones Jr. out. Many now placed Tarver among the sports top competitors. He was constantly ranked in the P4P rankings. However, Bernard Hopkins picked up a lopsided unanimous decision, scoring 118-109 on all three judges scorecards.

Antonio Tarver also lost a $250,000 bet with Hopkins, after he failed to stop Hopkins in the first six rounds. ^[11]

Return in 2007 - Winky Wright

On July 21, 2007, at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Hopkins defended The Ring light heavyweight championship against former undisputed junior middleweight champion Winky Wright. During the weigh-in, Hopkins shoved Wright with an open-hand to the face, igniting a brawl between both fighters' entourages. ^[12] Hopkins was fined $200,000 for instigating the brawl. ^[13] Hopkins prevailed with a unanimous decision victory by scores of 117-111, 117-111 and 116-112. ^[14]

Joe Calzaghe

On April 19, 2008, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Hopkins lost The Ring light heavyweight championship to Joe Calzaghe by split decision. ^[15] Judges Chuck Giampa (116-111) and Ted Gimza (115-112) scored the fight for Calzaghe, while judge Adalaide Byrd (114-113) scored the fight for Hopkins. ^[16]

Kelly Pavlik

On October 18, 2008, Hopkins met middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik at a catch-weight of 170 lbs, with Hopkins defeating the then-undefeated Pavlik via unanimous decision.

Future Plans

After Tomasz Adamek knocked out Johnathon Banks of ESPN's Friday Night Fights, Hopkins immediately told ESPN's Dan Rafael that he was interested in moving up to cruiserweight to fight him, wishing to become the Ring Magazine cruiserweight champion of the world.

During the Ricky Hatton vs. Manny Pacquiao media conferences before their fight on May 3, 2009, Bernard Hopkins stated he would be "interested" in a proposed fight with British super middleweight champion Carl Froch.