In less than three weeks Bernard “The Alien” Hopkins at the tender age of 49 years young will once again get in the ring and face a challenger that on paper makes for an intriguing match up. Beibut Shumenov will be Hopkins 65th fight.
A career that has spanned over three decades. He has fought through four presidencies, through the grunge era, gangsta rap era. Hell, his career started before the World Wide Web was released to the public.
Hopkins is the embodiment of what many would consider a “throwback” fighter.
His style is gritty, technique flawless and his tactics, dirty enough to make you appreciate how good he is at being so clever and sneaky in applying some questionable tactics at times.
However at some point, Hopkins will have to call it a career in the ring. His body will eventually let him down. Perhaps it’s this fight; maybe Bernard will fight until he is 60. At this point in his career and how fresh he still looks at his age, there is no timetable. This is just another fight for arguably one of the best fighters of the last 20 years and this fight is bittersweet. On one hand, Shumenov is a deserving opponent; he’s earned his due to face one of the best and in 30 years from now, Shumenov can tell his grandchildren how he fought one of the greats.
Hopkins is the fighter that in a couple decades boxing fans can tell stories of in barbershops or during a PPV in the future where some us old timers by then will have to tell these kids how bad Hopkins was. We will talk about Hopkins in a way that brings back fight memories I’ve been told about of Ali,Duran and Hagler from older fight fans who saw those guys in their heyday. Fans will talk in reverence of a fighting style that is not as popular as it once was, how he threw the Puerto Rican flag down while on a press tour to promote his bout with Felix Trinidad. A fighter who was pound for proud the best when Hopkins dethroned him two weeks after one of the most tragic days in American history. Remind folks of his one sided beat down of Kelly Pavlik. A fight many thought would put Hopkins into retirement. Yet in hindsight, could have been the fight that derailed Pavliks’ once promising career. Fight fans can remind kids in the future about how Hopkins went a record 20 title defenses without a loss, a record that spanned a decade in itself. Perhaps there will be a conversation of when Hopkins injured his shoulder when Chad Dawson body slammed him at the Staples center. How the crowd went nuts when the bout was called or his melee at the weigh-in when he fought Winky Wright.
The stories will go on long after Hopkins calls it a career, come to think of it the stories are already being talked about and Hopkins is far from being done.
And then…
There is a influx of Eastern European fighter love right now. Gennady Golovkin, Vasyl Lomachenko and Sergey Kovalev are ushering in a new wave a hard punching European fighters that the US audience is willing to pay for. While the love is warranted, it feels as though fans are trying to latch on to fighters that are the antithesis of the Mayweather or Broners of the boxing world. Mayweather is the best in the boxing game today, but for many his schtick has grown old. These European fighters at this point of their respective careers are the opposite, not flashy and without a doubt not worried about what their crew thinks of their new car, watch or what they’re doing on Instagram. It’s refreshing for many and adds that fact that they all have knockout power and are exciting to watch makes me look forward to their fights which is more than I can say about Mayweather.