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By Shawn Krest - This shouldn’t be happening. At an age where most athletes are ruining their legacies, Bernard Hopkins began building his. At an age when he promised he’d retire, he did just the opposite, embarking on a series of fights whose strength of schedule has rarely been seen in the hundred-plus year history of the sport.
At the tail end of Hopkins’ record-setting reign as middleweight champion—a twenty-fight string that was mocked for being heavy on Robert Allens (three times) and Morrade Hakkars and light on Felix Trinidads—Hopkins began to look to the history books. Sure, twenty defenses may have stamped his ticket to Canastota, but the eight-fight string beginning with defense number nineteen and leading into October could get him a higher level of respect when compared to other middleweight greats.
Some time in 2004, Hopkins seems to have picked up a boxing magazine, flipped to the pound-for-pound rankings, and began scheduling bouts. In order, he’s knocked out Oscar de la Hoya, dominated Howard Eastman, considered at the time the top middleweight contender, and stubbornly refused to pass the torch in two razor-thin losses Jermain Taylor, an undefeated Olympian thirteen years his junior.
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At the tail end of Hopkins’ record-setting reign as middleweight champion—a twenty-fight string that was mocked for being heavy on Robert Allens (three times) and Morrade Hakkars and light on Felix Trinidads—Hopkins began to look to the history books. Sure, twenty defenses may have stamped his ticket to Canastota, but the eight-fight string beginning with defense number nineteen and leading into October could get him a higher level of respect when compared to other middleweight greats.
Some time in 2004, Hopkins seems to have picked up a boxing magazine, flipped to the pound-for-pound rankings, and began scheduling bouts. In order, he’s knocked out Oscar de la Hoya, dominated Howard Eastman, considered at the time the top middleweight contender, and stubbornly refused to pass the torch in two razor-thin losses Jermain Taylor, an undefeated Olympian thirteen years his junior.
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