By John Hively

Some people think of Bernard Hopkins as one of the great middleweight champions of history, but he’s probably overrated in this regard. He simply doesn’t have the numbers to rate among the top-ten of all time. As a middleweight, the level of competition he faced was historically pathetic compared to other greats from that division.

Think about this: nobody he defeated as a middleweight is headed for the hall of fame based on their accomplishments at middleweight, and he’s zero for three against the two best middleweights he ever fought: Jermain Taylor and Roy Jones. Bernard is a top twenty-five middleweight of all time, but certainly not in the top ten. Likewise, two fights as a light heavyweight isn’t likely going to make him a great fighter there. On the other hand, the fact that he’s forty-three years old makes him one of the greatest fighters of all time for his age range, a fistic marvel of the ages.

Below are my top five "age advanced" fighters of boxing history.

Archie Moore - Old Arch reigned as light heavyweight champion for ten years, from 1952 to 1962. Champions ducked him for years. Moore won the title at the age of 36. In 1955, he was the number one heavyweight contender after beating such contenders as Nino Valdes and Bob Baker. Archie floored heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano for only the second knockdown in the Rock’s career.

At the age of forty-six, Moore gave up several inches in height and many pounds and still stopped heavyweight contender Alejandro Lavorante in ten rounds; he also kayoed heavyweight trial horse Howard King in one round and drew with future light heavyweight champion Willie Pastrano in ten rounds; Muhammad Ali stopped him in four rounds a few months after the Pastrano draw and effectively ended his career. Archie is regarded as one of the greatest pound-for-pound boxers in history.

George Foreman - He won the world heavyweight championship in 1994 at the age of forty-five by knocking out Michael Moorer in ten rounds. At the age of forty-eight, he beat up Shannon Briggs, but didn’t receive the verdict. It was probably the worst decision of the year. It was also his last fight.

Roberto Duran - Won the WBC middleweight title at age thirty-seven. He was a few days shy of age forty-six when he defeated Jorge Castro, who went on to win the WBC super middleweight title the following year. Duran retired after losing a lop-sided decision to Hector Camacho at the age of fifty.

Bob Fitzsimmons - In 1903, at the age of forty, Fitzsimmons won the light heavyweight title by defeating George Gardner over twenty rounds. He held the title two years, defended it once, then lost it to Jack O’Brien in 1905. Bob fought five more times over the next nine years with little success. One of the greatest pound-for-pound boxers in history, Fitzsimmons also won the middleweight and heavyweight titles. At age thirty-six, Fitz spotted ninety pounds to veteran heavyweight trial horse Ed Dunkhorst and scored a second round kayo.

Bernard Hopkins - The Executioner lost the world middleweight championship on a close decision to Jermain Taylor at the age of forty. He lost the rematch seven months later. He shocked most people by defeating Antonio Tarver and winning the light heavyweight title at age forty-one. He defended the championship at age forty-two against middleweight contender Ronald Wright. Now he is set to defend his championship at age forty-three against the formidable Joe Calzaghe.

Bernard can move up on this list by defeating Calzaghe in April. Should he win, it will be arguably the most important victory of his career. Hopkins has defeated four, possibly five, future hall of fame pugilists during his career. However, close scrutiny reveals that Bernard was a carefully matched fighter. His big wins over Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya and Winky Wright were against guys coming up in weight. His victory over Antonio Tarver was against a boxer who needed to shed forty pounds for their duel. In other words, Bernard had significant physical advantages over four of his five biggest name victims.

The only other possible hall of fame candidate he whipped was Glen Johnson in a middleweight title defense, but Johnson will be remembered for what he did at light heavyweight, rather than at middleweight, where he fought with mixed results.

Joe Calzaghe is also coming up in weight, but he has been aching to do that for years, and Joe is only coming up a few pounds. Calzaghe is arguably the most complete fighter Hopkins has ever faced; an excellent boxer with a stinging punch, exuding foot and hand speed; and so a victory over the Welshman will propel Bernard up to third or fourth place on my list since very few pugilists have scored victories over such formidable opponents at this stage of their careers.