No professional athlete, let alone a boxer, can last for 24 years at the pinnacle of the business without great genes, good fortune and a competitive streak that runs deeper than any normal person could possibly understand.

Former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins turned 48 on Tuesday, the same day he announced he would fight Tavoris Cloud on March 9 in Brooklyn, N.Y., for a 175-pound title.

The bout with Cloud will come nearly two full years after Hopkins set perhaps the most unbreakable record in sports when he became, at 46 years, four months and six days, the oldest world champion in boxing history.

Bernard Hopkins, 48, will continue to make history March 9 in Brooklyn, NY. (Getty Images)But if, as expected, Hopkins beats Cloud, he will regain a world title at 48 years, one month and 23 days.

Hopkins' training discipline is legendary. When he was released from a Pennsylvania prison in 1988 after serving a bit more than five years on a strong-arm robbery conviction, he vowed he would never go back and would turn his life

Read More »from Aging bull: Boxing wonder Bernard Hopkins to challenge for world title at 48

Michael Bisping has fought 17 times in the UFC over a 6 ½-year span and only once was he not competitive. 

With a just small amount of luck, Bisping could be heading into his bout Saturday in Sao Paulo, Brazil, against Vitor Belfort with a 16-1 record. Michael Bisping thought he beat Chael Sonnen, but instead suffered a close loss. (Getty)

A win on Saturday over the veteran Belfort will not only improve Bisping's UFC record to 14-4, but also it will finally vault him to a title shot.

One of the great MMA mysteries of the modern era is how Bisping was able to keep winning so regularly without getting a title shot.

But UFC president Dana White has promised Bisping that if he beats Belfort on Saturday, he'll challenge Anderson Silva for the middleweight title later this year.

That's good news to Silva, who disposed of Belfort in less than 90 seconds in 2011 and who isn't interested in fighting rematches.

But it's great news for Bisping, who seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in terms of getting a title shot.

"Some other guys have had an easier

Read More »from Always competitive, Michael Bisping now just one win from elusive Anderson Silva title fight

For as long as he could remember, boxing had been Robert Garcia's life. When school was over, he didn't do the things his friends did. There was no time for horse play or hanging out.

He went straight to the gym to train. Day after day, month after month, it was pretty much the same monotonous routine. For more than two decades, Robert Garcia pushed himself as hard mentally as he did physically.

He loved the sport and he loved to compete, but too much of anything is not a good thing.

Robert Garcia keeps training camp open so brother Mikey can remain happy and focused. (Chris Farina/Top Rank)By the time he was 26, when he should have just been easing into his prime as a boxer, Robert Garcia came to a major life decision: He was through with the sport that had been such a significant piece of his life. He was a world champion and a popular figure owing to his action-packed style, but he was increasingly miserable each day at the gym.

"By the time I turned 26, I hated boxing," he says. "I turned pro when I was a junior in high school and I missed so many of the things a high school kid

Read More »from Trainer Robert Garcia's unique perspective serves to make brother Mikey better

Strikeforce produced a number of elite mixed martial arts stars in its six-plus-year run that ended Saturday at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. Few of those talented fighters, though, have the potential to accomplish as much as heavyweight Daniel Cormier. How long will Daniel Cormier stay undefeated in the UFC? (Showtime)

Cormier, who manhandled 20-1 underdog Dion Staring and stopped him at 4:09 of the second round, is one of the world's four best heavyweights. At worst, he trails only his buddy and training partner, UFC champion Cain Velasquez, as well as Alistair Overeem and Junior dos Santos.

But based upon how he looked against the vastly outclassed Staring, he might have gone a bit too far Saturday when he called out UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

The affable Cormier set his sights squarely on Jones, the most physically gifted man in the sport, immediately after dismantling Staring.

"I'm going to let Jon defend his belt on April 27 and I'm going to kick his ass in the fall," Cormier said in the cage not long after

Read More »from After uninspiring performance, Daniel Cormier calls out UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones

More than a quarter of a century ago, Scott Coker sat at a desk in his Northern California home and began scribbling on a notepad. As he was about to embark on a career as a promoter of martial arts fights, he decided to write a mission statement to guide him.

Scott Coker is confident Strikeforce will go out on a high note Saturday night. It was, and remains, very much a personal document, but it's one that he's kept and referred to repeatedly over the years.

Coker is now one of the most successful mixed martial arts promoters in history and will stage his last Strikeforce show on Saturday in Oklahoma City on a card that will be broadcast nationally by Showtime.

From the first Strikeforce MMA show in 2006, which set a U.S. attendance record that still stands, until Saturday's finale, Coker accomplished the primary goal he scribbled on that pad, even as the organization prepares to shut down.

The primary tenet of the document was to remind himself that whatever else he did, he needed to contribute to the martial arts in a positive way.

"I believe in

Read More »from Scott Coker leaves legacy of MMA success despite Strikeforce's demise

There are a slew of fighters with the qualifications to be named the 2012 Yahoo! Sports Fighter of the Year.

Juan Manuel Marquez went 2-0 and scored the year's biggest victory, knocking out Manny Pacquiao in the Yahoo! Sports 2012 Fight of the Year. That in many years would have been enough to earn him the nod as Fighter of the Year.

Nonito Donaire knocks Jorge Arce down during their junior featherweight title fight. (AP)

This time, though, it is not enough.

The same can be said for Robert Guerrero. Guerrero jumped two weight classes to win two significant fights, defeating Selcuk Aydin and Andre Berto. They were victories that put him in the front-runner's seat for a May 4 fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. It was not, however, enough for the Fighter of the Year.

Andre Ward, the 2011 winner, only fought once in 2012, but what a performance he gave. Ward dominated light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson and stopped him in the 10th round. There are years when that one dominant victory could have gotten Ward the back-to-back honor. Not this time, though.

Leo Santa

Read More »from Nonito Donaire: Yahoo! Sports 2012 Fighter of the Year

LAS VEGAS – There are a number of similarities between cyclist Lance Armstrong and Alistair Overeem, the UFC heavyweight who on Tuesday received a license to fight from the Nevada Athletic Commission.

Alistair Overeem celebrates his victory over Brock Lesnar in his last UFC fight. (Getty)

Both men are world-class athletes who have been dogged throughout their careers by rumors of performance-enhancing drug usage. Both vehemently denied such claims.

In October, the United States Anti-Doping Agency released a 164-page report with two addendums totaling another 33 pages that detailed Armstrong's usage. Armstrong, though, still hasn't admitted his guilt, though there have been reports that he's considered doing so.

Overeem failed a surprise drug test by the Nevada commission in March 2012 on the morning of a news conference to announce a planned fight with then-heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos.

The heavily muscular Overeem's testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio, or his T/E ratio, was more than double Nevada's limit of 6-1 and more than triple the limit of

Read More »from Alistair Overeem's situation provides platform for commissions to set strict PED precedent

LAS VEGAS – Cain Velasquez is not a perfect fighter; Junior dos Santos proved that fairly conclusively in 64 seconds last year.

But when Velasquez is on top of his game, as he was on Saturday in the heavyweight title match with dos Santos at UFC 155, there aren't many heavyweights who could compete with him.

Velasquez conclusively proved he's the best heavyweight in the world by putting a frightful five-round beating on dos Santos in front of 12,423 people at MGM Grand Garden to regain the belt he lost on Nov. 12, 2011.

Cain Velasquez celebrates after beating Junior dos Santos. (USA Today Sports) He fought with a fury, relentlessly attacking the power-punching Brazilian, taking out 13 months of frustration with one epic performance. It was by far the best performance of a great career, and it was  fueled in large part by a desire to prove a point to those who mocked him after his only loss.

Velasquez was taunted by fans after losing to dos Santos at UFC on Fox 1 in Anaheim, Calif. last year. He remained stoic and tight-lipped in the interim, but it

Read More »from Cain Velasquez gets revenge, looks near-invincible in thorough beatdown of Junior dos Santos