Bernard Hopkins deserves due credit, not ignorance, for his historic feat
When George Foreman knocked out Michael Moorer in 1994 to become the oldest man to ever win a major boxing world championship, it was a national event.
Virtually every major newspaper in the country staffed the fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and news of Foreman's epic victory landed him on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Foreman's momentous knockout came squarely in the middle of football season, but 20 years ago, there were few better stories than Foreman's unlikely rise to the championship.
A boxer hasn't graced the cover of Sports Illustrated since 2007 when Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather made it before their match.
And that's unlikely to change next week no matter what Bernard Hopkins does against Sergey Kovalev on Saturday in Atlantic City, N.J.
Hopkins will be two months and seven days shy of his 50th birthday when he faces the hard-hitting Kovalev in a bout for the WBA/WBO/IBF belts at Boardwalk Hall and before a national television audience on HBO.
Hopkins is already the oldest man ever to win a boxing championship, surpassing Foreman's record on May 21, 2011, when he defeated Jean Pascal in Montreal.
Every subsequent fight has only increased his record.
But rest assured, as remarkable as the feat may be, it's going to get scant attention nationwide. For those who wake up on Sunday morning and still read the newspaper, it will take some page-turning to find the story. Most papers will only dedicate a few paragraphs to it, if they cover it at all.
It won't make the Sports Illustrated cover – bet on a football player being on next week's cover – and it's not going to dominate the conversation on sports talk radio on Monday morning.
But it should.
Though boxing has plummeted in popularity in the 20 years since Foreman KO'd Moorer, the feat that Hopkins is attempting to accomplish is no less impressive.
The level of conditioning alone that is required to even compete for a world championship is amazing, and here is a 50-year-old man whom most agree will be the better-conditioned athlete when the bell rings.
There have been a few athletes who succeeded post-40, but most weren't elite by that point.
Martina Navratilova was 49 when she won the U.S. Open mixed doubles title in 2006. Jack Nicklaus won The Masters when he was 46 in 1986. George Blanda kicked a 41-yard field goal in the 1975 AFC championship game for the Oakland Raiders when he was 48.
The number of elite-level athletes after 45 in major sports is very few.
And few of them have finished at the very top of their games.
It's why we should be celebrating Hopkins' accomplishment more than will occur if he defeats Kovalev on Saturday.
In choosing Kovalev, Hopkins sought the best opponent he could have fought. Now, Hopkins is one of the shrewdest men ever to step into the ring, and don't think for a moment that he would have called out Kovalev if he didn't 100 percent believe that he could win the fight.
That said, at two months shy of 50 he is doing what some of his peers refuse to do, facing the unquestioned top fighter in his division. If Floyd Mayweather had Hopkins' attitude, he'd have faced Manny Pacquiao years ago and this ridiculous plea for them to fight wouldn't still be dragging on.
Promoter Oscar De La Hoya, who was knocked out by a body shot from Hopkins in 2004, understands full well the significance of what Hopkins is doing.
"Not only are we talking about the fighter who is the best in this era, but he can possibly be the best in any era," De La Hoya said. "When you talk about comparing the '80s and the '70s and the '60s and the 1990s and the 2000s, well, Hopkins is a fighter you can say would have competed, if not would have been the best, in any era. That's what we're talking about right here. We're not talking about just a fighter, any ordinary fighter. We're really talking about an alien, Bernard Hopkins, who at the age of 49, going on 50, is still fighting the toughest and the very best.
"This man tells it old school. We will never ever in our lifetime see a fighter like Bernard Hopkins, probably ever again."
Hopkins cares very much about records and legacy and his place in history. He's disturbed his story hasn't transcended boxing, that he hasn't become America's favorite son like Foreman did after beating Moorer.
Foreman became associated with the grill, "The George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine," which hit store shelves for the first time in 1994, around the time that he knocked out Moorer.
Foreman was internationally beloved by that point, not because of the grill and the quirky commercials but because of his self-deprecating demeanor.
Hopkins isn't that kind of personality. He's great, and he knows it, and he's not afraid to tell anyone else. He's not a guy who fools and grins and jokes and is the life of the party.
Fighting, indeed life, is serious business for Bernard Hopkins.
And while Foreman was a knockout puncher and everyone loves crushing KOs, Hopkins was a meticulous planner and boxer, a guy who squeezed every last ounce out of his gifts than just about anyone who ever did it.
But Hopkins isn't that lovable, huggable guy and, as a result, his accomplishments have been underappreciated.
Fighting for, and potentially winning, a world championship at 50 years old is an amazing feat that would be the story of the century if it were in baseball, the NBA or the NFL. But it's happening to an outspoken boxer and it's largely ignored outside the sport.
"Every time Peyton Manning plays, they talk about him like he's in the Super Bowl," Hopkins said. "A regular game, the fourth or the fifth game of the season, and they're going crazy when he completes a pass. They're saying, 'Oh my God, how is this guy doing this at his age? This is incredible. He's 38 and he's doing this? Oh my God!' It's the same thing with that guy in New England. What's his name? [Tom] Brady? Yeah, Brady, same way. 'Oh my God, Brady threw a touchdown at his age? Stop the presses!' It's a huge story.
"But when you're talking about an individual sport like boxing, accomplishments aren't the same. People take it for granted. That's it. It's like, 'Oh yeah, cool,' and that's it. But think about what's going on here."
He walked out of a Pennsylvania prison as a young man, never to return, and became an example for youth with the way he lived his life.
He relentlessly sought to better himself, whether it was in his professional life, his business life or his personal life.
He understood he'd have to sacrifice good times, parties, the fine wines and great foods, in order to be the best.
He's done it. He's persevered. He's 50 years old and he's setting a record that may never be touched.
Hopkins may not be lovable. He may not be the humble guy you want to him to be.
But what he did, and what he continues to do, is one of the greatest stories in sports history.
It's sad that most of the world is clueless about it.
