“I will know when it’s time to walk away,” Bernard Hopkins said in an interview with The Washington Post’s Rick Maese as he gears up for his 65th professional fight. “I started late, and I’m ending later.”
Hopkins shows how someone can box at age 49; the better question is, why? No fighter his age has ever held a world title. Most have no business setting foot in a boxing ring. And yet, Hopkins is still going strong in perhaps the most physically and mentally demanding sport.
He doesn’t need the money or fame. He’s happily married and says he’s blessed with children, friends, religion, curiosity. He’s already a boxing icon, so his legacy is secure. And even better, his brain still functions. But boxing is ultimately a sport of control, and that has always been Hopkins’s biggest foe.
Asked why he stays in the game, he talks for nearly 10 minutes, uninterrupted. It’s all about doing things on his terms; there’s a constant hunger and a sense of purpose, all with roots entrenched in his personal history. No one controls Bernard Hopkins.
Read the full story: At 49, boxer Bernard Hopkins is fighting age — and winning
