Just How Old is the Ageless Wonder Bernard Hopkins? Take a Look…

May 19, 2011

We are just a few days away from the most talked about rematch in recent years as Bernard Hopkins attempts to make history this Saturday, May 21 when he faces Jean Pascal for the WBC, WBC Diamond & Ring Magazine Light Heavyweight World Championships in Pascal’s backyard at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada in a bout that will be televised live on HBO’s World Championship Boxing in the United States and on pay-per-view in Canada. If the 46-year-old Hopkins should emerge victorious, he will become the oldest boxer in history to win a significant world title.

Below please find statistics that further illustrate Hopkins’ longevity as boxing’s ageless wonder reaches for history once again.

HOPKINS AGE STATISTICS:

Hopkins was born in 1965. In that same year:

Lyndon B. Johnson was President of the United States;

The first U.S. combat troops were deployed to Vietnam;

Malcom X was assassinated;

The Beatles performed the first stadium concert in the history of rock and roll at Shea Stadium in New York.

The world’s population has doubled since Hopkins’ birth year (the population went from 3,334,874,000 in 1965 to 6,775,235,700 in 2011).

Hopkins entered Graterford State Penitentiary the year Pascal was born (1982).

Pascal was barely six years old when Hopkins fought his first professional fight (1988).

When Hopkins won his first world title against Segundo Mercado on April 29, 1995, Pascal was only 12 years old.

At the time of Pascal’s first professional fight (February 3, 2005 against Justin Hahn), Hopkins had already fought 49 professional fights and was preparing to fight Howard Eastman on February 19, 2005 in his 20^th defense of his middleweight crown.

Hopkins’ career has spanned nearly 23 years, seven U.S. presidential terms and 11 Olympic Games.

Thirty-one of Hopkins’ 58 professional fights were against opponents younger than him.

Hopkins has won two fights (against Kelly Pavlik and Enrique Ornelas) where there was at least a 15 year or more age differential between him and his opponent (Pavlik was 17 years younger and Ornelas was 15 years younger).