Did you know that Bernard Hopkins isn’t retired yet? Well he will be after December 17th, which is the date of his final fight, set to headline an HBO Boxing event at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Lance Pugmire of the LA Times confirmed with Oscar De La Hoya that Hopkins will fight Joe Smith (22-1, 18 KOs), just one month before Hopkins’ 52nd birthday.
Hopkins (55-7-2-2 NCs, 32 KOs) hasn’t fought since November 2014, when he lost a unanimous decision to world #1 light heavyweight Sergey Kovalev. At the time, he was the IBF and WBA light heavyweight (175 lbs) champion, and the fight with Kovalev was woefully one-sided. Still, the heavy-handed Kovalev couldn’t put Hopkins away, and he’s still never been knocked out in his 28-year professional career.
Bernard’s peak years were at middleweight (160 lbs), where he held at least one major title from 1994-2005, and has the all-time record for consecutive title defenses (20). One of his most famous wins was a 12th round knockout of Felix Trinidad in 2001, which marked the first defeat of Trinidad’s career. After losing his belts to Jermain Taylor, Hopkins moved to 175 lbs, and with a 2011 win over Jean Pascal, at 46 years of age, he became the oldest major champion in boxing history. He would break his own record after losing his WBC belt to Chad Dawson, then defeating IBF champion Tavoris Cloud in 2013, giving him another belt at 48.
New York’s Joe Smith pulled off one of the bigger boxing upsets of 2016, brutally knocking out former title challenger Andrzej Fonfara in June. Smith was not only a heavy underdog, but he was fighting in front of a large Polish contingent in Chicago. It’s by far the biggest win of his career and has otherwise propelled him up the light heavyweight ranks.
There was also a plan to have 130 lbs sluggers Orlando Salido (43-13-4, 30 KOs) and Takashi Miura (30-3-2, 23 KOs) compete in the co-feature, but Salido pulled out with a back injury, scrapping an otherwise scintillating contest from the card.
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