Bernard Humphrey Hopkins Jr. is a retired boxer from the US. He retired in 2016 after 28 years of his career.
Early years
His mother Shirley and his father raised him in Philadelphia.
While he was just a kid, he got involved into criminal activities. He was a robber who worked on street and he was injured by knife multiple times.
When he was 18, he ended up in jail to pay for his crimes.
While he was in jail, he realized that he had a passion for boxing. He had to defend himself all of the time and he even saw a murder happen. His jail friend got killed because of a small fight over a few cigarettes.
He was in jail for five years and changed his life from the very core.
First he changed his faith and converted to Islam where he found peace.
When leaving prison, he claimed he will never come back. He never did.
Graterford Prison was a place he spent most of his early life at and he says that nowadays he feels sorry for himself because of it, although he learned many new lessons.
Career development
He started as a light heavyweight in 1988 in New Jersey.
After a year or a bit more, he was middleweight.
His grand winning time between 1990 and 1992 helped him gain popularity since he never lost a match in that period of time.
In April of 1995, he became world’s best boxer and he gained this title in Maryland. This gave his career a huge push and he decided to keep up his work.
One of his famous games was with Steve Frank and it became viral because Hopkins won in less than half a minute.
In 2000, he already had 12 IBF titles and he was never defeated. He won over many boxers that were out of his league and he became the main fear of every boxer in the area.
In a famous tournament in 2001, he had to beat Trinidad, Joppy and Holmes. All three of them were much more famous than Hopkins.
First matches showed that the players were maybe too much for Hopkins and he became less popular in the tournament although he wasn’t yet defeated.
People put their money for bets on Trinidad but Hopkins was so sure he would win that he invested $100 000 in himself. He won and this was Trinidad’s first defeat in his career.
He became a champion that was never defeated and it was soon time for him to enter the biggest fight of his life: the one with Oscar De La Hoya.
Hopkins won again in the ninth round and earned $10 million.
The guys, however, remained friends and later made promotions together.
When he was 40, he decided to fight a #1 WBC competitor Howard Eastman.
Although he was pretty old for a boxer, he won the match without any problem.
In 2005, he lost his first championship and started to think about retiring.
At 41, after a loss or two more, he decided not to retire and he faced Tarver whom he defeated and won $250 000 in a private deal.
He later defeated Wright, but Calzaghe defeated him.
In 2010, he had his rematch with Roy Jones Jr. with whom he boxed earlier. He defeated him in eleven out of twelve rounds and kept his title of the best boxer even when he was really old.
He didn’t want to retire and when he was 45 he defeated Pascal and later he defeated Cloud. He became the oldest boxer to win such a prestigious achievment.
He later played with Shumenov, Kovalev and Murat and won most of the fight.
However, the game he lost to Kovalev ended up in two years of break. When he came back, he had his final fight with Smith Jr.
He said that he will retire after this.
He lost because he got knocked out, but he says that he thinks he did pretty good for a 51 year old boxer.
He played 67 games in total and lost only 8.
He was coached by English Fisher and Naazim Richardson, but both claimed Hopkins wanted to work on his own a lot.
Personal life
Media hat a lot of work when it comes to Hopkins. He oftenly had public insult sessions with other players including Mayweather Jr.
He sometimes had problems with racist comments claiming caucasian people can’t beat him and similar.
His wife is called Jeanette Hopkins and she got married to Hopkins in 1993. They have a child called Latrice Hopkins
Biography
Full name: Bernard Humphrey Hopkins Jr.
Nick name: The Executioner,The Alien, B-Hop
Date of birth: January 15, 1965
Birth-sign: Capricorn
Birth place: Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, U.S.
Age: 52
Occupation: former professional boxer
Education: NA
Awards:
Personal Life and Family
Nationality: American
Ethnicity: African American
Religion: Muslim
Father name: Bernard Hopkins, Sr.
Mother name: Sue Hopkins
Brother name: /
Sister name: /
Marital status: married
Wife: Jeanette Hopkins
Sexual Orientation: straight
Children: Latrice Hopkins
Hobbies: NA
Pet own: NA
Personal Look and Measurements
Height: 185 cm
Weight: 79 kg
Body: Athletic
Hair Color: Black
Eye color: Dark Brown
Shoe Size: NA
Measurements: NA
Distinctive Features: Bald
Net Worth and Salary
Net worth: $40 million
Social networks
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhopdaalien
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRealBHop
Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealbhop
Snapchat: /
Youtube: /
Interesting Facts about Bernard Hopkins
He is famous for holding a title of the middleweight best boxer for 10 years and almost three months. This is something nobody has yet beaten.
Before his fight with Kovalev, he wanted to be a bit threatening and cause some controversy, so he wore an alien mask and was asked by the judges to take it off before the fight.
Quick Summary
Bernard Hopkins is one of the best boxers in the world. He is famous for the number of games he won and the number of ages he played without retiring. His estimated net worth is $40 million.