PHILADELPHIA — The gray hairs are beginning to peak through his beard, but Bernard Hopkins views it as a badge of honor to his longevity and success as a boxer. He will be 46 on Jan. 15, but a more pressing date is Dec. 18, when he challenges Jean Pascal for the WBC light heavyweight championship in Quebec City, Canada.
If Hopkins wins, he will become the oldest fighter ever to win a world championship — passing George Foreman, who won the world heavyweight title by beating Michael Moorer by knockout on Nov. 5, 1994. Hopkins will be just 28 days from his 46th birthday when he fights Pascal. Foreman was 66 days from his 46th birthday when he defeated Moorer on a 10th-round knockout to regain the heavyweight title he first won in 1973.
“There’s going to be a lot of 40-year-old people and older who’s going to be dropping their cane and putting their teeth in and rooting for me,” Hopkins said during a workout at Joe Hand’s Boxing Gym in Philadelphia. “Everybody who has arthritis, their arthritis is going to be gone that night.”
The 28-year-old Pascal, of Montreal, will be defending the WBC light heavyweight championship he retained defeating Chad Dawson by technical decision on Aug. 14. Pascal (26-1, 32 KOs) was ahead on all scorecards when the fight was stopped in the 11th-round when a head-butt opened a cut above Dawson’s left eye.
A member of the Canadian boxing team at the 2004 Games in Athens, Pascal was last defeated when he dropped a 12-round decision to Carl Froch of England in 2008. He has won five consecutive fights since.
“I’m sure they’re not expecting me to match the energy and the punch [output] and accuracy that the young guy has,” Hopkins said of Pascal. “But I’ve seen things in this guy that’s going to be exploited early. Even though he has youth, I have knowledge and I have wisdom. I watch his defense and how he swings with his head down. I watch how he throws wild punches and I watch fighters who fought me the same way. Those punches don’t hit Bernard Hopkins.”
Hopkins, who defended the middleweight title 20 times before losing twice to Jermain Taylor in 2005, hasn’t had a meaningful win since beating Kelly Pavlik in 2008. He earned a decision in a lackluster rematch with a faded Roy Jones Jr. in April. Hopkins all but said if he doesn’t defeat Pascal, he will retire.
“I know it’s win and go farther. Lose and go home,” Hopkins said. “It’s the playoffs. There’s no tomorrow.”
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Amir Khan of England continues his quest to be the biggest name in the talent-rich 140-pound division when he takes on hard-punching Marcos Maidana of Argentina next Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. HBO will televise. Khan (23-1, 17 KOs) will defend his WBA super lightweight championship against Maidana (29-1, 27 KOs), who came into prominence when he knocked out Victor Ortiz in 2009. Khan’s only loss came when he was knocked out in the first round by Breidis Prescott of Colombia in 2008. He has since hired Freddie Roach as his trainer.
“It’s a big fight,” Khan said. “Everyone knows Maidana is a big puncher. We respect that. But I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in and I can’t wait to get into the ring and fight.”
