{"id":278786,"date":"2025-11-12T00:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T00:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/278786\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T00:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T00:59:07","slug":"bernard-hopkins-says-one-former-world-champion-was-untouchable-in-his-prime-nobody-beats-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/278786\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernard Hopkins says one former world champion was untouchable in his prime: “Nobody beats him”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bernard Hopkins<\/a>, known for his extraordinary longevity, faced no small amount of elite operators throughout his 28-year professional career.<\/p>\n

Quite remarkably, he became the oldest fighter to win a world title \u2013 breaking George Foreman\u2019s record in the process \u2013 after outpointing and dethroning Jean Pascal in 2011.<\/p>\n

It was just under half a year earlier that the pair had boxed to a draw, only for Hopkins to then capture the WBC light-heavyweight title at 46 years old.<\/p>\n

Around three years later, the calculated technician went one step further to cement his greatness, unifying the 175lbs division with a spit decision victory over Beibut Shumenov.<\/p>\n

But while his later career accolades remain a point of celebration \u2013 and rightfully so \u2013 it was at the age of 28 when Hopkins encountered his toughest challenge.<\/p>\n

Entering his first world title fight, this time down at middleweight, the Philadelphian squared off with Roy Jones Jr<\/a> on the undercard of Riddick Bowe vs Jesse Ferguson in 1993.<\/p>\n

Jones, too, was gearing up for his maiden world title shot, but at this point, it is fair to say that he was already creeping into his prime.<\/p>\n

As it happened, the razor-sharp slickster was carrying a minor injury to his right hand, which meant that his jab, now more than ever, represented a vital weapon.<\/p>\n

But of course, his blistering speed and elusive movement were not hampered in the slightest, allowing him to eventually outpoint Hopkins by a margin of 116-112 on all three judges\u2019 scorecards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In doing so, Jones claimed the IBF strap, which had been vacated by James Toney, in convincing fashion, before amassing a scintillating career that would be widely celebrated and revered in years to come.<\/p>\n

As for Hopkins, he too etched his name into the history books, but only after losing to one of the greatest fighters of all time.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Ring Magazine<\/a>, Hopkins made no attempt to downplay the sheer athleticism and ring craft of his opponent, who he later beat, this time at light-heavyweight, via a unanimous decision in 2010. He called Jones the best opponent he ever faced and said at his peak \u2018no one\u2019 could beat him.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoy Jones Jr [was the best I faced]. He was smart enough to neutralise my best weapons and smart enough to not get hit by my big shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I got my shots in, he wouldn\u2019t get hit by more than one. That\u2019s the thing about fighting unique guys\u2026 if a guy lands that one shot, normally there\u2019s another coming behind that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was an all-around thing \u2013 best boxer, best defence, offence. Early-career Roy Jones Jr \u2013 speed, reflexes, unorthodox, that type of thing. No one would have beat Roy Jones at that level, where he was at right there and then.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bernard Hopkins, known for his extraordinary longevity, faced no small amount of elite operators throughout his 28-year professional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-278786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}