Bernard “Superfreak” Hopkins
BERNARD HOPKINS IS A “SUPERFREAK”
San Francisco, CA– I think the Bernard Hopkins performance Saturday night was as one reader put it, the most “exciting fight Hopkins has been in for years.” Even though B-Hop is 48, yeah 48, and defeating men of world-class stature, this corner had cast it aside with the mindset that Bernard was all “smoke and mirrors,” meaning inferior opposition and good matchmaking. Now I am rethinking this notion for a variety of reasons.
46 MINUTES OF ‘NARD IN CONTROL
As evidenced on Showtime Saturday night when Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KOs) pitched a near shutout over 30-year old former European champ Karo Murat (25-2-1, 15 KOs), somehow there is enough left in Hopkins at 48 to defeat Murat, whose claim to fame in boxing is that he is an Iraqi fighting out of Germany who in 2008 beat Gabriel Campillo. A 2011 rematch was a Draw.
WHAT ALLOWS BERNARD TO BE “SUPERFREAKY?”
But is it that Bernard is really a freak of nature? Murat just not that good, meaning if he were truly world class he would beat a 48 year old man? Or, and this is really the question to ponder. Has training advanced such that in 2013 48-year old guys can go 15 rounds if need be?
PASCAL TALKED PEDS & GOT WHIPPED!
Jean Pascal, another of Hopkin’s victims at light heavy (175 lb. in 2011) hinted that Bernard was taking Performance Enhancing Drugs. On the flip side is the belief that Hopkins, albeit an ego maniac that some would think might do anything to continue boxing, worships his body like a God, thus he wouldn’t even think of indulging in such.
THE AGE THING…THE AGE THING
During a Sunday morning appearance on “Ring Talk Worldwide,” the boxing hour, when Zahir Raheem, himself a 36-year old 1996 Olympian, the man that beat Erik Morales, and yet Morales still in his next fight faced Manny Pacquiao, Zahir brought up the following.
ZAHIR RAHEEM ON HOPKINS AT 48
“Everything has changed. A fighter used to be finished at 30-32, but medicine is better, training is better, people live longer, so you can expect boxers to box longer.” Is that it right there, the real answer as to how a 48-year man in Bernard Hopkins continues to win? As for “Defying or Defining” history, Bernard Hopkins is doing both!
Pedro Fernandez