Bernard Hopkins (born January 15, 1965) —nicknamed The Executioner— is a professional boxer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, regarded by experts to be one of the best middleweight fighters of all time. He is also considered a strategic mastermind inside the ring. His defensive skills along with underrated power made him a dominant force in the middleweight division. Until his controversial losses to Jermain Taylor in July and December 2005, Hopkins was the undisputed holder of the championship belts from all 4 major sanctioning bodies (WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO). In addition, he was awarded the coveted linear Ring Belt after defeating Felix Trinidad in September 2001. On June 10, 2006 he defeated Antonio Tarver to become The Ring light heavyweight champion. His career record stands at 47 wins, four losses, one draw, and one no contest with 32 knockouts.

Professional career

He immediately joined the professional boxing ranks as a light heavyweight, losing his debut on October 11, 1988 in Atlantic City, New Jersey to a fighter named Clinton Mitchell. But he showed enough in the loss that respected trainer Bouie Fisher took him on. After a 16-month layoff, resumed his career as a middleweight, winning a unanimous decision over Greg Paige on February 22, 1990.

Between February 1990 and September 1992, Hopkins worked his way through the ranks of middleweight journeymen, scoring 20 wins without a loss. He won 15 of those fights by knockout, 11 coming in the first round.

That earned him an opportunity for his first title, the USBA regional middleweight belt. True to form, he knocked out fringe contender Wayne Powell in the first round on December 4, 1992 and moved into the list of top 10 contenders for a world title shot.

His first chance at a world title came on May 22, 1993 in Washington, DC, when he faced Roy Jones Jr. for the vacant IBF middleweight belt. Hopkins, who was still inexperienced against top fighters, nevertheless went the distance with Jones before losing a unanimous decision. Hopkins retained his world ranking and defended his USBA belt three further times while waiting for another world title shot.

Winning the IBF Middleweight Title

Jones abandoned the middleweight ranks in 1994, and the IBF came again knocking at Hopkins's door on December 17 of that year, matching him with Segundo Mercado in Mercado's hometown of Quito, Ecuador. Mercado knocked Hopkins down twice and built a big lead on the scorecards before Hopkins rallied late and earned a draw. The IBF called for a rematch, and on April 29, 1995, Hopkins became a world champion with his seventh-round technical knockout of Mercado in Landover, Maryland.

After winning the title, Hopkins followed the example of former world middleweight champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler and followed a strict training regimen to always keep his weight close to the division limit of 160 pounds (73 kg). Meanwhile, he fought the toughest available competition and was soon considered by many as the best world middleweight titleholder. By the end of 2000, he had defended the IBF title 12 times without a loss, while beating such standouts as John David Jackson, Glencoffe Johnson, Simon Brown, and Antwun Echols. His second fight with Antwun Echols on December 1, 2000 was one of the strangest in boxing history, as Hopkins was the victim of a wrestling-like takedown in the 6th round which injured his right arm. The referee offered Hopkins the win as a result of disqualification, but Hopkins decided to fight on and eventually stopped Echols via TKO in the 10th round using mostly his left arm. This helped Hopkins gain the reputation of a true "old-school" fighter and was a testament to his toughness.

Undisputed Middleweight Champion

He has defended the undisputed title five times since. Hopkins bested Carl Daniels on February 2, 2002 by tenth-round technical knockout; Morrade Hakkar on March 29, 2003 by eighth-round TKO; William Joppy on December 13, 2003 by unanimous decision; and Robert Allen on June 5, 2004, also by unanimous decision.

In the biggest fight of his career, Hopkins fought six-division titleholder Oscar de la Hoya for the undisputed middleweight championship on September 18, 2004 in Las Vegas. Hopkins won the bout with a knockout in the ninth round. He said he ended the de la Hoya fight with a perfect punch to the liver. "Chopped liver with Hopkins sauce," he said.

De la Hoya soon thereafter invited Hopkins to join his boxing promotional firm, Golden Boy Promotions, as president of its new east coast chapter. Their alliance was announced publicly on November 20, 2004. Hopkins is expected to sign and guide the careers of young east coast fighters, including several from his hometown of Philadelphia.

Hopkins reached his stated goal of 20 title defenses on February 19, 2005 against Howard Eastman, the European middleweight champion.

Light Heavyweight

On June 10, 2006, Hopkins defeated Antonio Tarver in a completely one-sided fight by a unanimous decision to win Tarver's recognized Light Heavyweight Title. Hopkins knocked Tarver down in Round 5. Hopkins played to the crowd (made up mostly of Hopkins fans) throughout the fight including one moment, in round 10, where Hopkins turned his back to Tarver, raised his arms, and then turned back around and ran after Tarver, hitting him with a flurry of punches before the bell rang. Hopkins stated after the fight that he was:"done." The Ring,however,has so far not withdrawn recognition of him. All three judges had him winning the bout 118-109.

This fight was of particular importance to Hopkins. Besides retiring with a win and a title, he "beat the man who beat the man"; Tarver having beaten Roy Jones, the only professional fighter other than Jermain Taylor to beat Hopkins. Many pundits, however, believe that Tarver turned up a sub-par performance because of his involvement in the movie Rocky Balboa. Before the fight, Hopkins made a statement on what he called "yo-yo diet", i.e. when a boxer allows his weight to fluctuate too much, resulting in a necessity to do "extra things" (sauna, diet, etc) to lose weight before a fight. This strains the body and many have fallen victim to it. "Strain kills," he said. He also said that what had set him apart from other boxers is his strict discipline in training, as he would fight on a given Saturday, and be back in the gym the following Tuesday.

For this particular fight, Hopkins turned to famed fitness guru Mackie Shilstone to prepare him for his move up in weight to Tarver. In the past, Shilstone worked with thousands of athletes, including several boxers, to map out fitness and nutrition programs. He was instrumental in helping two fighters move up in weight to pull off upsets. Shilstone oversaw Michael Spinks' transformation from light-heavyweight champion to heavyweight champion when he upset Larry Holmes in 1985. Coincidentally, in 2003, Roy Jones Jr. turned to Shilstone, who helped him become the first former middleweight champion to win a heavyweight title in more than 100 years by beating John Ruiz.

Heavyweight ?

On September 18, 2006, various boxing web sites, including SecondsOut, have reported that Hopkins is considering a heavyweight title fight with Oleg Maskaev in June 2007. Hopkins has begun initial consultations with Mackie Shilstone, the revered sports fitness expert, to determine whether or not it would be feasible for Hopkins to build a heavyweight physique capable of competing with the much larger Maskaev.