Boxing’s Greats of the States | Pennsylvania: Bernard Hopkins

Boxers come from every corner of the globe. Sometimes, fighters are products of their environment, favoring styles prevalent in the country or state from which they hail. Various regions of the United States are considered factories for great fighters, though that certainly is not the case with each state. In this weekly Sherdog.com series, the spotlight will shine on the best boxer of all-time from each of the 50 states. Fighters do not necessarily need to be born in a given state to represent it; they simply need to be associated with it.

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Pennsylvania has long been a prizefighting pipeline, but Bernard Hopkins’ historic achievements set him apart.

A legend of the sport in every sense of the word, Hopkins has always done it his way. Though he lost his professional debut, “The Executioner” has gone on to become one of the best middleweights in boxing history. After losing to fellow all-time great Roy Jones Jr. in a bid for his first world title in 1993, Hopkins captured the IBF championship two years later with a seventh-round knockout of Segundo Mercado. From there, the Philadelphia native went on to claim the WBC, WBO and WBA belts and successfully defend his throne a record 20 times before losing a controversial split decision to Jermain Taylor on July 16, 2005.

Hopkins later moved to light heavyweight and became WBC champion with a May 2011 rout of Jean Pascal. He surrendered his title to Chad Dawson but went on to win IBF gold at 175 pounds with a 12-round unanimous decision over Tavoris Cloud. Hopkins relinquished the crown to Sergey Kovalev on Nov. 8, 2014, as he neared the age of 50. During his historic career, he became the oldest fighter to ever win a world championship and defeated Jones, Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya, Antonio Tarver, Kelly Pavlik and a host of other notables. A lock as a first-ballot hall of famer, Hopkins retired in in 2016 with 55-8-2 record and 32 KOs.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, Sammy Angott, Bennie Briscoe, Charley Burley, Harry Greb, Danny Garcia, Billy Conn, Matthew Saad Muhammad, Fritzie Zivic, Tommy Loughran