Speaking of Joe Calzaghe, when the Welshman fought and defeated Philadelphia’s Bernard Hopkins back in 2008, Hopkins was already 43 years old and the sport stood in awe of the fact he was still mixing it at the highest level.

At an age when most fighters have long since retired or been retired, here was a man who still appeared in tip-top mental and physical condition participating in world title fights.

Six years later and Hopkins, aka Bhop, has proved himself to be even more a freak of nature as he gets set to face Russia’s formidable Sergey Kovalev on November 8 in Atlantic City in a light heavyweight unification title bout.

On the line are Kovalev’s WBO title and Hopkins’s WBA and IBF titles.

Kovalev is a live opponent who literally walked through Britain’s Nathan Cleverly when they met in 2013 to claim Cleverly’s WBO title.
He possesses crushing power, evidenced in the 23 wins by KO he’s registered from 26 fights and no defeats.

The smart money you would think would be on the in-prime 31-year-old Russian but Hopkins has made a career out of proving the doubters wrong.

Unbelievably, Hopkins had his first professional fight in 1988 and his upcoming fight will be his sixty sixth.

In a sport that often suffers from a lack of positive role models, Hopkins stands out as a testament to the virtues of self discipline, dedication and physical and mental conditioning.

Whatever the outcome when he meets Kovalev, Hopkins is already guaranteed a place in the history not only of boxing but sports in general.