Bernard Hopkins is still world class at 48

No professional athlete, let alone a boxer, can last for 24 years at the pinnacle of the business without great genes, good fortune and a competitive streak that runs deeper than any normal person could possibly understand. Former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins turned 48 on Tuesday, the same day he announced he would fight Tavoris Cloud on March 9 in Brooklyn, NY, for a 175-pound title. The bout with Cloud will come nearly two full years after Hopkins set perhaps the most unbreakable record in sports when he became, at 46 years, four months and six days, the oldest world champion in boxing history. But if, as expected, Hopkins beats Cloud, he will regain a world title at 48 years, one month and 23 days.

Hopkins' training discipline is legendary. When he was released from a Pennsylvania prison in 1988 after serving a bit more than five years on a strong-arm robbery conviction, he vowed he would never go back and would turn his life around. He has done each, and actually has been on the good side longer than he was on the bad side. It is his disdain for losing, though, that drives him to greatness at even such an advanced age. He dropped a majority decision to Chad Dawson last April in a highly competitive fight. It was an extraordinary performance by a 47-year-old against one of the sport's young elites, but Hopkins took no joy in coming close.

"That was so tough for me to take that I didn't have sex with my wife for six months," Hopkins said. "I didn't want to do anything. It's just a thing where, I hate to lose. I hate to lose at anything. I'm a guy who is very competitive. To lose, to me, is devastating. It was especially so knowing I could have done things I had worked on and trained for." He's one of the great fighters of this, or any era, and has accomplished more than he had any reason to believe when he lost his pro debut a month before George H.W. Bush was elected president. He concedes he's no longer the athlete he once was and has to make concessions to his age. As he plowed through his 30s and rolled past his 40th birthday, he growled at anyone who would suggest he may be limited by his age. He openly admits that he isn't the same physically, which makes his success in the ring all the more remarkable.