At Age 51, Bernard Hopkins to Fight At Least One More Time

One of the greatest boxers of the last generation and among the elite fighters in middleweight history is Bernard Hopkins. His accomplishments speak for themselves and when “The Executioner” finally decides to hang his gloves up for good, he’s a lock for the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Golden Boy Promotions announced Tuesday afternoon that Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) will climb through the ropes at least once more when he takes on Joe Smith Jr. on Dec. 17 inside the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, just outside Los Angeles. HBO will televise the bout and has dubbed the matchup “The Final One.”

“While 'The Alien' may be retired, the 'Executioner' has one fight left, and Joe Smith Jr., is going to find out the hard way how well prepared I am for my final fight,” Hopkins said. “A lot of people will focus on my age, the history of my run in the sport, the titles, etc...but I'm focused on one thing - knocking Joe Smith out.”

Hopkins, who has beaten the likes of Oscar de la Hoya, Glen Johnson, Roy Jones Jr., Felix Trinidad, Chad Dawson, Jean Pascal and countless others as he scooped up world titles at middleweight and light heavyweight, hasn’t fought since November 2014 when Sergey Kovalev took him to the woodshed. Hopkins showed his age that night as the Russian “Krusher” knocked him down and lost every round in the mugging.

Smith (22-1, 18 KOs) is coming off an impressive first-round clubbing of Andrzej Fonfara in June, by far the greatest moment of his still-blossoming career. He’ll obviously have an edge in youth and most likely speed, but he’ll likely never face anybody else with the sport of experience or boxing acumen that Hopkins possesses.

“I'm very excited about fighting on HBO,” said Smith. “I know now all my hard work and dedication has paid off. I am looking forward to retiring a boxing legend.”

Golden Boy Promotions will announce a co-feature for the event as well as full undercard in the next few days