“For years, Hopkins was boxing’s most self-righteous anti-establishmentarian, a mad rebel fit for the pages of Dostoevsky. He wore that distinction with the same defiant pride with which he sported his prison stint, jumbled teeth, and bedlamite ring attire. But Hopkins, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, embraced his role as indignant pariah for only as long as such dissentience served him. Once welcomed by the establishment, Hopkins stuffed his megaphone in his soapbox and buried both in his multi-car garage. This is what survivors do, and Hopkins, at 49 years-old, is boxing’s survivor par excellence.”

Read Old Age is a Massacre: Bernard Hopkins-Sergey Kovalev Preview on The Cruelest Sport. .