SPORTS RECORDS 8: BERNARD HOPKINS JR., THE OLDEST CHAMPION IN ANY WEIGHT DIVISION
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 11 Jan 2025
Bernard Hopkins Jr. held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the undisputed championship at middleweight from 2001 to 2005, and the lineal championship at light heavyweight from 2011 to 2012.
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Hopkins won his first world championship by winning the vacant International Boxing Federation (IBF) middleweight title in 1995. He made 20 successful defenses with 19 wins and with a no-contest bout against Robert Allen.
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In 2001, Hopkins successfully unified the middleweight division by defeating Félix Trinidad to win the World Boxing Association (WBA Super), World Boxing Council (WBC), Ring magazine and lineal titles. A victory over Oscar De La Hoya for the World Boxing Organization (WBO) title in 2004 made Hopkins the undisputed middleweight champion, and it also established his record as the first male boxer to simultaneously hold world titles in all four major boxing sanctioning bodies.
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In 2001, Hopkins was selected Fighter of the Year by The Ring and the Boxing Writers Association of America. In 2011, The Ring ranked Hopkins as third boxer in the "10 best middleweight title holders of the last 50 years." As of April 2021, BoxRec listed him as the seventh greatest boxer of all time, pound for pound.
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After losing the undisputed title to Jermain Taylor in 2005 and failing to regain it in a rematch the same year, Hopkins achieved further success in 2006 when he moved up to light heavyweight, winning the International Boxing Organization (IBO) and Ring titles from Antonio Tarver at 41 years of age.
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Hopkins defeated Jean Pascal for the WBC and lineal light heavyweight titles, and also the Ring title. This made Hopkins the oldest boxer in history to win a world championship, at the age of 46, breaking George Foreman's record established in 1994. Hopkins later broke his own record by winning the IBF light heavyweight title from Tavoris Cloud in 2013 at age 48, and broke it again in 2014 when he won the WBA (Super) title from Beibut Shumenov, at 49.
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The Philippine Basketball Association was founded when nine teams left the now-defunct Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA), which was at that time controlled by the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP), the FIBA-recognized national association at the time. MICAA team owners were not pleased with how BAP (then led by Gonzalo "Lito" Puyat) were using their players to join the national team without consulting them first.
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On January 23, 1975, Mariwasa-Noritake Porcelainmakers' team owner, Emerson Coseteng, together with Carrier Weathermakers, Toyota Comets, Seven-Up Uncolas and Presto Ice Cream announced the founding of the PBA. The Crispa Redmanizers, Royal Tru-Orange, Tanduay Distillery, and the U/Tex Weavers later joined the new professional basketball league.
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Leopoldo Prieto, the coach for the Philippine team at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, was appointed as the first commissioner and Coseteng was elected as the first president of the league's Board of Governors. The first PBA game was played at the Araneta Coliseum on April 9, 1975, with Mariwasa-Noritake and Concepcion Carrier competing.
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