Bernard Hopkins is known as one of the all time great middleweight champions in boxing but actually lost his first fight.
His first professional fight that is. That right there would discourage most but you are dealing with a different type of individual in Hopkins.
Later on Hopkins set the record for most middleweight world title defences ever (20) and became the oldest world champion in history (49-years-old).
Speaking to Boxing King YouTube Hopkins said of his early days:
“I met a guy named John Rizzo. Italian. Hard Italian. Owned a roofing company approached me in a breakfast spot on Philadelphia and we’re talking about boxing and I’m running my mouth about how good I am, I did this and I did that and 0-1 (as a pro) but I’ve got experience from the amateurs and of course Graterford State Penitentiary. He gave me a job working at the roofing company.”
He added:
“He took me in. I lived in his house in Bristol, a town south of Philadelphia 25 mins look it up. He sponsored me. He gave me food money, grocery money because he seen something in me. He bought me shoes, he bought me gloves to train in. The job saved me. My friends and the ones that were probably their enemy they didn’t try to hurt me again.”
Hopkins was actually around the age of 25-years-old when he started as a professional boxer when he came out of prison and still lost his first pro fight.
So the above is a great story that shows how in the early days he was destined to never be denied and was favored for greatness that could not be stopped ultimately.
One of the great stories and careers in the sport, Hopkins, without question.
