According to whom you believe Moore was either 36 or 39 when he won the title by decision.  His mother says he was born in 1913, but Moore rebuked his mother’s belief by claiming that he had been born in 1916. “Maybe I was three years old when I was born, and if that’s so, then I should know.” Said Moore

Hopkins became a title holder much earlier in his career when he beat Segundo Mercado in 1995 for the IBF middleweight title that had been vacated by Roy Jones, but Hopkins didn’t earn universal recognition as champion until he unified the middleweight championship in September of 2001 when he knocked out Felix Trinidad. Coincidentally, Hopkins accomplished the Trinidad feat also at the age of 36. 

There are numerous other parallels in the careers of Moore and Hopkins.  Specifically the similarities in how they lived and approached their careers.   Hopkins like Moore, always stays in shape and neither of them embraced the fast life, which has ruined the careers of countless fighters.

“Archie Moore was a boxer late getting there, he was in his thirties when he won the title and he kept himself in good condition, he wasn’t a wild guy he was more of a family type of guy and a guy like that can stay around for a long time, he didn’t wear himself out at a young age,” noted Byrd. 

Bernard also leads a healthy lifestyle and is boastful of his unrelenting dedication to his wife Jeanette and their daughter Latrice. Furthermore, both Bernard and Archie didn’t achieve superstardom until they were in their thirties and they both reveled in their late found success with Moore using it as a spring board to two heavyweight title fights and Hopkins parleying it into a mega million dollar super fight with De La Hoya.

Hopkins and Moore exasperated their unique fighting styles, which enabled them to extend their careers into their forties. “Archie Moore could take you out with one punch with that cross armed defense and that’s what kept him around a long time and Hopkins is just a naturally strong boxer who can punch with you and he doesn’t care what people say, he stays with his style and he usually comes out on top with that style,” commented Byrd.  Both Moore and Hopkins have styles that are based on solid defense, Moore used the crossed armed defense to parry and block punches while Hopkins often tries to smother his opponents’ punches and always maintains a tight guard with his elbows in and his hands close to his face.

Healthy life styles and unique fighting styles based on solid defensive skills are only some of the factors that enabled these two incredible athletes to be successful as middle age men.  Another important factor was the experience that comes with age and countless championship rounds.  In an interview with Jeff Ryan in the May 1990 issue of Ring Magazine, Archie stated, “I feel that a man can still do certain things in the ring after forty, just by moving his head and shoulders.  You’re using tricks, feints; you’re fighting with knowledge and experience.  The skills can leave, but experience is something never thrown away.  It stays with you.”

If you’ve witnessed Bernard’s fights the last few years, Archie’s words still echo loudly because even though Bernard doesn’t have the energy or speed of a twenty something year old fighter, he uses his ring knowledge and experience to win fights.  Bernard doesn’t have to throw seventy-five punches a round because he’s more economical with them, he’ll throw forty, but land at a higher percentage, as was the case in his defense against Howard Eastman and De La Hoya when he was able to land over forty percent of his power punches. Also, De La Hoya was a lot faster than the Executioner, but Hopkins utilized his knowledge of the sweet science to patiently cut off the ring and break the Golden Boy down.

Bernard Hopkins is doing today in the twenty-first century what Old Archie did in the fifties, dominating a division at the age of forty, something that no other fighters in history have done.  Hopkins and Moore are two peas in a pod, enigmas, two American originals that the boxing world may never see the likeness of again.  “Archie Moore was just a sound good man, but there will never ever be another Hopkins or Archie Moore, guys like that just don’t come around too often, they’re like Chevy cars from the fifties, they took care of that Chevrolet and they are running better than some of these new cars sitting out there in the junkyards today.” If Hopkins is successful in his July defense against Jermain Taylor, you can be sure that the Old Mongoose will be looking down smiling from the heavens, remembering the good old days when his old Chevrolet used to zoom past younger challengers.