Bernard Hopkins defeats Tavoris Cloud to be oldest to win major title
Evergreen 48-year-old sets new mark by claiming IBF light-heavyweight crown
Bernard Hopkins became the oldest boxer to win a major world championship on the weekend, breaking his own record by beating Tavoris Cloud at the age of 48.
Hopkins scored a unanimous 12-round decision to dethrone Cloud, who is 17 years his junior, for the International Boxing Federation's light-heavyweight title.
"The 40 and up club still rules," Hopkins said. "I got a history. I got a history of destroying young champions and you never seen them again."
Hopkins, who goes by the nickname "The Executioner", was 46 in 2011 when he beat Canada's Jean Pascal to win the World Boxing Council light-heavyweight crown.
Now, 25 years after his first professional fight, Hopkins made history again in his 31st championship bout.
"I just wanted to use my speed and reflexes which I still have," he said. "I stuck to the plan. I just took a little time to get warmed up. I said before the fight I was going to work on combination punches. I was trying to throw four or five extra punches that I don't normally throw."
Hopkins won on all three judges scorecards - 117-111, 116-112 and 116-112 - against the previously unbeaten Cloud at the Barclays Centre arena in Brooklyn, New York.