FIGHTING FOR HISTORY

by Ron Borges

Bernard Hopkins knows what he's fighting for on June 10 and it's not a leather belt.

Certainly the light heavyweight title that Antonio Tarver holds will be at stake when the 41-year-old former middleweight champion steps into the ring at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City for the final time as a prize fighter but Hopkins no longer fights for titles or even for the recognition so long denied him before his stunning dismantlings of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya.

Hopkins doesn't even fight to leave a legacy behind because he believes he's done that by successfully defending the middleweight title he held for more than a decade a record-setting 20 times, beating all the best middleweights except Roy Jones, Jr., who won a decision from Hopkins in 1993. Even in this diluted era, to hold the 160-pound title for so long allows a man to lay claim to perhaps the only thing even a great fighter can be sure of and that is that he was the best of his time in his weight class.

The question of all-time is a different matter of course and that is the real reason he is back. That and one last handsome paycheck, as he jokingly conceded when asked what he'd miss most about boxing. Yet Tarver-Hopkins is not a fight even about money, although it would never have come to pass had Hopkins not been given one last shot at a multi-million dollar cash out because as important as history is to him he understands a well as anybody in the sport that he's a businessman before he's a historian.

Still, what this fight is really about for Hopkins is his unique sense of making history, the kind of history his idol, Sugar Ray Robinson, wasn't quite able to accomplish despite all his shining brilliance.

Long a devotee of Robinson, who is by acclimation considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in the history of the sport, Hopkins wants to win the 175-pound title Robinson appeared to be on his way toward claiming before he wilted in the spirit-sapping humidity of a summer night at Yankee Stadium in 1952, a night that first caused the referee to pass out and ultimately forced Robinson to retire on his stool despite holding a lead over Joey Maxim on all judges cards after the 13th round. Physically spent from heat exhaustion Robinson could not rise, thus failing to successfully make the jump from 160 to 175 that Hopkins is now facing.

Had Robinson done it perhaps Hopkins would not be stepping between the ropes this one last time after having promised his mother on her death bed he would not fight past his 40th birthday. But he has made the choice and the choice was not simply to fight Antonio Tarver. The choice was to fight history.

"My legacy is already cemented,'' Hopkins insists. "My legacy was in the middleweight division and that book, that chapter, is closed with the controversy (over whether or not he truly lost two close decisions to undefeated Jermain Taylor, decisions still being debated in barbershops and sports bars across the country to this day). But the other chapter has opened and it's a chapter of history.

"Why? Because my great, great motivator - who I would gladly play 10th to, 100th to - and that's Sugar, the great Ray Robinson. That's what I want to accomplish. That Bernard did in his era, not Ray Robinson's era, not Marvin Hagler's era not this era or that era but my era (what Robinson did not in his own). That's what motivates me. I fight for history. That's why the 20 defenses was so great for me. That's what kept me motivated. The question kept being asked, 'Why Bernard? Why 20 defenses? Why is that important?'

Because of the great (Carlos) Monzon (whose record he broke for consecutive defenses). Marvelous Marvin Hagler, breaking his records I'm up in the elite group. I'm in a sorority of great fighters.''Where Hopkins now resides in boxing may be a bit of a harsher place than a sorority but it's a place few fighters of his time will ever ascend to.

Having reached that goal, Hopkins has agreed to dance with danger one more night at an age when most fighters are so far past their prime some people aren't sure they ever had one to impress upon the world what has long ago been established: that he is a special athlete.

"When it's all said and done I want the fans to remember one thing: the Bernard Hopkins of the world, the Michael Jordans of the world, the Satchel Paiges, the Jim Browns - I'm going throwback on you for a minute - the Julius Ervings, Tiger Woods when he leaves, (Arnold) Palmer, the other golf player - enjoy me now because when I'm gone you might not never see this again.

"What do I mean by that? When is another Bernard Hopkins going to come along? When is another Hagler? Certain eras, certain figures, certain athletes, come along they don't reproduce every five, six, seven years. "When I mention these things...I'm telling you these individuals are special people that we'll never see in a long time and I haven't seen yet, other than myself. I may be biased to me but I don't see it in today's fighters. That era has left. The '80s, man, with all those great guys - Hagler, Leonard, Hearns, Duran, (Wilfredo) Benitez - on down to the '70s and '60s. Left. You get spots now and then but other than that I'm telling you that's what I believe.''

What Hopkins is saying in a ADD sort of patois is that to win the light heavyweight title, to jump from 160 to 175 and do what the great Sugar Ray could not is to cement more than one's legacy in the sport of bruising. It is to write your name in the stars, to put you into every conversation of great fighters, not merely great middleweights. Regardless of the weaknesses of the sport today, if he defeats Tarver Hopkins will have done things to which, as Willy Loman's wife said in "Death of A Salesman,'' attention must be paid.

In the end, that's what it's been about for Hopkins from the start, as it is for most fighters. Born in the worst of circumstances, they travel difficult roads, all of them uphill. They fight, literally and figuratively, for everything they get. In the end, if they are skilled and brave and steadfast and lucky, a few reach the level he has has long aspired to. A few enter into a conversation with only a handful of other names involved. Hopkins believes he's already reached that in the middleweight division - although he declines to say exactly where he might fit behind Robinson - but to move up 15 pounds in his final fight and do what Ray Robinson could not, well, attention must indeed be paid to that.

"Immortality, man,'' Hopkins said of his reasons for facing Tarver on June 10. "It's a word if you use it in the wrong context you make yourself look like a babbling idiot amongst the people who might be listening. It's a word that if somebody got the slight least little bit of intelligence will not use it lightly. So that, in sum, is part of Bernard Hopkins' motivation for this fight.

"When I win the fight I'm not going to take the belt because I don't like the belt. He can have it. I'm not fighting for the belt. Remember that you're talking about immortality, yes, absolutely, right now. I don't want the damn belt. I want the victory.'' Obviously so does Tarver, who still chafes at the fact he twice beat Roy Jones and was the first to knock him out yet is still not recognized among the pantheon of the sport's biggest names today. To him that is what this fight is about. It's about beating another legend in hopes of becoming one himself. To Bernard Hopkins, however, it is something quite different.

To him it is about reminding the world one last time what a legend looks like. Who and what one is. And one more thing. It's one last reminder to his critics as well as his fans what they will be missing when he's gone. "He says he's the legend killer, man,'' Hopkins said, the fire still burning so hot it consumes everything inside him, including, at times, his words, even at this late stage of his career. "That's the only thing he's fighting for! I'm fighting for history...and to win! "I have to make sure his problem don't become my problem. I know he's limited to what he can do and I know I'm not limited to what I can do. I don't think he knows what to think (about facing a 41-year-old man still as slick and dangerous as Hopkins remains) and that's to my advantage because I'd rather know something than not know anything. You never know what a guy thinks but I'll tell you one thing. I've got a blueprint and I've got a strategy and I have more to fight for, I believe, than Tarver has.''

In Hopkins' mind, Tarver is fighting for something he achieved long ago. He's fighting to be remembered as a top fighter in his era. Bernard Hopkins is fighting to be remembered as a top fighter in any era. It is a difference more important than all the talk about how he worked his body up from 160 to the 170 or so he'll weigh June 10. It's a difference more important than his age or the two controversial losses to Taylor in his last two outings.

It is the difference of between being just a boxer and being a boxer they'll still be talking about long after the boxer is gone away. That difference, Hopkins believes, will allow him, in the end, to do what he has been put on Earth to do. To accomplish a goal his idol Ray Robinson could not quite reach.

"To be mentioned in the top five or 10 (middleweights) it's a great accomplishment,'' Hopkins said. "I'll be pleased to be anywhere, just to be talked about from the legacy point of view and the history point of view.

How many athletes are blessed to accomplish things in their life where writers and history people will even consider having a conversation off of people's lips about what do you think would happen if you would have fought Hagler or Sugar Ray Robinson or Monzon?

"I guess I sealed my legacy to the point where I'm in that company to be respected enough to go down in history as one of those type of great athletes that came up on his own time, his own space and dominated a full decade. You know, that's an accomplishment.''

For most people that would be enough, but not for Bernard Hopkins. Even after all he has done, at an age where his skills and reflexes can't be what they once were, he still needs one more night on stage. One more chance to separate himself from the rest.

That is why he will climb into the most dangerous landscape in sports on June 10. Not to beat Antonio Tarver or to win another champion's belt but for something larger than that.

Just to WIN one last time. For history's sake.