At 52, athletes are long into their retirement. They are either living their life far away from their profession. Or they get into management or the broadcast booth.
A month away from his 52nd birthday, Bernard Hopkins still is boxing. Granted, Hopkins isn't your prototypical athlete, and he will hang up the gloves on Saturday night after he fights Joe Smith in a 12-round light heavyweight bout (HBO, 10 p.m. ET/PT) from The Forum in Inglewood, Calif.
Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) hasn't fought in 25 months when he was blown out in a title unification fight against then-undisputed 175-pound champion, Sergey Kovalev.