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NEW YORK — Bernard Hopkins didn't hobble to the podium. He didn't need a walker or a cane, or even some help from Oscar De La Hoya sitting next to him.
He strode confidently across the stage, then launched into a rambling 20-minute oratory that made it seem as if the soon-to-be 46-year-old Hopkins was still in his prime. He smiled broadly, cracked jokes and reminisced about his tenure as middleweight and light-heavyweight champion.
Then he promised that on Dec. 18, when he faces 175-pound titleholder Jean Pascal in Quebec City, Hopkins will become the oldest boxer to win a major world title.
"This is one of the greatest motivations for me," he said, "to be here all these years."
Hopkins won his first belt in 1995, just a few months after George Foreman knocked out Michael Moorer to become heavyweight champion at age 45. And he'll surpass the rotund one by several weeks if he's victorious before a hostile crowd at the Pepsi Coliseum.
Quebec City is a couple hundred miles from Pascal's adopted hometown of Laval, Quebec.
Even that hardly seemed to bother Hopkins on Wednesday, though, when he swept through New York City to wrap up a four-day press tour that began in Canada. He joked with De La Hoya, his partner in Golden Boy Promotions, mugged for cameras and even had a good time ribbing Pascal.
After all, it was the Haitian-born Pascal who stood in the ring after his victory over Chad Dawson in August and proclaimed that he wanted to fight Hopkins next.
"I'm in my rocking chair, minding my own business, and this guys says Bernard Hopkins is the guy I want to fight," Hopkins said, smiling. "So I rocked my chair a little harder, grabbed my cane — before I grabbed my teeth — and I called my promoters."
Hopkins is one of the few boxers who has managed to fight at an elite level well into his 40s. A sport that efficiently chews up its biggest attractions has been kind to the man from Philadelphia. He rarely gains much weight between fights, eats well and lives a life largely devoid of vices that have derailed so many other careers.
Yet age has undoubtedly started to catch up with one of the best of his era, even if slowly.
After waxing former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik two years ago, Hopkins looked like he had lost a step in beating journeyman Enrique Ornelas. Then came a victory over longtime nemesis Roy Jones Jr. in April, in which both fighters looked like a shell of their former selves.
Several friends pleaded with Hopkins to retire, but he'll instead fight one of the best in the world — a man who was 12 years old when Hopkins first won a world championship.
"Bernard came into my country the last three days and he disrespected me in front of my people," Pascal said, with mock seriousness and a twinkle in his eye. "I won't disrespect him now because my mother told me not to disrespect my elders."
"Good manners," Hopkins quickly replied.
Joking aside, Hopkins realizes he's in for a brutal fight against Pascal.
The 27-year-old WBC titleholder's only loss came to Carl Froch during a super middleweight fight two years ago, and his list of victims since then is impressive: Adrian Diaconu (twice), Silvio Branco by knockout and a technical decision over Dawson, considered one of the pound-for-pound best fighters in the world before their matchup in Montreal.
Pascal was ahead on all three scorecards when their August fight was stopped in the 11th round because of an accidental headbutt, handing Pascal the title and Dawson his first loss.
"This is my time. I belong with the elite boxers," Pascal said. "To be the best in the world, you have to face the best, and Bernard Hopkins is a legend."
And he'll try to burnish that legend a little bit more in December.
"I was having a get-together the other day, and my uncle came up to me and said, 'I know that Bernard Hopkins knocked you out, but I'm going to root for him because he's close to my age,'" said De La Hoya, who tried unsuccessfully to dethrone Hopkins in 2004.
"Bernard is showing the world that age doesn't matter," De La Hoya continued. "He's a master at what he does. That's why he can challenge the young lions coming up, like Jean Pascal."
