When was Executioner's Prime? Has It Gone Away?

Prime is a 2005 American romantic comedy film starring Uma Thurman, Meryl Streep & Bryan Greenberg. It was written and directed by Ben Younger. But that’s not what I will be talking about in the following paragraphs. “First in excellence, quality, or value” is the prime I want to discuss!

Fighters and their primes. That’s all we hear about nowadays when comparing possible fights, and recent results. We try to take away one fighter’s victory with an excuse of their opponent’s prime behind them.

We bash a fighter even more for losing to a prime deprived fighter. Those are all proper things to do, because after all, there is only one true champion, and that’s because their prime physical and skill condition allows them to be.

Sometimes prime is very easy to spot (Mike Tyson, Evnader Holyfield, Arturo Gatti etc), and sometimes it’s much harder (Vassily Jirov, Glen Johnson, Bernard Hopkins, etc).

We have to look at who they fought, how decisively they won, and how long they lasted on top. Other factors such as their sportsmanship and ability to intimidate are not part of the prime calculation.

Bernard “Executioner” Hopkins is a wonder of boxing. He is at an age where most would retire, or diminish in skill significantly. He seems to be breaking all the rules, and keeps going strong. Looking at his career, it’s hard to understand whether his prime is over.

Some say that from 2001 (Felix Trinidad) to 2004 (Oscar) is when he was at his very best. It was when he performed best, and fought some of the more exciting fights.

But what about now? Sure he lost a few times (Taylor, Calzaghe), but it was not by a knockout, and some of those fights were very controversial (many would argue for him in the Taylor fight).

In-between and after those losses, Hopkins kept coming for the best. He destroyed the man who beat his former victor, Kelly Pavlik. He showed the world that even though “Magic Man” Tarver annihilated Jones Jr. he was no match for the Executioner. Winky Wright had to take a loss to Hopkins, because he could not find a way to get to him.   

All the names mentioned above, are no tomato cans. They are all former champions of the world, and all beat their preceding champions. As a matter of fact, many would argue that they were in their prime at the time of their fight with Hopkins fight (Kelly Pavlik for example).

As of this moment, personally, I am going to abstain from calling Hopkins’s prime. So far, he is going strong, and the competition has been top notch. If he can fight Dawson or Froch and go past either of them, then I would say that he is still enjoying his sweet science prime!

Thanks For Reading.

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