Bernard Hopkins

If 46-year-old lefthander Jamie Moyer can win 16 games for the World Series champion Phillies, maybe it shouldn't seem so amazing that Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins, who turns 44 on Jan. 15, is still widely regarded as one of the top five pound-for-pound fighters on the planet.

Hopkins, who has survived 20 years in the most brutal of sports without being seriously injured or cut, has never been knocked out. But a lot of so-called "experts" thought 26-year-old, undefeated middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik would become the first man to do so when he and B-Hop squared off on Oct. 18 in Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall.

The best fortysomething boxer ever demonstrated that he still is capable of defying the ravages of time when, as a 5-1 underdog, he took Pavlik to school and earned a onesided, unanimous-decision victory.

- Bernard Fernandez