Defeating the Greatest Enemy: The Equalizer’s Denzel Washington and Boxing’s Bernard Hopkins Conquer Time

It’s a young man’s game: wrapping the hands, slipping on the gloves and stepping into the ring while thousands cheer. Battling for greatness, then hoisting the belt overhead. As champion, our hero faces a constant stream of enemies, all while suffering the steady decline of age. Strength and cardio start to decrease as he nears thirty, burnout sets in, then it’s a hard fall from the top—losing just a split-second in reaction leads to devastating head-shots, a weakening of the chin, and calls from fans and family to walk away.

Hang it up, old man, it was a good run while it lasted.

Not much different at the cineplex, except in on screen we usually join the action when the aging hero meets a flawed, but promising protégé. Who, despite their mutual adversary, thinks he’s smarter than the mentor, so he questions the grueling training, and suffers setbacks due to his arrogance—until, finally, he reconciles with his ego and triumphs.

It’s an ancient template underpinning classics such as Beowulf and the Odyssey, as well as Raging Bull and Apocalypse Now.

In The Equalizer, Denzel Washington plays Robert McCall, a man whose heroic exploits are a fading memory. Now living a pedestrian life, working the register at a hardware store, he meets meets Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz), a girl under the thumb of violent Russian gangsters. Only in this instance, instead of relying on a younger apprentice to save the day, McCall shirks the template, dusts off his gear and handles business himself. Older, wiser, he faces his foes with more brains than brawn.

Great cinema, but is this realistic, a fading warrior going to toe-to-toe with time?

In fact, McCall’s journey echo’s that of boxing legend, Bernard Hopkins. As a teenager from the ghettos of Philadelphia, Hopkins was stealing and mugging before he could legally drive. By thirteen he’d survived several stabbings, and at seventeen the state certified him as an adult and sentenced him to eighteen years in prison. As with most heroes, he found himself at the fabled crossroads, choosing between redemption and certain doom. Easier said than done, of course, but behind those walls he dedicated himself to training, swore off drugs and alcohol, and earned an early release after five years.

This was a victory in itself. But Hopkins wanted more. He immediately turned pro, and was shocked by losing his first fight. Twenty-two years old might seem young, but it’s elderly for an athlete just embarking on the path. By seventeen years old most elite boxers have amassed fifty or more bouts. Hopkins didn’t quit. Refusing to fight for the next eighteen months, he returned to the gym and honed his skills, so that when he finally fought again, he won his next twenty-one bouts, and captured a world title.

But that wasn’t his McCall moment. This was just backstory, as his true test didn’t come for another twenty years, when, at fourth-five years old, on April 28, 2012, Hopkins faced a much-younger Chad Dawson, who wanted Hopkins’ crown. The fight was sold out, an A-list affair. And after a brutal twelve rounds, to the crowd’s dismay, the referee raised Dawson’s hand. Dejected, Hopkins didn’t fight again that year, making it the first since 1989 that he didn’t notch a win.

Fans and media wondered if Hopkins would finally hang up the gloves and focus on helping upcoming fighters, as so many retired pugilists do?

Hopkins answered that question the next March, when he re-entered the ring to face Tavoris Cloud, the IBF Light Heavyweight champion, and seventeen years his junior. From the opening bell Hopkins put on a masterful clinic of cunning and skills, avoiding damage by cutting angles, working off the ropes, closing the distance and tying up Cloud, all the while delivering surgical blows. After twelve rounds, Hopkins earned the decision, captured the belt, and etched his name in the history books as the oldest fighter ever to win a world championship. He was forty-six years, four months and ten days old.

Hopkins still holds the IBF and WBA Light Heavyweight titles, and this November he faces an undefeated (and sixteen years younger) Sergey Kovalev for the WBO belt.

Check out this mini documentary on the lead-up to Hopkins’ challenging Cloud for the title.

For Hopkins and McCall, the inner battle is far greater than the external fights, and that makes their struggles more thrilling, and their victories more sweet. The Equalizer opens nationwide this week.

The Equalizer opens this Friday. Purchase tickets here: http://bit.ly/EQTickets