Bernard Hopkins famously lost his first fight to Clinton Mitchell in Atlantic City before going on to have a sure-fire Hall of Fame career spanning nearly 30 years. If footage exist of that fight, its been lost to history (or at least I can’t find it). The earliest visuals I could find from Hopkins’ pro career was from his 5th pro fight (where he was introduced as Bernard “The Terror” Hopkins) in Rochester NY against Jouvin Mercado in May of 1990:

The all-black look is hard complain about. He sported the same look against Khalif Shabazz one month later, although he was introduced as “The Executioner” in this fight:

He added some pre-fight Executioner accoutrements for the first time in November of 1990 against Mike Sapp:

He added HOPKINS in gold along with some gold trim along the front things for his January 1992 fight against Dennis Milton in Philadelphia:



He repeated this several times (including a slightly longer version against Gilbert Baptist) before changing the waistband to a thin script lettering, along with red Grant gloves, for his first world championship fight, a loss to Roy Jones Jr at RFK Stadium in Washington DC:

He maintained this look until his May 1994 fight against Lupe Aquino in Atlantic City, where he flipped his color scheme, and used non-red gloves for the first time:



He went back to black trunks with yellow/gold trim and added some fringe for his next fight, and second world title shot - in Quito Ecuador against Segundo Mercado. He also had “EX” on his waistband for the first time.



The fight ended in a disappointing draw, and they rematched immediately in Landover Maryland in April of 1995. Hopkins wore nearly the same trunks and won in a TKO.



Hopkins decided that he needed more fringe against Joe Lipsey in Las Vegas in March 1996:



Hopkins stopped John David Jackson in Shreveport, Louisiana in April 1997. He had Grant trunks (same black and yellow/gold color scheme) with Executioner diagonally across the front:

He flipped his scheme again - opting for yellow with black trim against Glen Johnson in his next fight:

Against Simon Brown in January 1998, he introduced a similar template to his John David Jackson fight (except opted for yellow as the primary color):

After he and Robert Allen had a no-contest (Hopkins fell out of the ring when Mills Lane broke up a clinch, a very Hopkins thing to do), Bernard showed up for the February 1999 rematch in a very different look. It signified the end of the first portion of Hopkins career.

