It is hard not to have the greatest admiration for Bernard Hopkins.

For what he considered a career-defining fight against Felix Trinidad on 29 September at Madison Square Garden, Hopkins was an underdog.

The bout was a conclusion to the middleweight unification tournament, which had seen Hopkins beat Keith Holmes and Trinidad knock out William Joppy.

In reality, the mini-series was being used to promote Trinidad as a viable opponent for light-heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr.

But Hopkins, who took Jones the distance in May 1993, destroyed those plans by outboxing, outpunching and stopping the previously unbeaten Trinidad in 12 rounds.

For a man who talks endlessly, enthusiastically and confidently, this was a victory which confirmed what he had always said about himself.

He said he was the best at his weight and had been for more than six years, despite earning the kind of purses associated with a contender.

Hopkins' victory made him the first undisputed middleweight champion since Marvellous Marvin Hagler.

BBC Sport Online caught up with him at the recent Lennox Lewis-Hasim Rahman fight in Las Vegas and found the 36-year-old eager to talk about his victory over Trinidad..

"One of the best performances of my life.

"I can name one other performance that was close to that and that was the second Antwun Echols fight, because of the adversity part.

"Then, I got up off the canvas with a dislocated right shoulder and beat someone with one hand.

"Trinidad was a more all-round victory - because 80% of people did not give me an opportunity and didn't look at all my attributes to be a winner - it's always good to fool people."

There may be an element of kidology about Hopkins' desire to prove the sceptics wrong.

After all, he relishes being the underdog.

"To me it's a plus. If you are always predicted to be the winner, sometimes your skills can become one-sided.

"You can never work hard to be better than you were last time.

"You have competition - I have competition. Competition is healthy - if we didn't have adversity and competition, how do you know you are the man you say you are?

"I love the challenge of adversity - I don't call on it, I don't want it, but I know what it can do for my character and legacy."

For his fight with Trinidad, Hopkins planned to take advantage of the Puerto Rican's notoriously slow footwork as well as avoiding his powerful left hook.

In the event, he was so dominant that he could afford himself a smile in his corner after each round passed.

"Under the circumstances, I saw that everything I trained for in camp was working.

"When you are training for certain things and you see it manifest right in front of you and it became so easy for me - I just thought 'wow'.

"When it became easier and easier as the rounds went on, I thought - where is this big Trinidad left hook, where is this all-round fighter that everyone said he was?

"I believe that on 29 September, the world witnessed a man versus a boy."