These are heady times for Bernard Hopkins. He’s the undisputed middleweight champion of the world. Last September, he was paid $10 million to knock out Oscar De La Hoya. On May 6, he will be honored by the Boxing Writers’ Association of America as the 2004 “Manager of the Year” in recognition of the job he has done in guiding his own career (George Foreman, in 1994, was the only other fighter to receive that honor).

Most remarkably, at age 40, Hopkins is considered the best fighter in the world, pound-for-pound. That’s never happened before. Roy Jones lost the pound-for-pound title at age 35. Pernell Whitaker, Jones’s predecessor, relinquished it at age 30. Sugar Ray Robinson was 1-3-1 in the five fights just prior to his 40th birthday.

“But I’m still here,” Hopkins said proudly last week. “I’m on that Jerry Rice level; that Barry Bonds level.”

On Saturday night, Hopkins (45-2-1, 32 KOs) makes the 20th defense of his championship reign against Howard Eastman (40-1, 34 KOs) at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Only the World Boxing Council title will be at stake in the fight because Hopkins has balked at paying sanctioning fees to the other alphabet-soup organizations. Moves like that save money (as might be expected of a “Manager of the Year”), but they don’t endear Hopkins to the powers that be in boxing. Thus, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that one of the other sanctioning organizations will strip him of his title and offer it to the winner of the May 20 fight between Felix Trinidad and Winky Wright.

Hopkins has made a lot of enemies over the years by standing up for what’s right. His rants against rapacious promoters are an example of that. But he has also made some enemies by standing up for what’s wrong, most notably by discarding old allies in an ugly way once they’d outlived their usefulness to him. His treatment of Lou DiBella, who served as his business adviser and guided him through Don King’s 2001 middleweight championship tournament, fits into that category.

“There are a lot of people that wish Bernard Hopkins would get on a plane and that plane don’t land safely,” Hopkins admitted recently.

But no one questions his consummate professionalism as a fighter. Bernard always pays the price in training: He pushes his body far beyond the demands that younger fighters place on themselves. And in the ring, he does what has to be done to win fights.

Hopkins is a smart, patient fighter. He bides his time and takes a little

piece here and a little piece there, until his opponent can’t see the right hand coming anymore because his left eye is swollen and it’s hard to keep his hands up because his ribs ache.

“Bernard is like a computer,” says his longtime trainer Bouie Fisher. “Everything is in his brain. When he has to alter his game plan, he Google searches his computer, which is his knowledge of boxing, to find the solution he needs to be successful.”

In other words, unlike many fighters, Hopkins makes adjustments as a fight goes on. Against De La Hoya, when counterpunching didn’t do the job, Bernard became more aggressive and stopped Oscar with a left hook to the liver in the ninth round.

As for Eastman, he has talked a good fight so far. A Guyanese now living in England, the 34-year-old challenger says he’ll knock Hopkins out in five rounds. But there are no big wins on Eastman’s record. And his loss came against William Joppy, who was brutalized by Hopkins 14 months ago.

“You’re going to see the best of Howard Eastman in this fight,” the challenger promised last week. But if Hopkins brings his A-game, and he usually does, the best of Howard Eastman won’t be good enough.

The fight will be televised by HBO. In the opening bout, the man being touted as a possible successor to Hopkins, middleweight Jermaine Taylor (22-0, 16 KOs), takes on Daniel Edouard (16-0-2, 9 KOs).

Taylor has fast hands, a good jab, power, and impeccable character, but he has yet to fight an elite opponent, and his toughness hasn’t been tested. Edouard hits hard but is easy to hit, and his ring skills aren’t on the same level as Taylor’s.