Time has enhanced Bernard Hopkins’ story and now he is writing the ending

The first pro fight for Bernard Hopkins, who’ll turn 52 on Jan. 15, was a loss in 1988.

Hopkins was unsure he’d ever box again. He had believed boxing was the best rehabilitation following a four-year prison term. The sport was his way to avoid the fast-money temptation of street life. That initial loss produced doubt and for the next 16 months he avoided the ring and worked as a dishwasher and a roofer.

The roofing job began at 4:30 a.m. “Commercial jobs. Huge buildings. We got up before the hot sun, scraping the slag off, then pouring a new one on. … I respect union guys,” he said.

From his vantage point on one of the longer jobs, Hopkins could see a horribly dark place, a county jail that served as a reminder of where he’d vowed to never return.

In many forms, Hopkins has told the account of his resurrection over the years, but Saturday night at the Forum, it comes full circle.

The fighter who won a record 20 consecutive middleweight title fights, and became the oldest-ever champion when he defended his light-heavyweight belt at 49, will close his career by wearing his old “The Executioner” outfit at introduction, then fight a union contractor from New York, Joe Smith Jr., who has shown vicious knockout power and is within striking distance of a shot at World Boxing Council light-heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson.

“I told you I love the union guys,” Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 knockouts) said of the 27-year-old Smith (22-1, 18 KOs). “This is a Long Island construction guy. … They don’t have manicures or pedicures.”

That’s a reference to Floyd Mayweather Jr.

“Who wants to fight a damn guy with silk underwears?” Hopkins continued. “Guys like [Smith] are hard men and … it’s going to be a hard night. This man still has his job. But I need this one, too.”

Hopkins, who hasn’t fought in more than two years after taking a beating from Sergey Kovalev, struggled to talk his way back onto an HBO card, and this match was due to be the co-main event to a Orlando Salido-Takashi Miura super-featherweight meeting before Salido was injured.

But grasping the opportunity fate has presented him has been a repeated story with the clean-living Hopkins, providing him moments such as this to display the value of a three-decade commitment to what he calls “the sweet science.”

Hopkins is inspired to repeat some of the best performances of his career in his fight vault — the 2001 triumph over Felix Trinidad Jr., the 2004 knockout of business partner Oscar De La Hoya, the dissection of Kelly Pavlik.

“They’ve tried to break me, but I’m so bullheaded. … I came to prove everyone wrong about the things I know I can do,” Hopkins said. “I know I will inspire every member of the 40-and-up club, and some young people, too, [showing] that no number should be the destiny of your outcome. When they see that, they might ask me to fight again, but I’ve put it in writing to all my family. This is the final one I’ve signed off on.

“I believe it. And it’s not emotional for me. You won’t see me shed a tear. You won’t see me have my head down. You’ll see me proud about three decades of the sweet science.”

The card includes a co-main event between South El Monte’s unbeaten featherweight Joseph Diaz Jr. (22-0, 13 KOs) versus Mexico’s Horacio Garcia (30-1-1, 22 KOs).

The bout is pivotal for Diaz because earlier this week the World Boxing Council ordered him into a title elimination against England’s No. 1-ranked Josh Warrington, with the winner to meet the Feb. 11 winner of champion Gary Russell Jr. versus Oscar Escandon.

World Boxing Organization cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (10-0, nine KOs), a 2012 Olympic champion from Ukraine, makes his U.S. debut on the card, defending his belt against South Africa’s Thabiso Mchunu (17-2, 11 KOs).

BOXING

Main event: Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOS), Philadelphia, vs. Joe Smith Jr. (22-1, 18 KOs), Long Island, N.Y., light-heavyweights

Where: The Forum

When: Saturday, first fight at 2 p.m., HBO card begins at 7 p.m.

Tickets: $25-$205, at ticketmaster.com, fabulousforum.com

Undercard: Joseph Diaz Jr. (22-0, 13 KOs), South El Monte, vs. Horacio Garcia (30-1-1, 22 KOs), Mexico, featherweights; Oleksandr Usyk (10-0, nine KOs), Ukraine, vs. Thabiso Mchunu (17-2, 11 KOs), South Africa, for Usyk’s WBO cruiserweight belt.