Bernard Hopkins is 50 years old this week – here are six other athletes who defied age

Bernard Hopkins celebrates his 50th birthday this week and can look back on a remarkable boxing career which has defied his advancing years.

The ring legend became the oldest man to win a world title in 2011 and improved his own record in April last year when he claimed the WBA light-heavyweight title.

His future in boxing remains unclear after a defeat by Sergey Kovalev in November, but he will be remembered as one of the most successful senior competitors in sport - here is a selection of five sportsmen we have picked that competed at the highest level beyond their 50th birthdays.

Stanley Matthews

The 'Wizard of the Dribble' played his last football match aged 50, the same year that his grandson was born, in an era unrecognisable from the modern landscape. Matthews joined Stoke, his boyhood club, as a 17-year-old and earned £5 a week but went on to carve a lasting legacy in his sport.

His retirement in 1965 was after nearly 700 league appearances for Stoke and Blackpool and 84 England caps - known as the ‘first gentleman’ of football, he was famously never booked or sent off.

Perhaps best defined by a match-winning display as a 38-year-old in the 1953 FA Cup final when he inspired Blackpool’s victory, only he could have envisioned continuing for a further 12 years.

In 1938, he led England to a win over Germany in Berlin in front of their Nazi regime and would later serve time in the RAF during the Second World War. The first-ever European Footballer of the Year ended his international career in 1957 aged 42, making him England’s oldest player ever.

His passing in 2000 aged 85 prompted tributes from iconic footballers of many generations as they laid to rest a player whose accomplishments are truly unique.

Phil Taylor

'The Power' is the most successful darts player of all time - winning 16 world titles - and he shows no sign of winding down just yet. The 54-year-old won two majors in 2014, hitting a nine-darter on his way to winning the World Matchplay, and he was narrowly defeated by Gary Anderson in this year’s PDC World Darts Championship final.

Taylor won his first world title in 1990 and added another before leaving the BDO for the PDC, where he won eight in a row between 1995 and 2002. He won another in his 50th year in 2010, with his record 16th success coming in 2013.

Taylor revealed last October that he plans to retire within 'two or three years' but he remains at the top of the darting pecking order. He averaged over 100 in every game at this year's World Championship, and is already joint-favourite to win a 17th world title at Ally Pally in 12 months’ time.

Saoul Mamby

Hopkins still has some way to go if he is to beat Mamby’s record. The Bronx boxer’s last bout came at the ripe old age of 60 when he went 10 rounds with a man just over half his age.

A Vietnam veteran, Mamby held the WBC world light-welterweight title for almost two years at the beginning of the 1980s, and fought on the same card as Muhammad Ali. He also went the distance with Roberto Duran in 1976, losing a unanimous decision.

Mamby continued boxing into the new millennium but he was forced into retirement in 2000 after the California State Athletic Commission prevented him from fighting in the US.

The grandfather of 11 had a stint as a trainer and also fought in an unofficial bout in Thailand in 2004, and four years later he returned to the ring in the Cayman Islands, losing to journeyman Anthony Osbourne. Mamby’s record stands at 45 wins, 34 losses and six draws, with 19 KOs.

Fred Davis

Davis remains the oldest world champion in sports having captured the 1980 world billiards title at the sprightly age of 66.

He is one of only two men to win world championships in both snooker and billiards - the other was his brother, Joe, who dominated snooker from the late-1920s until Fred’s emergence.

From Chesterfield, Davis wielded his cue for a remarkable 60 years across the snooker and billiards table. Although one of his two billiards titles assures him of a place in the record books, he is perhaps best known for eight snooker championships between 1948 and 1956.

Even a six-year hiatus when he served in the Second World War could not derail his career.

Davis retired in 1993 aged 79, having lost to a young up-and-comer who was 62 years younger than him named Ronnie O’Sullivan. He passed away in 1998.

Tom Watson

Still very much at the forefront of golfing headlines at the age of 65, Watson’s legacy stretches back to rivalries with all-time greats but also encompasses the most recent Ryder Cup.

One of the best players in the world in the 1970s and ’80s, Watson enjoyed a feisty yet friendly rivalry with Jack Nicklaus that encapsulated America’s love of golf.

Five Open Championships, two Masters titles and a US Open title illustrate Watson’s prowess - only five men in history have more major championships.

But it was in 2009 at Turnberry, aged 59, at the Open Championship that he almost re-wrote the history books and came within a short putt of becoming the oldest man to ever win one of golf's majors.

Already a darling of Scottish crowds having won four of his five Open titles north of the border, including a victory at Turnberry in 1977, the American led by one stroke going into the final round and needed a par at the last hole to secure the precious Claret Jug.

However Watson's approach flew over the green and when he failed to get up and down in two he was left in a tie with Stewart Cink who went on to win the play-off by 6 strokes.

He has competed at four Ryder Cups - captaining the Americans to victory in 1993 at The Belfry - and although his captaincy on the 2014 team turned dramatically sour, there is no questioning his place among the greats of golf despite his advancing years.

WG Grace

William Gilbert Grace is considered one of the greatest cricketers of all time.

Born in 1848, the former England captain was a talented all-rounder but is best known for his batting and scored more than 54,000 first-class runs over 44 seasons.

Grace racked up 839 in just eight days in 1876, including a couple of triple centuries, and only one other batsman has managed to score more than a thousand runs in an entire season. ‘The Doctor’ was aged 46 when he brought up this landmark in 1895.

He is thought to have retired from the first-class game in 1908 aged 60, concluding a career that had spanned 44 seasons since he started in 1865.

Do you agree with our selection? Tweet @skysports the name of your favourite athlete over the age of 50.