Can a case be made for Hopkins as the best MW ever?

Only if a poor man's Roy Jones can be said to have fought the best of his era and had his granite chin tested.

 

He did indeed beat Zivic, twice actually.

I'll rephrase. Burley can only be said to be a poor man's Jones if a poor man's Jones fought many great fighters and had his granite chin confirmed.

 

Yeah, his chin is important. He is able to take hard punches without folding - that is one of the most important aspects of how a fighter looks. Burley looks better getting hit hard against Smith than Jones does getting hit hard versus Antonio Tarver, for example.

If you want to say Jones is better than Burley I think that's ok. He might be. On the other hand, that fight was arguably the most difficult either one of them took, and Burley dominates. He looks dominant against the biggest puncher either man met up until Jones took on Lebedev (unconscious again).

Comparing them directly would be very difficult based on Burley's naturallly very conservative performance against such a concussive puncher. Speaking broadly, Burley looks less fast both in hand and foot-speed but equally as quick in terms of reaction times. He has just as many punches and throws them from very similar angles. In terms of one punch power I would guess it goes to Jones too, but p4p i'd perhaps give Burley the nod. His overall style probably made him just as difficult to work out, he had better punch resistance, was much more proven in terms of toughness and i'd give him the nod for strength too, certainly p4p.

I think it's pretty close between them in terms of who had the better overall package, but I think Jones's speed gives him the overall appearance of being more "special."

Burley is greater.

 

He doesn't lack power.

 

Pound for pound i'd say he'd be right there with Jones for power...i don't think he'd be so devastating to super-middles though, he doesn't have that size basically.