Because fighting Chito , Oscar and William Joppy was a much more rewarding choice in terms of establishing boxing forums and boxing journals legacy and financially smarter as well than fighting Montell Griffin , Eric Harding , fit Antonio Tarver and maybe even Roid Jones (again).
Which meant nothing in 2002 ... Hopkins was on top of the word then thus had good arguments. As had Roy, no doubt. But the problem was that neither could get over himself and say f*ck it I prove my point in the ring. Understandably when two such big egos crash IMO. Of course you will comeback with but "Roy won in 1993", so I don´t know why I am actually answering you. So, last time to make it absolutly clear: THAT DIDN´T MATTER in 2002! bodhi out!
It abso****inlutely mattered, no question about it breh. in 1993 Roy Jones beat dat snaggletooth's ass.
This is all BS Bodhi, Hopkins was asked what he wanted to face Calzaghe, he was offered this price then doubled his demand. The reason he should have taken 40% is because Jones was the big draw, it would be career high payday, Jones had alrady dominated him with 1 hand, he had achieved far far far less than Jones and it was the only significant fight he'd have for years going Hakkar, Daniels, Joppy, Allen atsch The only fight that added anything to his legacy for 4 years after than was ODLH 2 years late and that didn't add too much but it did give him a payday And he was offered a Darius fight as I posted but demanded it was at 168lbs
He never became a star until the tito fight. I think he was waiting around at middle to get the big fights with stars like oscar and tito
Good argument. Was discussed, see above. Ah, so it´s okay for the number one contender in the lhw division to not fight the champ but the mw champ should move up two weightclasses to fight him. Makes sense.
1. You dismissed 1 of those points not the rest 2. This threads about Hopkins not Jones, get over your Jones obsession
1. Nope, I didn´t. You didn´t get the point. It wasn´t about money, it was about pride. 2. True. Just highlighting your hypocrisy.
1. Pride or he didn't fancy the fight? 2. It's not the same thing anything, Jones made an offer for Darius to take the fight in the US or wanted career high money, Darius wanted the fight in Germany. Hopkins just didn't want either fight. But again this is about Hopkins not Jones, if you want I can make a thread posting all the sources I have on the Jones and Darius discussions
1. Grow up. 2. So, Jones´demanding the fight beeing in the US is okay. Hopkins demanding a catchweight isn´t. Hypocrisy. :deal
1. It's a legit question, the best opponents Hopkins was offered career high money against he turned down, yet happlily took the short end of the purse to defend his MW championship against welterweights. Was he not too proud to take short money against WWs, why was that 2. Well Jones would have taken $12m to fight Darius in Germany, Darius couldn't make 168, Hopkins could have fought Jones at 168 as Jones offered to come down that low for Tito/Hops/DLH - all those fights were actually talked about back then No hypocricy is when you claim a fighter suffered an injustice by being stripped for not facing a mandatory, then claim another injustice because a fighter wasn't stipped for facing a mandatory :yep
Bernard wanted to do what would make him appear to be the greatest he could possibly appear to be. That's why he chose and chooses the path he does. No one understood the concept that 'a man's got to know his limitations' as well as Bernard.
A bit off topic, when do you consider Hopkin's gradual slide to have set in? I'm thinking maybe after Echols II. Fantastic as he was against Tito, that was the perfect stylistic match-up for him at that point; countering an agressive puncher that was a bit limited technically and tactically (not at all bad in these aspects, mind you, just not top notch). When he had to force the fight against Holmes, Joppy and DLH he didn't look at all as impressive as he did during his search and destroy days in the 90's. The opposition was inferior then, granted, but there is reason to believe his legs didn't allow him to fight that kind of fight as well when closing in on 40.
I'd say after Tito, he would have trained his cotton socks off for that fight, afterwards he started fading, being overly defensive to not risk anything but also his stamina probably wained, a mixture of the 2. Still Hopkins maintained his conditioning maybe better than anyone in history with his diligence