Is Hopkins the Greatest MW of All Time?

nope (but welcome to esb!)

Greb was better, for longer and beat everyone worth beating from middle to heavy
Monzon had more true defenses of the belt
Robinson beat more Hall of Famers
Hagler had superior skills

 

Hagler would of beaten him.

Hagler is the daddy at Middle.

 

Not even close. Plenty of middleweights have better resumes at the weight than Hopkins. Had he retired after the Taylor losses, his record would have been incredibly thin. He's one of those guys who rates higher H2H than he does on accomplishments.

 

no worries. hopkins does have more defense of his belt but monzon has the record for the lineal belt

 

I agree that your handle is funny and you're probably an alternate account for some trouble maker, playing dumb.

 

Not even close.

 

It's all about quality, more than quantity. A fighter could have 10 defenses, yet he's got more quality wins than another fighter with 15 defenses.

Another reason why the likes of Willie Pep, etc, are overrated to an absurd degree.....Thats if you give him serious probs for simply having over 200 fights. You have to ask yourself, what percentage of those 200 wins were really good fighters, not just hall of famers.

Some people dismiss the likes of Ray Leonard from a top 10 "pound for pound" list based on the amount of fights he had. However, you could argue that he deserves a placing based on his great wins.

 

He's up there, but no. Among the absolute best ever for his H2H ability in his prime, tremendous dominance, great longevity (even just at the weight), but the quality of opposition isn't there. On the whole it was a solid but unspectacular lot he ruled over.

 

For Hagler, watch Sibson (his best performance imo), Hearns (his best fight), Briscoe (his best boxing display) and Mugabi (his last great war).

For Monzon, there are MUCH better informed on this forum than I but both Griffith fights, both Benvenuti fights and anything you can find with Briscoe or Valdez is well worth viewing.

Greb well...ask Burt B about him. He's taught me enough about the great Greb to fill a University course

 

Imho it would be Sugar Ray Robinson...

 

IMHO Greb is the greatest MW...
Monzon is the second......then Robinson, Hagler and Hopkins, in that order.....

My comparison between Hopkins and Hagler is :

Hagler - Hopkins

Jab- Hagler
Hook- Hagler
Cross- Hagler (close)
Uppercut- Hagler
Defensive skills- Hopkins
Offensive skills- Hagler
Footwork- close, Hagler in my opinion
Counter-Punches- Hopkins
Power- Hagler
Speed- Hagler
Ring Generalship- Hagler (people will disagree with that)
Combinations- Hagler
Feints- Hopkins
Accuracy- Hopkins
Timing- Hopkins
Killer Instinct- Hagler
Body Punches- Hagler (close in my opinion)
Upper Body movement- Hagler
Chin- Hagler
Heart- Hagler
Stamina- Hagler
In-Fighting- Hagler
Range Fighting- Hagler (very very close)

Opposition level comparison :

The win against Duran is much better than Trinidad....
The win against Hearns is way better than DLH.....

Sibson, Antuofermo, Roldan, Hamsho, Minter, etc....they are better opponents than Echols, Eastman, Joppy, Allen, Carl Daniels, etc......

PS- In my opinion Leonard won the fight with Hagler....

 

Welcome to ESB!

Hopkins is great, but others were better. Hagler was stronger, more resolute, and fought better guys by a mile.

Robinson is overrated horribly at this weight, but he beat great ones here too. Greb of course we have the won-lost record to see and Monzon was steadier and seemed more invincible somehow.

Basically, with Hopkins it boils down to a case of "you are what you eat." Hopkins ate a lot of junk food.