Tarver was younger, should have been hungrier, just beaten Roy Jones twice officially and unofficially then Hopkins schools him. Why was this the case? Style Match-up?
I thought Tarver would do better. Bernard has a nice lead right and had a good style for Tarver southpaw style. He moved well and took away Tarver's jab and then came in with the rights. It was the typical Hopkins understated fight.
Hopkins is great at turning and ambushing Southpaws to land his overhand right. He was much more mobile in the ring compared to Tarver, and despite being smaller, was able to rough him up on the inside by surprising him with more explosive bursts of offense before circling out again.
Why did he do it? Hopkins kicked Tarvers ass because he was bored. How? My take is Tarver was too confident in himself and underestimated Hopkins. He never quite grasped how badly Hopkins was outboxing him. Maybe a little urgency couldve helped him make it closer? Win though? Unlikely. Sometimes it just comes down to two different levels of fighter.
Tarver came down from 220 from de "Rocky Balboa" film , Hopkins was strong finally moving up from 160 when he was drained . De Tarver post Rocky Balboa was more drained by far from de Jones post Ruiz . Actually I think that de Tarver pre Balboa was more drained than de Jones of post Ruiz . All of these facts r like 99% of de time ignored by other posters .
Just like i posted it , unless 1 has rehydration stats 2 show me wrong . olso , Tarver was a considerably bigger man than Jones , even than Lebedev , Trinidad , Calzaghe , Hopkins #2 and Ruiz Jones .
Because Hopkins is tricky and schooled another southpaw. Great posts. A knockdown and I believe both fighters bet a shitload of money on themselves as well. Classic Hopkins mind****.
1) You made the bold statement, you have to back it up with evidence. not us 2) tarver was bigger. you're right. which means he could put the weight on easier than jones. it means it may be harder to take it off to. but we don't know and have no proof that tarver was more drained. by their respective forms though, jones took the bigger drop from appearances
2 main reasons 1. Hopkins was determined to become a world champion again after and was great at using the angles against southpaws 2. Tarver had gone semi-pro celebrity by appearing in Rocky and bulked up to HW. When he fought Hopkins he was draining down from 210lbs under prepared and past his own best at 37
Blaming the Rocky movie for Tarver losing? I am sure had Hopkins lost he would have had reasons he lost which 99 percent of the posters would ignore also.
This. :deal Tarver was a big puncher, but otherwise limited. He seldom was all that impressive, even in victory. Hopkins was a better P4P fighter, and he adjusted well to the rise in weight, probably even gaining some strength and power. Simple as that IMO.
what happened also was that everytime a guy goes up in weight the standard speed goes down a little, which is why Leonard moving down to fight Norris in 1991 was a bad move-apart from his age and inactivity.