I feel he was great. I think so of it was his comp and him being great. i do think it is crazy when people say his a top 1-15 ATG How do you guys feel?
Disappointed that he stuck around far too long and got pummeled by guys he would have destroyed in his prime.
The only thing great about Hopkins career is longevity. Hopkins has never beat an A-level fighter in his entire career at a fair weight.
Great athlete, great fighter but when I think of his career, it's a what could have been. He failed to reach his full potential as a fighter due to his lack of desire to prove his greatness and circumstance. He could have been a top 15 maybe even top 10 ATG fighter had he fought the majority of people he could have thought. Imagine how he would be rated know if he had beat Benn or Eubank, Collins, DM, Nunn, McClellan, re-matched prime Hopkins etc. It's not like opposition wasn't there for him to beat he fought in a stacked era at super middle, his resume could have been incredible instead of having 2/3 very good/great wins and little else other than that. He could have beaten all of them but people tend to choose the path of least resistance only the very special look to challenge themselves at every turn.
amazing fighter. His wins over Toney and Hopkins are probably the best in hindsight, though that Ruiz win was something else. I like the comment in Ruiz-Toney - he should stay away from the middleweight division. His basic skills are not well rounded and were built upon athleticism, so he aged badly at the elite level compared to more workmanlike, less gifted guys. Against a guy who doesn't know what to do he an still shine - see the Lacy fight - wow did he look superb and near prime in that, though it is bookended by ass whippings. A lot of guys seem to age overnight (Fenech was winning big, then he was losing, for example, or Sugar Ray Leonard against Norris and Camacho - he wasn't that old, or Benitez, who was getting stopped by guys he would have toyed with) and Roy is one of them. I think guys with longevity like Chavez and Hopkins and Foreman don't rely on speed and never really did, the first thing to go. Pac's longevity is surprising, I thought he was on the decline at the time of Barrera II. Wish Jones would have retired after Tarver I, which he won. All downhill from there save a few decent outings against more limited guys. Wish he would have fought Eubank, Benn, McClellan, rematched Hopkins, though. McClellan's amateur win over him casts a big shadow, knowing what we know now about his punch resistance.