Who Won The Roy Jones Vs Bernard Hopkins Rivialry?

Because his style wasn't based around athleticism.

You really are an idiot.

 

I wasn't comparing Lacy and Tito as fighters. It just reminded me a little of the Joe-Lacy fight because Joe was overlooked and the focus was on the younger guy in Lacy who'd had more hype and who'd looked exciting. It wasn't a direct comparison.

I agree about Bernard. It was tough for him, no doubt. All I'm saying is, he got lots of credit when he fought guys like Tarver etc, and not just because of how old he was. In my opinion, he could have been involved in fights like that much earlier on his career. He was overlooked by a lot of people before he fought Tito, especially casual fans of the sport, because he wasn't fighting named fighters in a strong division.

I like the Rocky an*logy. Ha!

Rocky was a stand up guy. He didn't hit Adrian and act like a d*ck.

 

:good

 

Jones beat a green Hopkins while looking like garbage and then ducked Hopkins like the plague for years making ridiculous demands (specially monetary demands) only to fight him when he was completely shot for free and got his ass beat.

To answer the topic its Hopkins and by some distance he never ducked anyone, he never cheated and he never embarrassed hiself even when he was fighting a monster at close to 50.

 

:good

 

Why do you keep saying this?

Lots of people beat Glen Johnson. Were they all better than Roy?

Were all the guys who beat Tarver better than Roy?

 

Bernard wasn't biding his time. He was in survival mode. Fair play to him for taking the fight though.

As yet, I don't see what Sergey has done to have been favoured over Roy in his prime.

 

Different circumstances.

After suffering back to back knockouts and having over a year out of the ring, it was an achievment going the distance with Tarver in their 3rd fight. Roy was no longer capable of beating top level guys at that point. His reflexes had diminished and his aura of invincibility had been destroyed. But as we all know, he couldn't let go.

 

Roy put up a great effort in that fight.

What was Bernard doing at that point? He was still at MW, losing to Taylor, even though it was still a weak division and there was nothing else to achieve.

Are you going to tell me what exactly you disagree with, in regards to my comments on Bernard shrinking himself down to fight in a weak MW division for 12 years?

 

atsch

 

This thread is good, but the topics we're currently debating have been done on the legacy thread.

I thought this was specifically looking at their rivalry?

 

Bernard did take on big challenges later on his career, but again, why didn't he do that earlier?

You also need to take into account his blatant attempts at trying to get out of fights with Roy, Dawson and Calzaghe. You can just give him plaudits without taking that into account.

Roy also took on big challenges. Going to Russia at 42, after a year out of the ring with 3 knockout defeats already on his resume, was a huge risk. Lebedev is a hard hitting southpaw at CW. He obviously doesn't get the exposure that Sergey gets, but from Roy's perspective, that fight was just as dangerous as Bernard's.

 

The problem he had before fighting Tito was going up in weight at that time would likely mean starting from scratch and trying to earn a shot at a title at super middle. He wasn't a big enough name or draw prior to Tito for any champion at a higher weight to see him as someone worthy of an immediate title shot, no champions were calling him out back then, he couldn't even get the other title holders in his own division to fight him.

Why would a fighter with a world title which brings some desperately needed marquee value give up a belt to be a contender again, lose what leverage a title brings and likely make less money when he can stay in a division where he has no problems making the weight and still be a world champion.

Sure ideally Hopkins would have moved up sooner to face stiffer challenges and been given a quick title shot, but with no big promoter, no marquee value and no title that seems unlikely.

 

:deal