https://technicalcombat.com/2016/10/03/hopkins-vs-trinadad/ One of my favorite masterclasses of all time.
Sorry about that, I'm stuck in between having you click to start the gifs which many people told me it slow down the experience of trying to read the article or having them autoplay and slowing down your browser. If you right click the gif and click loop it stops the gif, just do it again when you want it to start up.
Tito was moving up in weight ( best at welterweight ) and only had one punch, the left hook. The trouble is the jump from Welter to Middle is huge, and Hopkins being very durable limited Tito's " puncher's chance. Hopkins took away that punch and grinding him down, occasionally fouling when the referee could not see it. Hopkins fought it perfectly, but in truth, Tito was smaller and a bit of a one trick pony. One trick pony's when the trick is one handed power really do not do well vs durable defensive fighters, especially in the middle to lower weigh classes. I forget, but Tito used to wrap his fists in such a way where the tape was rock hard, with extra with to the build up. Were the hand wrappings an issue in this fight during the negotiations?
Hopkins made Tito re-wrap his hands the nite of the fight. Tito had spent about a yr at JrMW as champ....then won a version of MW against William Joppy.
From memory Tito's win over Joppy was very highly praised. Amid all the revisionist history Trinidad was actually the 2-1 favorite.
Anniversary article, by Bernard Fernandez. http://www.thesweetscience.com/feat...-thrashes-trinidad-apex-b-hops-amazing-career
