Hopkins 0-5 vs. the best natural 160 -175-pound fighters he meet.

Hopkins is definitely overrated.

 

Calzaghe moved up too, but you count him. Probably because he beat Hopkins? Why no Tarver? As a decorated amateur as well, sure he deserves to be there more so than Jermain Taylor? But then again, Taylor has wins over Hopkins, and there's the motivation right there.

Let me get this straight, Tito and ODLH were jrWW's when Hopkins fought them? How in the world did those fights get made!!

I do recall you from back in the day. Still the same ol sh*t....

 

Hopkins was one of those fighters whose peak was not as high as most of his peers, but a whole lot longer than theirs.

Fighting at a high level into the very late 40s is not something many have done, especially when they rely on their "slickness" rather than power. Roy Jones Jr was quite a lot better than B-Hop prime for prime, but he didn't last at the top nearly as long.

In the end, his comparative greatness is to some extent a matter of opinion and it comes down to what you value more.

 

RJJ was TBE, in my opinion. Thus losing 9-3 to TBE is no big deal.
Hopkins was at his best at MW. He simply wasn't the same fighter later on when he fought the other guys you listed - they were more science experiments than anything else. The fact that Hopkins' later career yielded results were nothing short of astonishing. A big factor you must consider is what condition the boxer was in when he fought.

Hopkins' greatness came from beating many 'good' fighters for an inconceivable amount of time. This is how GGG's greatness will be recognised.

 

All facts , hard to argue those.. he is Hof worthy due to longevity but by no means was he truly one of the best all time mw's....

NO WAY an ATG, maybe if we're talking top 2/300 he might make it but taking longevity out, who had he really beaten ??? Best wins by a long long way are toto and odh, my lord does hops get over rated by everyone

 

you know absolutely nothing about boxing! hopkins not one of the best middleweight's ever?, I'll educate on everything!

he had one of the longest title defense reigns ever, has technique someone like you could never comprehend

 

Come again, GGG is yielding greatness for his total destruction over his competition. At no point was hops anywhere remotely close the superior elite destroyer ggg is known today be every fight.

Ggg is so much greater than the competition he has so many haters it's getting ridiculous. Hops wasn't ever on that level.

Hops is considered "great" (ice never seen greatness from hops ability) strictly for fighting for so long and beating a couple very over rated younger fighters and for beating a severely hindered Tarver.

Hops beating that Tarver changed his entire career and that's when the BS greatness came into play. Also hops not being ko'd somehow makes casuals think that's some kind of great feat. Him not being stopped means only 1 thing (and it's the worst thing for any fighter, ever)

Hops being stopped only 1, once is completely due to hops accepting defeat. He's the type that takes false pride in lasting 12, he'd rather lose handily without putting himself at risk than actually trying time win by all means possible.

That's the biggest weakness any fighter can have and hops has that in spades. No heart either. It's funny when people try claiming hops "showed heart" in his bad loss too kovalev, sorry WRONG.

Hops only showed once AGAIN how truly weak of a fighter he was, accepting defeat is a killer, once you've given up its really hard to do a 180, Duran kind of almost did it. But hops had shown ALL throughout his career he'd rather quit when the going got tough against a too tough an opponent.

To me, hops entire career was smoke and mirrors and once he started fighting in his true weight class he was what, .500 fighter .. I just can't stand hops, the babbling, non stop excuses and his quitting every decade, idk if a through and through habitual quitter even belongs in the hof,

H.O.S, for sure....
Hall of shame !!!

 

I'd say that Hopkins is an ATG on legacy. He won fights that people said he had no business winning, and he managed to develop a very clever style that preserved his fighting abilities until very late into his career. One day folks will look back and say "He went 12 with KOVALEV? At WHAT age?". And the amazement would be right. Hopkins knew how to come up with the right fightplan for each opponent. He made up for the fact that some of his contemporaries were much more physically gifted (RJJ!) than him. I agree that h2h against the atg's he might not fare that well, as Mendoza pointed out, but legacy wise he's right up there.

 

I agree that Popkins isn't the most lovable character, but he did still achieve a hell of a lot.

 

All the fighter you listed are speed guys.
Take Kovalev out of the equation, Hopkins was 50 for God's sake.

High level speed fighters always would trouble and beat Hopkins simply because a slower fighter must open up and take chances to force the issue against speed.
Hopkins was always afraid to open up like it needed to be done against faster fighters.

What Hopkins would do is tie up and stall the action, prance around the ring playing defense and not throwing punches, and then claim robbery when the decisions went against him.

The best skill level fighter Hopkins ever beat was Winky Wright, and that's because Wright was just as defensive as he was and was at his speed level to where he didn't have to take chances to get off.

 

hes 4-0 in fighting as a fortysomething in your list.

DO you think this is close to the norm for 40somethings, or not?

If so, why you picking such fights? I expect you to argue then that Duran was crap for losing to Joppy, Gonzalez and Camacho in his 40s.

 

Agreed. I don't actually like him much, but H2H comparisons will always underrate B-Hop.

 

The premise of this thread is completely ******ed. Picking and choosing who you think are great wins while missing some because you dksab. Hopkins is a clear ATG, first ballot HOF. I see the attempt to rob the man of his legacy. I wonder why that is.