Lol, no I'm yanking your chain a bit here pal. I'm not certain that Herol beats him but on his best day he could surprise a few people. Wasn't Oscar in front tho at the time of stoppage, it's ages since I watched it but sure he was?
I was surprised to see that he was on the card of one judge, by 2 pts. The other two had Hopkins ahead by 4 and 6 pts.
I'm missing the reasoning about Hopkins opp. 1. It wasn't like he cleaned house during a 2-3 year period. It was a decade worth of top contenders. Pure statistics would make it very unlikely for a whole decade of a division such as MW to be abysmal. 2. But a divison of Hamsho, Caveman Lee, Vito, Roldan and ageing former LW Duran is a vintage one? At least Hopkins didn't have Sweet Pea as a challenger. 3. And even if the the division during that decade would have been poor beyond all others for some reason, how does completely dominating the division translate into to losing to other champions and belt holders that were far less dominating during their time? It would have been one thing if he had just scraped through, with the benefit of several close and questionable decisions, but that wasn't the case at all. How is beating even poor opposition with ease a sign of weakness? What more can one do than being head and shoulders above the best there is to face?
I don't think Sergio Martinez would be a good matchup for Hopkins. He might still win, but it wouldn't be easy. Ditto Paul Williams. I think Roy is just about thr worst matchup ever for him.
A prime Roy is just about the worst match-up for anyone I'd say. And Martinez and Williams were tricky fighters in their own right. That post-Hopkins generation was quite decent. Taylor, Pavlik, Martinez, Williams and Pirog. Too bad we never got to see a prime GGG in that mix. He wasted his best years on some pretty weak opposition.
Hopkins gave Allen two more chances to win the IBF Title. Bernard spanked him like an unruly child in the 2nd fight.
People here are usually very divided here on Fullmer. They either like him or hate him. I happen to like him. He brings an extremely awkward violent style that could disrupt anyones gameplan. For me hes no walk in the park for anyone. Hes one of those guys you earned your money on that night.
The 168 pound division became popular in the 1990s and syphoned off several of the better middleweight talents. That might be a contributing factor, along with the continuing 154 division that dilutes 160 from the other side. Whatever the reasons - poor management, poor rankings, poor training - yeah it was abysmal. Duran probably was a better middleweight than most of Hopkins' challengers. The way I remember it, Hopkins LOST to the only real top quality middleweight he faced, Roy Jones. Then needed two attempts to pick up a belt against Segundo Mercado. His signature MW win is against Felix Trinidad, who was highly regarded but nowhere near a legit great at 160. (I won't bring up his losses to Jermain Taylor, since you said don't bring it up.) I don't think anyone has suggested dominating a load of mediocrities means he'd lose to X, Y or Z. But it does show he's unproven against real quality middleweights.
