Hopkins vs Foster

I think Foster was technically ahead whereas Hopkins had a better sense of strategy. Hopkins would seek to smother Foster and to break his rythmn. Probably the deciding factor is Foster's blistering power ... Hopkins has to win all of the fight whereas Foster just has to have one good spell to knock Hopkins apart.

I'll take Foster.

 

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These two clips highlight what I mean.

Hopkins relies on getting the jab off first, being unpredictable with his footwork and then tying up after a burst of action.

Foster by comparison is a much less creative looking boxer, but that's a bit of an illusion. He knows he's got a trump card, a weapon that's an outlier, and that's his jab. Rondon is a cute boxer with movement and flash, but he's neutralized within the first couple of minutes by that super-speed, lightning bolt jab. Foster steps forward to lengthen it and when Rondon tries to react he's gone. Foster dials the range in fast and then uncorks his second secret weapon which is his crushing power.

Bernard and Pavlik's jabs are slo-mo compared to that javelin that Foster unleashes. Hops is going to have all sorts of problems dealing with that. Could he though? Sure, he might. He was a smart boxer and he might suck up the onslaught as best he could in the early rounds, wrestle Foster, and wait for him to slow down later on.

Hopkins is working uphill; given their track records you'd have to, imho,bet on Foster.

 

Tic, toc, tic, toc , tic, toc, tic, toc ,
tic,toc, tic, toc, tic, toc, tic ,toc
BOOOOOMMMM!!! Hopkins
finally found orbiting the Earth
alongside The Hubble Space
Telescope.
No natural Middleweight ATG survive
Foster. Hopkins in my opinion isn't
a ATG at any weight.
All those stalling tactics he used to
frustrate and infuriate most of the fighters he fought
at Lt.heavy wouldn't work at all against the shot gun
blast of a jab Foster would use to keep him retreating,
and fighting from a defensive posture.
Sooner rather than Later Hopkins becomes a human
satellite.
The lethal firepower of Foster ends The "Executioners"
night before 8rds are over. The Executioner is Executed.

 

Foster was basically a natural LHW Thomas Hearns. Absolutely devastating punching power with heavy hands and excellent fundamentals. Not very familiar with Hopkins' style but Foster would be a really bad matchup for anyone that is smaller than him.

 

Foster KO.

 

Hopkins by decision

 

I can see Hopkins getting badly hurt here.
Hopkins is a tough son and he'd rise to the occasion but Bob hits too hard.
Foster by ko 10.

 

Foster stops him.

 

Bernard was not a great lightheavyweight. He resume and performances indicate that. All the spoiling in the world is not going to stop Bob from eventually landing on him. Bob by ko around 10.

 

Ray Anderson went 15 rounds with champion Bob Foster in 1971, but lost by unanimous decision. Bernard Hopkins would make it competitive for 10 rounds because of his hand speed, but then Bob Foster begins to pick B-Hop apart with his left jab, setting up that left hook of his, Bob catches Hopkins with the hook, spilling him to the canvas with it, Hopkins is unable to beat the count in round 11.

 

Hard to imagine any decent version of Hopkins being stopped ( I don’t count the Joe Smith fight. ) But Foster was an animal at 175. Better than anyone Bernard fought there. Gotta lean towards Foster

 

Foster by decision.

One thing I liked about the Foster-Rondon video is that after Rondon went down the first time, Foster did a great job of showing how to work for the second knockdown. He was aggressive but not in a hurry. He used lefts and rights to the head and the body. I wish I saw that in more fighters today. To be honest, I wished I'd seen that in more fighters back then. Admittedly, because fights are stopped more quickly in 2021, there are good reasons to try and overwhelm your opponent after you've knocked him down. However, fighters fail to land so many punches because they rush in throwing wildly that a lot of times their efforts are wasted.

 

The other thing about Foster in addition to what BC and Fogger have said was his sense of timing and delivery combined with his calculated patience in unlocking puzzles and chiselling away at brick walls. He was a sneaky puncher as well as being a tremendous one and punch picker, able to feint and manoeuvre ducking and weaving opponents onto well disguised shots.

The Fourie and Finnegan fights as well as the Rondon fight say a lot in how he was able to prevent a skilled mover from doing anything significant, slowly break apart a skilled and extremely durable technician over the rounds who wasn't going to be bombed out and then in opposite fashion really pounce brutally but unhurriedly on a cute fighter early who was visibly flustered and ready to be taken out early.

It's been a while since I watched the Tiger fight, but I sort of recall Tiger doing quite well in the first 2/3 rounds weaving, slipping and countering from his behind his guard before Foster subtly adjusted to lead Tiger onto the sort of left hook that was missing and being slipped in earlier. Boom. Over and out George Trout.

Hopkins would mostly be looking to move, mug and spoil intermittently but obviously would have to work 3/4 times as hard as against the likes of Pavlik, Cloud, Shumenov etc to maintain the range and the defensive angles, fall in close at the right time, lock Foster down, retain his mental focus and technical defensive discipline over the entire fight etc. Huge task. He'd have some joy creeping his right hand over the top, though, I reckon. It's hard to see him really fighting to win though, cynical as that sounds. More content to lose a wide decision and preserve himself while being dirty and bitching to the ref every other round, or up to the point where Foster finally carves him open and fells him in the later rounds. I sort of feel like he should be given the benefit of the doubt in going the distance though. Doing the rounds against Kovalev aged 50 speaks to how durable and cagey he was given how little he had left physically in that fight with none of his offensive timing and little defensive reflex remaining either. Still, It's Foster we're talking about.