Hopkins really isn't to everyone s taste . Where do you place in the middle weights? Is he along side The likes of Hagler,Monzon, Robinson..?
the way I see it, is just start honestly naming L-HW's, yes, L-HW's throughout Boxing's long & glorious history who would beat him and that is where you'll find him... One among many and not in the top 25 - 50.
At MW, based purely on fights at MW: 1. Greb 2. Monzon 3. Hagler 4. SRR 5. Hopkins 6. M. Gibbons 7. Ketchel 8. Steele 9. Ryan 10. Burley
Very high. A top MW and an upper echelon LHW who would trouble (and did) a lot of top fighters in both weightclasses.
He is deservedly rated high. Totally deserving of the IBHOF. But, he should not be ranked as high as many have been rating him lately. I do not truly believe he is in either the top 10 Middleweights or Light Heavyweights. Nor do I have him in top 50 overall.
He’s more impressive overall than strictly rating him at Middleweight. Quite the re-invention as a fighter, I’ve never seen anything quite like it. He was bog average in what you would’ve assumed to be his prime years.
Incredibly highly imo. I'm a big B-Hop fan and admire him immensely, no-one else accomplished what he did, to be so consistent, so dominant, all the way into your 40s is nothing short of remarkable. Honestly, I think you could make a case for him being ranked above SRR @160, that's how highly I feel he should be regarded. Wins over guys like Trinidad, Eastman, ODLH, Allen, Johnson, Lipsey, Echols, JDJ, Joppy, Holmes, Vanderpool, Daniels, Mercado, and a debatable decision against Taylor (all ranked contenders at 160) combined with the dominance and duration of his reign incline me to regard him very highly. Add on the fact he went up to LHW to beat a slew of contenders more than a decade younger than him and you really begin to see just how great B-Hop was. There's a kind of everyman quality I really admire about B-Hop, he's not the fastest, or the biggest, didn't hit the hardest, but he was crafty enough, skilful enough, and disciplined enough to win regardless. A true ATG.
I couldn’t say I find him likeable as either a bloke or to watch, but I agree about him being a lot more than the sum of his parts, which is impressive. God himself could not have predicted after watching Hopkins get clowned by Roy Jones the way their eventual careers would pan out.
Longevity at the TOP, which is more than impressive, I just feel he is one of them fighters/people who just know how & where to snake their way through life, I can't say outright that he is a fraud, but I do feel he 'capitalised', spoiled (faked & found away to get the W), and bluffed for support & foul to also insure the W... he IS NOT a middleweight, not even in today's arena, today he is a S-MW cum L-HW, in the Past, he is a L-HW cum HW at 6'1" stature... it doesn't matter that he 'saw' the niche, i.e "I've got a better chance as a middleweight..." which is/was false advertising and a fraudulent product. I just feel he is not what it said on the Tin and had he fought at S-MW for a time and then longer at L-HW (which he IS), his whole career would have been different, much different. I'm just not fooled by him. in the Past, well just pull up 50 years of Top Men from L-HW - HW from the 20s - the 70s, because that is where he'd be competing at, and he is treading water and not swimming. Sorry not a fan, another Fury, though TF is worse.