Whatarock was posting about this one in General the other day, and he referenced an article where Hopkins picked Monzon to tend to beat him...good enough for me! Points win for Monzon.
Hopkins has continued to amaze me by moving up in weight and winning for the most part. Futhering his overall legacy in my eyes. It would be a facinating match-up between these two great middlewight champs. B-Hop always seems to have a plan A,B,C, and D to strategically shut down or nullify his opponent's weapons. How would he do it against Monzon? Hopkins' lateral movement would surely cause Monzon many problems. Forcing Monzon to reset and adjust...angling away from the right hand of Monzon...But fighting Monzon is a much more daunting task than many realize, given his size, strength, durabilty, and style. One thing that often gets overlooked is Monzon's activity level. His style is deliberate, yes... but in his prime, Monzon is a very active, especially with the left jab. Carlos can fire it at long range but also in tighter quarters...I didn't count the entire fight, but during a stretch against Briscoe, he would average over sixy jabs (guessing) a round...That makes Monzon a very hard middleweight to overcome. Monzon's jab had many purposes ie. to gauge distance (for the right), defend,feint, punish, and blind the opponent by diguising the right, and perhaps most important, helping him maintain his range and pace. Monzon does not possess alot of punch variation, but he is a very complex opponent. Also, Hopkins style is to clinch following a lead right as a defensive posture...Monzon literally broke Benvenuti down in the clinches in their fight...Being inside a clinch with Monzon is a taxing experience. Given this, Hopkins would be offset by having to account for, and react to Monzon's offense. Stylistically, Hopkins would be at a disadvantage attempting to dissect Monzon in a his usual manner. It wouldn't work against this opponent. Monzon decision.
Hopkin's was in reality a superbly condition LHW his entire career. That's even where he debuted. This fight might answer the question as to how Monzon would have fared if he moved up.
wheres the link to the Hopkins article. i know he likes his old fighters and he is very knowledgeable and good at anaylising so if Bernard says he would get beat he would get beat.
How can anybody pick Hopkins to beat the undisputed Middleweight king of all time in Carlos Monzon ?? I respect Hopkins for changing his style when he got outboxed against Jones but after that he never took on any fighter of any calibre until he fought a young Jermain Taylor who beat him twice. Monzon would have no problem dealing with Hopkins !! Im a major fan of Monzon but if he ever would have dared to step up to 168 or 175 in the modern era, then Roy Jones would have dealt with him .. Its quite amazing that some people dont recognise the genius talent of Jones, for me its akin to what Michael Jackson had in his '80s prime. But for some reason people hate Roy Jones .... Hopkins is a guy that was clever enough to stay in the weakest middleweight division in history and was only brave enough to step up to 175 when Roy Jones was done .... Hopkins's career choices are so obvious to any experienced boxing viewer
Toss a coin, i'll go Hopkins by bee's dick decision. He's an entirely different style to what Monzon mostly fought and it would be a fascinating study of see sawing and subtle tactics.