Andre Ward W Tdec 11 Mikkel Kessler

But he didn't...the man was finished

 

A record with Eubank, Hopkins, Jones, two undefeated champs, numerous former champs etc

Deserves respect.

 

No he wasn't

 

Would be interested in seeing your idea of Hopkins' best five career wins.

 

OK, i'll humour you, how close to prime (as a percentage) do you think Eubank was when he took on both Calzaghe and Thompson?

 

Thanks for humoring me, Carl Thompson was a very good fighter and Eubank gave him 2 very good fights, Thompson was in his prime imo and much the bigger man. Eubank put Thompson down in the first fight and nearly had him out, the same Thompson who took some serious digs off D Haye. Hard to judge Eubank as far as prime years because he was never quite the same after Watson 2.

Any win over Eubank is a good win, FACT. He was world class for his entire career. Lots of fighters go on way after they're prime but this was not the case with Eubank, its quite concievable that all his losses (Thompson at cruiser, JC and Collins) were to men who could have beaten him in his prime so very hard to judge exactly when that was.

 

Don't you think Eubank having to boil down in weight for the fight affected him quite significantly?

 

Possibly yes, he was meant to fight Mark Prince at L Heavy until about 2 weeks before, Eubank never used this as an excuse though and he was known for crashing weight through his whole career. He was very complimentary of JC afterwards saying he could see why Collins wanted no part of him.

 

I remember. I wasn't trying to detract from JC's win particularly, just thought it was worth mentioning. For me JC will always be remembered as an underachiever who didn't have a great love for the sport. His lack of confidence held him back but he still had a decent career. I wasn't a fan but he did give us some good fights, the Brewer one being my favourite.

 

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Fair play :good

 

Know what you mean re confidence, he seemed to believe in himself more and more as his career went on. He was hardly screaming for Roy Jones when Roy was king of S Middles and who can blame him really, I honestly believe he could have pushed a prime Jones all the way though (close ish points maybe) which may have done more for his legacy than beating the older version.

 

Is Dan684 banned? Thought he would have contributed something to this by now.

 

I'd put the Pavlik win in place of the boring decision against Winky. Winky was pushing his effectiveness as a MW, really being a LMW at his finest. He looked fat at 170. Pavlik was a more dangerous fighter at the weight and was widely favoured to retire Hopkins. The performance and the context make it much more impressive.