How Good Was Bernard Hopkins In His 1993 Loss To Roy Jones?

Actually Lewis is not a good example. It was clear Lewis was struggling, getting knocked out, bad balance, lack of infighting skills and tieing up. These were crystal clear faults that even the layman fan could pick out. Lewis came a long way correcting a lot of mistakes from three life and death fights, Bruno, Mcall, Mercer. Hopkins just kept winning and never showed the type of deficiences Lewis was showing.

 

I believe that Jones and Hopkins were the 2 highest ranked middleweights in the world when the 1st fight occured.

 

I would have thought Otke-DM would be in demand, I know they talked about it after both were retired. Is it true Otke was much more popular with him being the German native?

 

Very good! Not as crafty as he became in his 30's because he was still learning to gameplan and set up his fights, especially after the Echols fights. This should tell every boxing fan just how good Roy Jones really was at the time. Forget about Calzaghe, Tarver, Johnson and the 15 years later Hopkins rematch. RJJ was an awesome talent that just relied too much on his speed and reflexes as he got older. I never liked that shuckin' and jiving stuff with his left hand low because I knew it would catch up to him. Ali did the same stuff holding his left hand low and it caught up to him, despite having the best reflexes and speed for a big man. More than Jones prime for prime? I don't know but it's close. The world discovered Ali had a chin because he couldn't run away from punches and got hit. Jones got hit and got hurt really bad.

As for both figthers? Jones got lazier, Hopkins got craftier.

 

Good enough to have beaten every title challenger that Monzon, Hagler, and Robinson faced, or ran them very close. I think very highly of Hopkins, even the '93 version that lost to Jones. Super solid fundamental fighter, who turned into a great one. Best defensive middleweight I've seen on film.

 

Welsh fighters, yes. Calzaghe, no.

Yep, because Lewis kept on losing. :good

Actually, not:

Ring Magazine mw rankings 1992:
Title Vacant
1. Julian Jackson
2. James Toney
3. Reggie Johnson
4. Roy Jones Jr.
5. Mike McCallum
6. Sumbu Kalambay
7. Gerald McClellan
8. Lamar Parks
9. Bernard Hopkins
0. Thomas Tate

1993:
Title Vacant
1. Roy Jones Jr.
2. Gerald McClellan
3. John David Jackson
4. Reggie Johnson
5. Julian Jackson
6. Thomas Tate
7. Lamar Parks
8. Bernard Hopkins
9. Vinny Pazienza
0. Otis Grant

There was a bigger demand for Maske-DM. Didn´t happen, different promoters, different TV stations and Maske retired too early. However, Maske was the big thing over here. Boxing was dead in Germany from the mid 70s to the late 80s. Then an arms trader in Africa, Sauerland, the biggest German TV station and the most accomplished East German amateur boxer or the time, Maske, got together and made it big again. MAske became bigger than life, he was an East German that could be liked by West Germans, the symbol of a reunified Germany. Not even the Klitschkos today rech his popularity. Ottke turned pro two years after Maske retired, he was with Sauerland and RTL and they hyped him as Maske´s heir so he inherited much of Maske´s popularity. Maske and Ottke were presented as gentlemen, a bit like boxing nobles who didn´t box or brawl but where fist fencing. Rocchigiani and DM had the problem that there were always stories coming up about them drinking, or hanging around at certain shady places like the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, especially the Ritze, a famous local with a boxring and training faciliies under the bar, but in the middle of Hamburg´s red light district - DM´s first trainer Eckhard Dagge took him there quite often and trained him in drinking as much as in boxing which got him fired later on. That´s why they were seen as a throwback to the late 70s, early 80s - where Rocchigiani actually started his career -where boxing was something popular among shady people hanging around in the red light districts. That hurt their popularity. DM was still hugely popular. Not as much as Maske and Ottke though but more than Rocchigiani and Beyer.
Personally, I never liked Maske, he was soo fake, presented him as an intellectual, a gentleman and a nice person, they also tried to milk Schmeling´s popularity by building up a non-existing friendship between the two. Schmeling was just to nice to tell RTL and Maske to f*ck off. Ottke, well, he was **** in and out of the ring. He doesn´t deserve most of the sh*t he gets but he was boring and very dislikable. And DM, well, I could have liked him if he wouldn´t have pulled the acting job in the first Roccigiani fight. I´m a fan of Rocchigiani though and I liked Beyer - and Virgil Hill.

There were talks about DM vs. Ottke when both were retired but DM was shot then and Ottke very past his best. It still would have been the biggest fight of the time in Germany - apart from Maske-Hill II.
Ottke had already beaten DM twice in the amateurs though and wasn´t as much done as him, so I guess he would have won.

I think Kalambay, Benton were better than Hopkins defensivly.

 

FFS German boxing is crap, Wales total population is less than the population of Berlin, yet Welsh boxers are far better and more successful than German boxers.

 

Which doesn´t change the fact that Joe Calzaghe only beat bums and old men.

 

Kessler, not to mention Lacy, Mitchell and Reid

 

Bums. :hi:

 

The man that beat the man that beat the man and thats Joe Calzaghe he beat Hopkins and Jones away from home you cant say fairer than that.

 

Old men, one shot and he didn´t beat the other one. :hi:

 

Its in the record books, read it and weep.

 

Lucky enough there is much more in the books. Their age for example. Old men. :hi:

 

:goodI stand corrected.