Most impressive: McCallum-Watson or Hopkins-Tito

He took out Julian Jackson in two rounds. I could easily see Jackson doing the same to Tito, though I wouldn't count on it.

Anyways, as to the poll, it really is very close. Watson had yet to hit his prime by the point of the McCallum fight, though, which is what swings it B-Hop's way. Watson could well have gone on to surpass the Eubank's and Benn's of the world had his career not been tragically cut off. As good as he was in his youth, he was clearly improving post-McCallum. He took that fight as a lesson and did his homework instead of crumbling like so many others would.

Tito, while arguably not as good a Middleweight as even that Watson, was making waves at the time, was favoured in the fight, and was promptly schooled just as comprehensively. Hopkins's performance holds the slight edge in value, although I thought McCallum's performance was better to watch.

 

Who had Cherifi beat? In fact ,who did he ever beat, who was really good ? Watson had just kod Nigel Benn, yet Cherifi is word class ,and Watson isnt?

 

At the time... Hopkins vs. Trinidad. In retrospect... maybe not?


Watson didn't come up in weight, McCallum actually did... although it was a couple of years earlier.

Watson was a big and strong MW with a good chin. He looked like a LHW.

He had stopped Benn in 6 rounds prior to facing McCallum.

He went on to lose a very close decision to Eubank (MD12) that could have went either way. This fight was at MW.

He gave Eubank hell in the rematch but was stopped in the 12th and suffered life changing injuries. He dropped Eubank in the fight. This fight was at SMW.

Trinidad came up from WW. Hopkin's pro debut was at LHW but he had spent most of his career as a MW.

Trinidad didn't look strong but he had good power. He was dropped several times but usually got up to win.

Trinidad moved up to JMW and beat two good but young Champs (Reid and Vargas) who were not ready for a fighter like Trinidad. Trinidad was dropped by both fighters.

Trinidad moved up to MW and beat Joppy (KO5) for the WBA MW Title. Joppy was good but not as good as Benn or Eubank. This was Trinidad's best win at MW.


McCallum broke Watson down and stopped him in 11. Hopkins broke Trinidad down and stopped him in 12.

 

Though Trinidad's pedigree at 160lbs was minimal (to say the least) he hung in there with Bernard till the last round and took a beating in the process; his conditioning justified the trip up to middleweight.

Trinidad wasn't bullied physically so much as he was technically, and for that, Hopkins deserves a lot of credit; Trinidad went in there with the odds smiling at him but was subject to the kind of spotless deconstruction you'll see maybe once every 10-20 years.

McCallum’s win over Watson was very good, but Bernard’s win over Trinidad was of the defining breed.

 

I think Watson is the better MW than Trinidad. At the time Tito was being vastly overrated in retrospect many see he was a flawed fighter but not as many as should. Both are very different, Watson was a technician, incredibly conditioned at the weight, Tito was an athletic left hook machine, although as a MW he wasn't particularly physically impressive as he was at prior weights

As to which was most impressive, at the time the Trinidad win, now I'm not sure maybe evens, both mighty impressive performances

FACTOID: Both Hopkins and McCallum were underdogs in these fights

 

McCallum was the underdog against watson ! i dont see any logic in that

 

Watson's own manager thought he would lose!:huh

 

Two of the most impressive performances of the last 25 years IMO, but I give a slight edge to Hopkins-Tito because I think Tito was a better fighter than Watson, and would probably have KO'd Michael.

 

Hopkins was impressive in completely neutralizing one of the most dangerous left hooks in recent times, but he dealt with a more one-dimensional opponent. I think Watson could actually have put up more of a fight than Tito against Hopkins. McCallum just took apart the skilled and defensively adept Watson technically and poured on combinations through his defenses, comparable to that of Winky Wright's.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4JZ-5dmp3U[/ame]

 

I've read it several times, he was fresh off beating Benn, not just after 3mins on GreatAs vid, they note McCallum was an underdog

 

McCallum was thought to be a bit past his prime going up against a future hope. He wasn't a big underdog though since the English weren't as generous with their betting money as the Puerto Ricans.

 

It remains hard for me to rate BHOP's win over Tito as being some great accomplishment.


No one who is at least BHOP's age or a few years older (in my case) that had followed Hopkins' career from the very beginning thought that Tito had a prayer of winning that fight in '01.

It wasn't the complete joke as when the fight with Dela Hoya was announced three years later but it was expected to be a near mismatch even for an almost 37 year old version of Hopkins.

What was most evident from that fight was that Bernard was definitely past prime and while he would continue to make weight for several more years he was a physically (comparatively) weaker middleweight than the one from the late 90s and before.

It would have been more natural for BHOP to have moved up earlier rather than waiting until he was nearly 41 1/2. He was fortunate it was such a poor era for the middleweight division to stay that long in a rather weakened state.

 

That's a silly comment. Your statement makes out as if this was a Mayweather vs Gatti style foregone conclusion. Maybe for you it was, but that was most certainly not the collective opinion, not in the media and not in the fans' minds either, even the older ones. There is some revisionist history going on here for sure. Trinidad looked absolutely sensational in completely blowing away Joppy in 5 rounds, becoming the 1st man to stop him. And back then, Hopkins was NOT viewed as a defensive specialist the way he became known as such through the years of the early 2000s. It was viewed as eminently possible that Tito could break Hopkins down back then to the vast majority.

 

Both Benn and Watson were domestic/Euro level fighters during that time.Benn was still pretty raw and lacking experience,and the level of opposition Watson had fought before that was pretty terrible.



I think McCallum was still in his prime at that point,actually.And if he wasn't,he was just barely removed from it.I think he peaked at a similar point in his career as Hopkins did.

I think he definitely has a case;I just find it annoying when others cry robbery in fights that are so obviously close.

I never said Cherifi was world class and that Watson wasn't.What I said was that Trinidad was an elite fighter while Watson was not.

 

Double post.