Hopkin's greatest victory?

Trinidad. Bhop at his Prime, plain and simple

 

Antonio Tarver

 

In the fight against Glen Johnson we saw Hopkins at the peak of his powers but it wasn't his greatest victory. The Tito victory was amazing considering he was 36 and a big underdog but for me the Tarver victory really sealed his legacy. To jump up 2 weights against a then perceived top P4P fighter, who has just recently again won a version of the title, was an outstanding acheivement. Hopkins has had many critics saying he had built a legacy against smaller oppositon, conveniently forgetting that Hagler had done the very same. By doing something Monzon and Hagler never did and jump up to light heavyweight to beat the undisputed top light heavyweight at that time was a greater acheivement IMO. The manner in which he did it also was incredible.

 

If so many haters hadn't criticised Hopkins for fighting a supposedly smaller man who incidently could't make light middle anymore or for not moving up in weight then I would agree. But Hopkins answered a lot of doubters and naysayers by beating Tarver.

 

1. Felix Trinidad
2. Antonio Tarver
3. Glencoffe Johnson
4. Antuwan Echols 2

 

Of course Tito is the greatest win... nobody, I mean NOBODY expected that a 36 year-old guy would DESTROY Tito, who at the time was considered as one of the most fearful punchers EVER... also, it's silly to say Tito was too small or anything - he almost killed Joppy in his first MW fight to become a world champion and looked stronger than ever... only to end up on the canvas vs. Hopkins who beat the living sh*t out of him to become the legitimate MW champion... 10/10

On the P4P side, Winky Wright is the higest ranked fighter Hopkins has every met (#2/3 by every respected magazine/writer, considered many as the best MW). Of course it was a close and ugly fight north of Winky's ideal fight weight, but still it was a boxing match not a physical fight so I don't think weight played that big part - the key was the typical Hopkins weapon: very-well placed short hook on the inside, so in 10 years, he was the first one to legitimately defeat Winky, and doing it at the age of 42... 10/8

Oscar De La Hoya didn't have much chance according to bost because of the size difference but just to show Bernard could've done it at LMW, he came in at 156, 2 pounds over the 154 limit! Oscar was smaller, and supposed to lose... but Hopkins put on an extra performance by knocking DLH out and in the meantime he unified all 4 titles - for that it's 10/7.

Hopkins fought smaller men? WTF, he shut out The Ring champ Antonio Tarver in one of the most stunning comeback victories in this era... people say this BS that Tarver looked bad D), but every single Hopkins opponent looked bad vs. him inc. P4P#2 Calzaghe, so saying Tito was shot, Oscar was shot, Winky was shot, Tarver was shot, Calzage is over the hill is BS... Hopkins made all of them look bad... but if you look at how Tarver shut out Woods, DLH made his fight vs. Mayweather close and Glen Johnson beat Dawson (on my card) - that shows you that looking bad and losing bad vs. Hopkins doesn't mean anything. 10/9

Hopkins TKO Johnson didn't mean much at the time, but when Johnson KOd Roy and beat Tarver to become the Fighter of the Year - and giving top15 P4P-er and future superstar Chad Dawson a beating this year, we had to reconsider that Hopkins win - he completely destroyed the guy! 10/7

1. Tito
2. Tarver
3. DLH/Johnson
5. maybe Holmes (unification) or Echols (because of the injury) or Frank (fastest MW world title KO).

 

To me he looked most impressive in the Trinidad victory. Hopkins has a amazing resume, to me though the Tarver and Johnson victories are mostly built off of them beating a Roy Jones that wasn't himself, still amazing wins though to take nothing away from Hopkins... Still I vote for the Trinidad victory because it launched him into a boxing world that had far since ignored him and he looked his best in that fight IMO

 

tarver

 

Trinidad easily

 

Taking JC to a SD :good

Nah - gotta be Tito.

 

Trinidad. That win put him on the map

 

At the age of 43 that was very impressive but I still say his best performance was against Trinidad

 

Vs. Antonio Tarver B-Hop stopped picking on the lil' guys.
I'll take B-Hop's win over the "Magic Man" as his legacy fight.
(De la Hoya & Trinidad fighting @ Middleweight should have never happened)

On a side note...
Why Felix couldn't get himself back down to at least Jr. Middle will be his greatest mistake as far as his legacy goes, IMO.
The matchup of Trinidad Vs. Forrest has always been a
a dream match for me, 2 guys with great power & the ability to box.

 

Most important - Trinidad
Best - Johnson, Tarver. Hard to seperate for different reasons. Johnson he was at the peak of his powers. Tarver was a a great win, when he was so old and jumping 2 weight classes, and he made Tarver is prison *****

 

the Glengoffe Johnson fight. Glen was something like 34-0 and i thought he was going to beat Hopkins. Hopkins embarrassed Glen and stopped him. Bernard had won all 10 rounds that were scored and was owning the 11th round before stopping glen. Glen went on to lost his next 2 or 3 fights which may have diminished his victory but it was incredibly impressive when it occurred ..... still is IMO.