Bernard Hopkins vs Michael Moorer @ 175

It's a shame that MM fought at 175 in the ra that he did. Common sense says that he would have been a handful for anyone based on what he did at heavyweight. The guy could crack and was pretty smart. With that said, I don't totally count BHOP out. He certainly was the more cerebral fighter and was defensively as sound as a fighter could be. Plus, he was very proven against southpaws. I like Moorer but BHOP winning a UD is not out of the question.

 

Hopkins was good against sputhpaws usually, Moorers resume is also thin at 175 because nobody was there to really challenge him. I'll take Moorer without much confidence because of his size, power and feats above light heavyweight

 

I get where people are coming from when the vote for Hopkins. Moorer was relatively green at completely weight drained at 175lbs lbs, but if Moorer was able to comfortably stay at 175lbs for a while he would have dominated it i believe. I couldn't believe what type of heavyweight he had become, skipping over Cruiserweight and competing at 220lbs. The Burt Cooper fight was crazy. Moorer had a mean streak too. Imagine pissing him off at a bar or something, he might lay you and your friends out, back in the day!

 

Like you said, Moorer for sure had a mean streak. Aside from his ridiculous power, he was tough as nails. It drives me crazy when folks talk about his chin being bad. He only got knocked out by Foreman and Tua who are arguably the two heaviest hitters ever. Holyfield also stopped him but it took multiple knockdowns and his corner stopping the fight. Moorer wanted to go.

 

Moorer at 175lbs was kind of like Cotto at 140lbs. Cotto was weight drained, but able to handle his business, but we saw how good he really was at a more comfortable weight divisions.

 

Moorer competitive points decision by using his size and strength with pressure behind the jab and out working Hopkins down the stretch.

 

He had no issues breaking a cop's chin, yours would be on the table too!

 

Moorer had a 100% KO rate at LHW. Never let a fight get to round 10. Moorers the safe bet. I will bet him beating B Hop even if Hopkins goes the distance which he probably won't.

Moorer knocked down a 6'10 guy. At 175 he was the terminator. One can say "he didn't beat the best LHWs" those guys he didn't beat didn't go to HW at 23 years old. They lost to Thomas Hearns and Iran Barkley. Hard to posture about someone ducking Virgil Hill when they fought Holyfield and George Foreman. The Holyfield Moorer lost to was the best Holyfield if Holy fought Lennox that particular night he probably would have beaten him.

 

I used to watch a young Michael Moorer at Cobo Arena while he was knocking guys out!

 

Moorer has about 11-13 fights in his life where he and his opponent made 175 pounds. He fought a bunch of stiffs, to boot. Beating stiffs doesn't make one a "terminator". His competition was crud. He doesn't have a single really notable win there, not one.

He sure had potential there, but we've seen dozens of guys with that potential get knocked stiff when upping the level of opposition. Who knows what would have transpired and at what level he would have flattened out at.

 

Are you a fellow Detroiter?

 

I’d pump the brakes on Michael Moorer being a wrecking ball at 175.

As noted, he lad little more than a dozen fights at that weight. He won the inaugural WBO title at light heavyweight and his most notable opponents were Frankie Swindell, a tough journeyman, and a shopworn Leslie Stewart.

Notably, while MM won all his fights at light heavy by stoppage, Swindell and Stewart took him the farthest — six and eight rounds, respectively.

He was definitely a big puncher at 175 but also green. The Stewart fight in particular gives pause. While official scorecards of that bout had it a one-point fight either way through seven, to my eye Leslie won six or at worst five of the first seven rounds. He kept Moorer from pulling the trigger by popping off combos and switching up his look/distance/angle. When he threw punches, Moorer mostly shelled up and rarely exchanged — and he also was reluctant to get off until he had a clean target in front of him (he finally did exchange in the eighth and caught Stewart with a right hook that put him down and from which he never recovered).

I think the best light heavyweight Moorer probably has a lot of difficulty getting off vs Bernard, who would keep him off-balance much as Leslie did with quick combos and changing angles frequently, along with holding and spoiling.

Could MM win? Sure, he hits hard enough. But I think more likely against a wily guy like Hopkins he never really gets going.

Moorer’s biggest advantage is that he’s just so much bigger. He took four months off between his final fight at 175 and stepped into the ring like 38 pounds heavier in his first heavyweight bout. Word back in the day was Moorer walked around about 210-215 without extra weight and drained himself down … only ever hitting 175 for weigh-ins. Bernard was a smaller guy moving up. But while there’s a difference in power, Michael wasn’t a guy who got real physical and used his strength to bully guys around so I don’t think he man-handles the Alien.

I would go with Bernard by decision by a fairly wide margin, but with the full knowledge that Moorer could turn it with one punch and end it.

 

Hopkins would have beaten all of Moorer's 175 opponents too.