When was B-Hops prime as a fighter?

Taylor was one of the biggest, if not the biggest middleweight fighter that Hopkins ever challenged. Hopkins was used to being the bigger man with the better jab in the ring, not to mention the fighter with better endurance.

Even then, with that in mind, my judging would have Hopkins having 1 win and 1 draw against Taylor.

Who did Hopkins face prior to Taylor that can be compared to Taylor size wise and jab wise? Taylor was a solid boxer with a questionable heart in my view, once he lost, he was never the same.

 

Money Mayweather absolutely clowns PBF. PBF again was a come forward fighter, using his handspeed to throw punches in bunches and out punch his opponents that were the same size as him.

The moment he started fighting guys the same size or bigger than him, he changed into a defensive specialist who worked his counter punching.

It's one way to look at comparative primes - when were they harder to beat?

With Hopkins, he had a loss at the very start of his career, he had a loss before his run as a title holder, he had a loss during his title reign, regained another title and had another loss and has since regained titles - it's not like he was unbeatable at certain points in time, we all know RJJ between 96 and 2002 would have dominated him.

 

Hopkins was 42, and near 4 years on, is still dominating the weightclass he fought Calzaghe at.

I don't believe he was out of his prime, I believe he was still in a very late prime occuring between 38 and 43.

 

Jordan was landing a higher percentage of shots during that final, gaining more rebounds and making on average more triple doubles, leading to more clutch plays that lead his team to victory and worked the best he ever had with those around him during the last few years of Bulls dominance.

So, if a basketballer who is shooting better, getting more rebounds, creating more assists and ultimately scoring more points than he ever had before wasn't in his prime, what is prime?

You guys seem to want to take Michael Jordan at 20-25 and give him the mindset, experience and deft skills that Michael Jordan at 25-35 had.

Similar to Hopkins in my view, people forget that the fight game is as much if not more about style and experience than it is physical talent.

 

Collective prime, for me, a boxers prime is when they have their best and most notable wins and are better as an overall fighter than any other point in their career.

Jones Jr had his prime between 94 and 99.
Lewis between 96 and 2002
Calzaghe between 98 and 2004
I say Hopkins between 2002-2009 was a better fighter than Hopkins 96-2002.

 

ps - had Jones Jr fought Hopkins at any point prior to his move up to HW, he would have dominated Hopkins in my view.

After the move to HW? He was there for the pickings for Hopkins.

 

Tarver was only a big win because of what Tarver later did to him, at the time, Tarver was seen as nothing more than a late bloomer who Jones Jr was expected to beat, had lots of difficulties with and then had the rematches which put the nail in his coffin.

The win against Ruiz? Cmon, the Quietman was never a great technician and often used clinch/hold tactics to beat fighters who were too dumb to counter them, it was impressive that a 175 lb fighter could go up and fight a HW champion and win but there is a very good reason he didn't fight Holyfield, Lewis, Tua, or even Byrd at that weight.

Jones Jr killed himself going back to 175lb in my view, but his biggest wins came well earlier with Hopkins, McCallum, Toney, Paz, et all.

Jones Jr was at his best ever at 160-168, where he had as much if not more size than any fighter there, more power, more handspeed and was harder to hit.

175? It's where he ended up but in my view, 168 was his best weight.