Middleweight fight Michael Watson (of the Benn fight in '89) vs Bernard Hopkins (of the Jones fight in '93) How do you see this one going? :bbb
This would be a nice fight and I am an appreciator of both guys. I think Hops is a clear top 10 (top 5 for me) MW and watson was very good in his own right. Hops is not going to attack Watson as agressively as Benn, so it won't go down like that. Hops was ultra conservative against RJJ (actually RJJ was as well), and showed him way to much respect, and do not think that Watson will confuse or out speed him like RJJ did. A point of contention for me is what is Watson's plan??? His plan for benn was perfect, use his aggresion against him, counter him to death, give him little/few attack opportunities and outbox him when he rests, again Hop's won't play into that plan. Will he be instructed to be overly aggresive ala the McCallum fight??? I like McCallum but always fealt that Watson could have either beaten him or made it super close on the cards had he adopted a different style/plan for that fight??? If Watson tries to be the aggresor in that way against Hop's I would see a similar result Hop's by about 4 rds or a late stoppage. All things being equal, I still believe that even though Hop's was more aggresive in his younger days than he is often remembered for he was still quite savy. I believe he would make this a fight using his strengths especially of height and reach to control the distance, making Watson have to come to him. Hop's would tie up and frustrate him when he came inside perhaps even using some nice dirty tactics along the way. I do think Watson possesses enough skill to make this a dangerous fight for Bernard (although not by KO), and frustrate him similar to the way Winky was able to...I don't believe Watson could pull it out, but he could make it a very close fight. Hops wins 7 or 8 rds (based on 12) on his way to a close decision!
Watson has no chance. He improved signifcantly after Benn, and his best chance is at 168, but he's not better than Hopkins. In 93 Hopkins was better at every single thing that Watson was good at in 89.
Watson only became very good post-McCallum imo.Before that he was relatively skilled, but far too methodical and unimaginative.
Yeah, he didn't really learn to slip and counter well, or develop a relatively complete defensive repertoire until after the lesson from McCallum.
Wouldnt have been so bad had the corner pulled him out when he was obviously running out of gas and nipped the late rounds beating in the bud. Suppose it's easy to say that with hindsight though.
