A fact of life: Bernard Hopkins never lost in his prime

Don't be ridiculous. Trinidad and De La Hoya were welterweights. Neither were at Taylor, in his prime's ievel at that weight. Glen Johnson never was that close.He made his name off beating smaller guys, he should have been dq'd against Winky. And even though he is old as hell, Dawson tonight and Calzaghe just made him look stupid.

 

Lost to Taylor in his prime. Can't change that.

 

:rofl

 

A LOT of all-time greats can make this same claim.

 

Establish the years YOU think he was at his prime, and explain why chose that time frame. A fighters age doesn't always indicate his prime, because being in your physical prime isn't the same as the prime of your career.

 

And he was just out of diapers at 28 when Jones Jr whipped him?:think

 

Past his prime by then. Pre-Tito is a great look at Prime Hopkins


If you take the version of Hopkins that dismantled Johnson, Taylor would have been crushed.

Even the version that fought Tito, Taylor would have lost.

 

Tito was not better then Jones Jr. No way. This statement almost makes it hard to take anything else you say as serious.

 

Hopkins Prime is hard to pin down. He has a great deal of succes at the top level post Tito. What's to separate Hops pre- and post tito, aside from age and style? :huh Tough one.

 

His I.Q. and boxing technique has allowed him to do well past his peak or prime years. Peak and Prime sometimes gets separated. It's a matter of opinion. Prime might be more of a broad look I guess.

But by the time he fought Taylor, he was past his best. He started to adjust the way he fought because his stamina wasn't quite the same. He used to take rounds off even. Time when he'll attack. He was more conservative with how much energy he spent because there was only so much in the tank and that tank was slowly leaking.


Robert Allen, who fought Hopkins three times, thought Hopkins was on the decline the last time they fought. And despite being knocked down, he thought Hopkins' power had declined.

 

:thumbsup can't argue. Hops is one of those who's prime is hard to pin down. It also can be used to argue that the prime of an athlete, isn't the "be all, end all", of his being a top fighter. All too often here, posters use the "He's past his prime" to suggest a win over said boxer means nothing or is tainted.

 

Out of curiosity, what factors did you come up with to choose the DLH fight as the end of his prime? :huh