Are people on here now ready to give B-Hop the respect he deserves?? A - T - G.

Well, did you see his face after the first round? He looked shell shocked. From there on he took 12 rounds of sustained punishment from a 43 year old man he was expecting (and expected) to beat. I think he will be tortured mentally, if not physically. It will be a hard road back I think.

The only thing that impressed me about him is he took a lot of clean shots well and didn't quit. I could have understood if he'd quit right there. He's proud.

 

That's why I think he'll bounce back, he undoubtedly showed heart. It would have been very easy to "do a Peter" once he realized he had no chance of pulling it back. Pavlik would be disconsolate had he been dominated by Arthur Abraham or Mikkel Kessler, but this was Hopkins. He has did this to Trinidad and to Tarver. Pavlik will realize he met a guy on a different skill level to him, and know he has to knuckle down and work on improving. He'll probably never fight someone that good again, and he'll never fight Hopkins again. He will still have a good career.

 

He does seem down to earth, if hes mentally strong enough its possible. I'd say a good 90% of unbeaten boxers would be ruined by that experience.

I think they should put him in with a few Duddy's/Rubio's for now and not Abraham for a while.

 

A fighter should NEVER take another big 50/50 fight after suffering a domination job. Get Lockett back out of retirement I say!

 

I scored the fight for Hopkins 114-113 as well, but to at least get that close to a Hopkins as good as he proved he was last night shows Calzaghe is a better fighter than I thought he was. I thought he only got so close to Hop on the scorecards because Hopkins was a busted flush due to stamina issues. Now I see that wasn't entirely the case. They were close on the scorecards because Calzaghe is also an excellent fighter. He's not quite as good as Hopkins, who won 114-113 IMO and has a far stronger resume. But this is all academic, just my opinion, I want a rematch!!

 

So you rate Jermain Taylor above Hopkins too then? It's about whole careers, not just h2h.

 

The current p4p list should not be based purely on h2h as you suggest, otherwise Hopkins cannot be above Jermain Taylor.

Other than the Calzaghe fight (which was very close and I had Hop winning by one point), Hopkins has dominated Pavlik and Tarver, and beat Winky Wright. That is easily better than Lacy, Kessler and Manfredo.

As of this moment, I have Hopkins ahead of Calzaghe by a razor-thin margin. Hopkins took on an undefeated p4p top 10 fighter, and Calzaghe is taking on a guy who is shot to pieces.

I think that's fair until we have a rematch.

 

If Lacy beats Taylor more convincingly than Pavlik did then it certainly merits due consideration, but I cannot see it happening. Taylor wide UD.

 

Pavlik isn't/wasn't a hype job. He is a quality fighter and will prove it back at his own weight again. Was Tito Trinidad a hype job? He got schooled by Hopkins. Not everyone who gets beaten is a hype job, Pavlik's problem was that he ran into a Master Boxer. There aren't any others in boxing today, at least not at 160 or 168.

His legacy was indeed already cemented with most, but there are doubters on this forum, there certainly are. Last night should shut them up for good.