Bernard Hopkins? ATG? Debateable!

Now before you reply to this thread lets take a little look back at Bernard Hopkins career!

Bernard’s first fight back in 1988 was against Clinton Mitchell (3-1-1) at 175, a fight he lost but we wont dwell on this as we could put this down to nerves or any number of excuses, of course other greats overcame this but we’ll still give Bernard this one anyway.

Now lets fast forward to his 9th fights against the mighty Mike Sapp down at 155 who at the time hadn’t won in 8 fights and retired with a record of 1-11-1, that’s right after 9 fights Bernard was fighting down at 155 against somebody who hadn’t won for 8 fights and only won once in his entire career. Now im going to bring in Amir Khan as a comparison, now im no Amir fan as myou may know but he seems to get a lot of stick for not stepping up fast enough yet after 9 fights he was fighting Ryan Barrett who at the time was 12-2-1 yet he still got stick even though he was fighting better fighters than Bernard was at the same point in their careers (now I would usually put this down to American bias but this came from pretty much everywhere).

After 13 fights Bernard was still fighting bums like Danny Mitchell somebody who again hadn’t won in 8 fights prior to fighting Bernard, this was acceptable for some reason, not sure why, but it was! After 15 fights it was more of the same with David McCluskey another who hadn’t won in 8 fights prior to Bernard, but it dosent stop there does it! After 19 pro fights Bernard was fighting who? Anibal Miranda another fighter who hadn’t won in 7 fights when Bernard fought him! Once again I refer to Amir Khan, who after 19 fights is fighting far superior opposition to what Bernard was fighting yet with criticism? A criticism Bernard avoided, why? Because he was American is my only explanation!

Infact if we look at Bernards first 20 fights his opponents combined records at the time were 164-143-8 to Amir Khans opponents combined record at the time of fighting of 361-131-17, yet who got stick for their first 20 pro fights? Even though both fighters after 20 pro fights had the same record of 19-1-0!

Finally after 24 fights Bernard fights a worthy fighter by the name of Roy Jones Jnr at 160, a fight he loses by a UD to somebody in the same true weight class as himself, after this setback Beranrd goes back to fighting cans for a good for years until 1997 when he fought Glen Johnson, his first significant win of his career, infact between Jones and Johnson he could only pick up up a draw against Mercardo!

Not long after Johnson the epic trilogy of Hopkins v Allen begins! One of the greatest trilogies of all time………or possibly not! Between the 2nd and 3rd instalment Bernard actually beat a couple of half-decent fighters in Holmes, Echols and Vanderpool, the first time he really stepped up in competition actually came after 35 fights! Not including the Jones fight where he lost anyway!

Then came Felix Trinidad, a fighter who started his career 35lbs lighter than Bernard, a dwarf in comparison yet many will see this as one of his two best wins at the time (along with Johnson) yet very little criticism went Bernards way.

After Trinidad came a few more half-decent wins over Joppy and Hakkar and the final instalment of the Allen trilogy before fighting another dwarf in Oscar De La Hoya, a fighter who was weighing 40lbs less than Hopkins in his first pro fight.

After Oscar Bernard went on to beat Eastman before losing twice to Taylor and beating movie star Mason ‘the line’ Dixon. Next it was back to dwarf beating for Bernard with a win over Winky Wright who himself started his pro-career lighter 22lbs than Bernard did!

After this Bernard faced his 2nd true ATG at his weight in Joe Calzaghe, once again coming up short!

Then to his most recent fight against a myth in Kelly Pavlik, Americas most recent hype after the losses suffered by Williams and Lacy, now Kelly could go on to prove himself a decent fighter but after being outclassed by somebody 15-odd years older than himself now has a long road back.

So there it is a career summary:

2 losses to true ATG’s in Jones and Calzaghe
Big wins over 3 dwarves in De La Hoya, Trinidad and Wright
Good wins over Johnson and Tarver.
Over-rated win over Pavlik (unless he goes on to prove otherwise)
Losses to Taylor and Mitchell



Is this the record of an ATG? Which fellow ATG did he beat that wasn't tiny in comparison?

 

Then the people who believe this cant also claim Calzaghe is not.

 

5 of his 20 defences were 2 Dwarfs and 3 x Robert Allen

 

About Bernard, when did the original post mention Calzaghe? Infact I think Calzaghe only got about 1 sentance! Even Amir at the beginning got more.

 

Ecept Im not a Calzaghe fan boy! When did I mention Calzaghe in the original thread, he got one line! The only reason hes been mentioned since is because of double standards.

 

I do happen to have his career boxset, minus a few fights.