Bernard Hopkins - Realism

Regardless of the caliber of fighters he has beaten/lost to, his shining achievements are his 20 MW title defenses and being the oldest fighter to win a world title. Not many people will want to remember the way he won his fights, but his performances against Trinidad, Pavlik and even Tarver are impossible to overlook, kids can learn a great deal from the way Hopkins boxes when he is in complete control

 

both pascal fights too, not to mention he acquited himself well in a loss last night, to a guy in his prime who is almost two decades his junior.

 

You r biased against Hopkins, 120-108? God, you wanted really that to take place if no KOs. I got you.

 

Yeah I forget to mention the Pascal fights, he fought very well in both. And i agree, losing to Dawson is not a dishonourable feat if you are almost 50

 

How are Tarver an Pavlik not A level? Two former undisputed champions. B level lol.. Maybe amongst the greats of Lightheavy an middleweight ll time. But by todays standards they were both A level. If a guy isnt a 7 or 8 time champ on eastsideboxing he is considered blevel lol.

 

Tarver is a B level fighter because his only claim to fame was beating a weight drained, shot version of Roy Jones jr

 

Hopkins made a living of derailing careers.

 

The subtle stuff Hopkins does is up there with ATGs in talent, and his light heavyweight accomplishments are just icing on the cake to an historic middleweight career. He fought all the best - who can you say he didn''t fight near his weight class even ten years past his prime? James Toney at one point? James was always way heavier.

His loss to Jones is no knock, but a testament to how truly special Roy was to beat both Tony and Hopkins in their primes. Those three guys are probably in the top 5 in talent who fought from the late 90s to today.

Realistically even a shot 50 year old version of Hopkis can't be stopped by the best fighters 20 years younger - he's just too smart and tough and good at neutralizing offense. At middleweight only Castro and Hop lasted the distance with Roy. He was a wrecking machine at 160.

 

Obviously a very good fighter and it is special that he's still competing at the very top at his age.

However...his fan boys give him way too big a pass for his losses to Taylor and his level of oppostion on his Middleweight run.