Bernard Hopkins(the one fought Tarver) vs. Chad Dawson that he recently just fought

No he's not, he has exceptional gifts and his resume is stacking up: Adamek, Hopkinsx2, Tarverx2, Glen Johnsonx2, Harding, Diaconu.

Dawson-Ward has to be 1 of the biggest potential fights in boxing now

 

Never have beens Harding and Diaconu.

Old or ancient fighters past their best in Hopkins, Tarver and Johnson.

And Adamek. The only thing that stands out on his record.

Sorry. Not impressive. He is gifted and has good tools but nothing special.

 

Harding was 1 of the best LHW contenders in the last 20 years but well past his best, Diaconu was average but solid. Dawson needs to build on this win, beating Pascal and Ward would put him in the top10 LHW list, obviously with Ward being the feather.

The Hopkins win will be underrated because of age, but Hopkins is the youngest 47yo of all time coming off dominating Pascal and no one has shut out Hops like that since Jones.

 

At his best Harding certainly was 1 of the best contenders in the last 20years, he outboxed Tarver and Griffin and gave prime Jones maybe his best challenge bar Griffin. After that he suffered a terrible shoulder injury that meant he wasn't quite the same again

 

Harding was good. No doubt. Was he one of the best of the last 20 years? Depends how you define it. Would he make a Top10 of the last 20 years? Doubt it. Top20? Probably. Is that good enough to be one of the best contenders of tha last 20 years? Not for me.

And sorry, Dawson is far, far away from a lhw Top10. Come on ... guys like Virgil Hill have a much better case and he makes a Top20 at best.

And no Dawson did not shut out Hopkins. He won without a doubt which not many fighters achieved, in fact just RJJ did, but that´s not shutting him out. And Hopkins was/is 47. And as good as he still is, he is not as good as he was six years ago - stamina, speed, workrate and so on - and only a shadow of what he was in his prime. And you know that. Stop with the provoking BS, you know better than that.

 

No doubt aided by the fact that most people overrated how good Hopkins was/is for the last 6 or 7 years.

 

Very much I think. Hopkins was never great at lhw. Very good in the beginning but when he faced Calzaghe he already was merely "good" at best and nowadays he is as average as Dawson, or even more, which is still amazing when you look at his age. And I´m a big fan of the old man.

 

Hopkins would have had the edge under this scenario. As has been implied,his reflexes,timing etc was better.

 

There are many historic LHWs who have thin resumes and thin longevity. Conn and Qawi come to mind in terms of resume/longevity at the weight. Beating Ward, the best 168lber of this era combined with his current resume and avenging his only defeat would escalate him pretty highly

I also thought it was pretty much a shutout, I only saw it once, but Dawson seemed to be the 1 getting off clean time and again

I don't think he is, his skillset would see him beat plenty of great LHWs throughout history. I see this Hopkins beating the likes of Bivins, Loughran, Hill, Maxim and Qawi

 

Definitely more evenly matched, but I on the other hand give the slights edge to Hopkins.

 

Hopkins makes it more difficult, might convince some judges, but probably loses a close one. Dawson is wrong for him, like the problems Calzaghe presented but younger, bigger, and crisper.

 

:huh Dawson a younger, bigger and cripser Calzaghe? You mad.

 

Great post :good many don't know about hardings injury and in all honesty the way jones beat him just shows how good jones was. However he isn't one of the best in the last 20 years. Top 10 maybe but no better than that

 

1943 Jimmy Bivins losing to a 47 year old Bernard Hopkins? Are you drunk?