Bernard Hopkins vs Canelo

Hopkins schools him at Middleweight or Light Heavyweight.

 

Hopkins wins by landing his headbutt, short right, lefthook counter all night.

 

Hopkins would be all wrong for Canelo, at 160, 68 or 75, he feasted on fighters like him.

 

Ugh boring fight.

On the one hand Canelo's slow pace would suit Hopkins just fine as he could take it easy and control the fight.

On the other hand Canelo's fast hands and quick combinations would not suit Hopkins much at all.

I think this is one of those fights where you have to see it live to see how they mesh.

Very likely a decision win either way. If they fight in Vegas, Hopkins loses to another white boy.

 

Horrible style for Canelo, he's always struggled with movers and Hopkins made a career at using movement to disarm punchers like Canelo. Even if Canelo could corner Hopkins regularly, Hopkins was more than adept enough to tie him up and smother him, plus Hopkins on the inside would man handle Canelo and out work him.

 

Hopkins is wrong for Canelo on all levels in every regard at 168. The gingers only hope is to spam counters but even that has limited effectiveness against guys who know how to box at the elite level. As far as 175 goes, all Canelo would be able to do is take Hopkins punches. He'd have almost no chance of landing anything effective. Stoppage probably by round 6 for Hopkins.

 

Although I might lean towards Bernard slightly, this is by no means a foregone conclusion. Bernard is one of the few fighters likely to have an even slower pace than Canelo. And, I doubt Bernard can stop Alvarez. It would be an interesting fight. Not necessarily exciting, but, intriguing.

 

If we are matching up a 40 plus year old Hopkins against Canelo then maybe their work rate is similar but even at 38 Hopkins broke the compubox record for most power punches landed in a middleweight fight vs Joppy, landing 375 power punches from a total of 419 punches landed and threw a total of 819 punches. Canelo would be completely out worked vs anything close to a prime Hopkins.

 

I don't think Canelo is the type to give Hopkins problems. Not fast enough of foot or hands. Every fighter that gave Hops problems was fast (except when he was 100 years old obviously).

 

Schools canelo and GGG for the record

 

I'd favor Hopkins, that's just a bad clash of styles for Canelo.

 

That is a good point. Bernard kept fighting for so long, I tend to forget the fresher version. That being said, the fact that he could land 375 power punches and not stop Joppy does demonstrate that this fight is likely to be a decision affair. And, decisions with Canelo are never a sure thing.

 

Yeah no chance he stops Canelo, unless he does what he did against the very durable Glen Johnson and simply overwhelm him on sheer volume and grind him down, but that's unlikely given Canelo's defence.

I think Hopkins would win convincingly enough like Bivol did that it's unlikely we'd see a robbery. Canelo has had a lot of competitive fights go his way, but never a really one sided fight where he got a really blatant robbery. Hopkins probably wins 8-9 rounds and wins a close UD or a MD.