Bernard Hopkins vs Roy Jones early 2000's. Who's fault was it.Who ducked who?

I dont see any of those names on Hopkins resume either.

 

Yeah Hopkins insisted 50-50 and Roy didn't budge.

Roy is still a bigger name, but B-Hop has a point, he's moving up risking more (giving up his titles, which he believes his only leverage) and he just recently trashed Tito to become arguably as well known as Jones. Plus Jone was coming off lackluster performances.

Seems like both guy has a point, and both bears the blame.

 

i cannot find the link to video , but Bernard wasnt asking 50 / 50 he was asking 10 million , which just isnt reality.

He then calls Jones out as a ducker , what is Roy meant to do ? Pay Bernard to fight him?

No this has always been a Hopkins ploy - call out the best then ask for stupid amounts of money to hide his ducking.

Did it to Calzaghe , agreed 3 million then when Joe said game on - he then asked for 6 million.

 

60-40 in Roy's favour was fair. It's Hopkins' fault for pricing himself out.

 

He didn't duck a fight with Calzaghe, it was never a one-on-one negotiation. He turned down a long-term contract from Showtime that would've included a fight with Calzaghe.

 

I hold Bernard solely responsible, for the fight not being made. At the start of their famous 60/40 argument, Bernard started off by saying to Larry Merchant that "Roy couldn't expect the bigger share of the pot after the tournament".

You have to see things from Roy's perspective at the time. In 2001-2002 he had one eye on moving up to heavy. The fight with Hopins would have had to have been somewhere around a 168 catchweight. So there was no way, that Roy was going to come down in weight, to fight a guy who'd he'd already beaten, who he hated, for 50%, when he knew that he'd have to gain weight in the near future, to go up to heavy. It was never going to happen.

There's no way in hell that Bernard would have agreed to 50/50, if he'd have got the win in 93.


Regards, Loudon.

 

Hopkins didn't want ANY of Roy Jones at 175.

 

Do you really think that a fighter who started out a 154, wasn't taking any risks unifying the 175 division? Really?

Yes we know he missed some names. But it's not as simple as saying he was afraid to fight them, and they were all ducked. There's politics in boxing, and fights are hard to make. There's nearly always reasons or circumstances why certain fights don't get signed.


Nigel Benn -

Don King wanted a three fight option on Roy, and Roy wouldn't agree. Roy wanted a one fight deal, but Don wanted to tie him in. In the end the negotiations broke down. I think if Don hadn't have been greedy, the fight would have happened.



DM -

Roy wanted the fight, but he didn't want it bad enough to go to Germany for it. Nobody in 2001, could have expected the worlds best fighter to go to Germany for a fight. Roy was still scarred from the Seoul Olympics, and some of the judging in Germany at the time, was nothing short of disgraceful. You only had to look at some of Sven Ottke's fights. Roy was the man back then. He was no.1, and he held the WBA, WBC and the IBF belts. He was the unified champ. DM only had the WBO belt that wasn't respected, or even recognized by The Ring magazine.

The onus was on DM to go to America. At first he agreed, and then he backed out. He was happy defending his belt for decent money, and it wasn't worth the risk for him to fight Roy. A second attempt was later made to get him to fight in America, but again, the talks broke down. According to a recent interview with Roy, HBO offered DM $5m to go over and fight.



Steve Collins -

Collins was a warrior, and I've got a huge amount of respect for him for chasing that fight. But the truth is, he brought nothing to the table, and nobody apart from Steve and his hardcore fans, wanted to see that fight. HBO didn't want to make it. They wanted Roy to fight Reggie Johnson (who'd beaten Collins) to unify the 175 division, and that's what happened. Roy turned down Collins to fight Reggie in a big unification fight. I'm sure that if Collins had have held Reggie's belt, that Roy would have fought him.



Jackson and Nunn -

At middleweight, the fights were never viable. Roy Snr had held Roy back early in his career, and Roy didn't really break through, until he'd beaten Hopkins in 93 for the vacant belt. But by that time, he was struggling to make 160, and he moved upto 168 the following year.

In the late 90's, Nunn became Roy's mandotary. I think that Roy should have fought him, but in my opinion, at that time, Nunn was only half the fighter, that he once was. An early 90's version of Nunn was special. But in 98/99 he was fighting lowly opposition, and he didn't look great.



The G-Man -

Gerald was a dangerous guy, and Roy had known him for years. Maybe if things had turned out differently against Benn, and the terrible tragedy had never taken place, maybe they'd have met somewhere down the line.



Liles -

Frankie was a great fighter, and that would have been a very awkward opponent for Roy. He held a win over Roy, when they were younger, and that would have been a great fight. But I do believe that Frankie was promoted by King, and Don would have wanted the same options on Roy, that he'd requested during the Benn negotiations.



It's a real shame that the above fights didn't get made, but you can't lay all the blame at Roy's door. Toney and Hopkins were better than the above fighters in my opinion, and Roy's still had a great career, with a strong resume.


Regards, Loudon.

 

Good point.

 

Ol Ry tal;ked big but if Nard had said yeah Roy wouldda found another excuse Roy= Mayweather Mayweather=Roy Both the same only want to fight at home, against picked opposition

 

Loudon is a class poster : )

 

Yes despite Hopkins being a relatively unknown title holder at the time and Jones being the p4p number one fighter and most talented fighter of his era it's Hopkins who's missing names of his resume atsch

 

60-40 was fair on Roy's part as the draw, but Hopkins has a point and I don't blame him for choosing not to risk his divisional streak and championships for less than he thought he deserved. I don't see this as a case of "ducking" from either party.

 

I'd of much rather of seen this, than Mayweather vs Pacquaio.

 

you already did see it and it was a complete snoozefist. money may and pac come to entertain the fans, not bore everyone to death.