Bernard Hopkins vs Sugar Ray Leonard 160

I'd probably look to the 160 Roy Jones Jr. to be honest.

 

Leonard 9-3 or 8-4.

 

Jones is a good shout, but physically at 160 he outmatches SRL, so he could take the lead, if Jones wants to Box at range then he could do that, he may of even been able to counter Ray, he was special.

Hopkins would tactically shut down Ray (in my opinion) he'd have too, or he would lose.

 

Leonard close UD. He'd outbox Hopkins.

 

Leonard on points,8 rounds to 4 maybe,just a better fighter,simple as that..

 

You could say Ray was a fighter who wasn't as troubled by lengthy fighters who knew how to control distance/range as he was by some other styles. I mean against guys like Lalonde, Hagler, Hearns and Benitez he put in some pretty thoroughly impressive performances. Benitez and Hearns where also very smart fighters, as was Duran, yet he out-thought them on his way to out-fighting them.

I think in many ways Hopkins is meeting one of his equals as far as adaptability and ring IQ go here. I'd also wager that a prime Hopkins wasn't as smart or as cagey (experience essentially) as the Hopkins we've seen in recent years.

 

When you're talking about peak Ray,160 doesn't really come into it.This would be a horribly difficult fight for him,but picking BH only reflects the weight issue.None of us will ever know how good a 26 year old Ray would have been at 160.Even if Hopkins were to win,it would only be because Ray was not naturally big enough.

 

Hopkins at his physical peak was better than the shopworn Hagler was at the final stages of his career. I don't think he's going to beat a prime Bernard moving, moving, moving, and planting every now and then with potshots and shoe-shine combos the way he did against Hagler. And he's not going to be outboxing Bernard on the backfoot with a consistent jab and whatnot. That wasn't his style. Obviously a prime Ray was a superior fighter to Hopkins, but I don't like the middleweight Ray in this matchup.

 

He's longer but not substantially longer like Ray is substantially faster than Hopkins, and more skilled.

Hopkins is a cagey dude and is a tough fight for all but the best, which SRL. I think SRL convincingly beats on BHop.

 

Hopkins UD or late stoppage. The man was a tactical genius at 160.

 

atsch Yeah, the 40 year old version who would've been better served to figtht at 168 or higher.

 

What if one was try to move the Leonard that fought Kalule at 154 up to 160? To much of a leap of face on how Leonard would be able to handle the weight at that stage of his career, or a different way of thinking about it?