Bernard "The Terror" Hopkins

Thanks for posting that Lampley. It was good to see Young Bernard in action again. People who never saw Hopkins in his younger days and in his prime have no idea how different he was. The Hopkins/Echols II bout is one of my favorite fights ever.

 

He would have met James Toney in an all-time great tactical match-up with slick slips and counters all night long. It would have been a beautiful fight.

 

Yes, people who write him off these days and never saw his early career need to watch his early fights. It's sickening hearing how people generalize his entire career based off of his present fights where obviously he's not as active as in his 20s or early 30s.

 

Well said. That was one thing that seemed to permeate the entire fight as you watch it. You can literally watch him consciously controlling the pace and distance of the fight. Uncanny ring intelligence even so early in his career.

 

Ya, the remark I believe where Merchant says that Jones in particular is no Sugar Ray Leonard. Clancy was incredibly biased to an extent I've rarely seen in any commentator. He was so pro-Roy that he didn't know how else to score a round. The fight was definitely not such a run-away victory for Jones as he was saying.

 

the trainer of jovin mercado is my trainer haha...ray rinaldi i didnt expect to see him in there...he trains at my gym syracuse golden gloves

 

He would have eatin Calzaghe like toast prime for prime ...... **** he almost beat him at 40+

 

That's when Hopkins was a wannabe Tyson. He did everything he could, on down to the shorts.

 

His technical skills are being a bit underrated there. People are making him out to be some kind of pure brawler when he showed very good textbook skills, albeit in an aggressive way. Arms in, chin tucked, compact, textbook punches, etc. Not as tactful and crafty as he'd become, but he was a force to be reckoned with even then, which is why I disagree with those who write him off as green when he faced Jones.

 

He was an excellent fighter then certainly, but do you honestly believe he was overall really close to what he'd become by '97-'98? Offensively he only became just a bit better, but as far as an overall package I saw a significant improvement from Jones to late 90's-early 2000's.

'Green' may be a slight exageration, but he was clearly not at the level he would become IMO.

 

With that hair cut he looks like Will Smith in the fresh prince

 

:smoke

 

If he stayed at Super Middleweight we wouldn't be talking about Joe Calzaghe today.

 

As his technical skills increased, his physical capabilities started to decrease. I'd say by the late 90's he was at his overall peak, being as he had started to peak technically while retaining most of his physical attributes from younger days. Still, I think the version we saw in the vid posted in this thread, as well as the one that fought Jones, was the best we've ever seen him athletically, and while not as experienced or crafty(as I mentioned) as he would become, he was still a very technically efficient fighter.

 

I agree completelly.

Jones' win over Hopkins is certainly nothing to just brush off, If both men fought when they each reached their peak B-Hop only does a little better and takes maybe 2 more rounds because he'd never do much better offensively than he did IMO, but for lack of a better word it is an 'excuse' for Hopkins being beaten 9-3 (my score). He was further from his prime than Jones was by my watching.