Best perfomance: Toney-Barkley or Hopkins-Johnson?

I'm giving it to Hopkins-Johnson. Hopkins completely shut down and dominated Johnson enroute to stopping him. He's the only man to do this. Even into his 40s Glen is giving top rated, prime contenders all they can handle and even beating some. Hopkins went in, dominated Glen, and stopped him in a way no other has done before or since.

Bernard's performance was flawless.

 

Toney's skills against Barkley were quite surreal. They really were.

 

I'm not that high on Toney vs Barkley but Barkley was the better fighter.

 

Dunno. Watched and was just not amazed as most people are.

 

Toney-Barkley

 

Toney-Barkley. JT's performance was supernatural. The way he met Barkley in the centre of the ring in the 1st round, stood up to the Blade's frenzied attack, and utilized superior infighting technique to land all the best shots set the tone for a masterclass exhibition of skills. Even Toney's handspeed looked frightening that night.

Hopkins-Johnson was a great performance and a very good win, but Glen Johnson back then was not the fighter he became in the early-mid 2000s at lhw. I don't view that win as impressive or emphatic as Toney-Barkley.

 

Barkley was dead at that weight you can see hes already breathing hard in the end of the first round in his previous couple of fights he was fighting at LHW and six months after facing Toney he was fighting as an HW, still a very good performance for Toney against a out of shape opponent.

What impressed me more about the Hopkins-Johnson fight was Hopkins workrate i dont think i ever saw him throw so many punches, he just overwhelmed Johnson and picked him apart round after round, very good showing by Bernard against a still evolving fighter in Johnson.

Its a close call but i would probably pick The Hopkins performance as the best mostly due to the poor condition Barkley was when he faced Toney.

 

Barkley was war-worn, weight-drained and had difficulties with vision, but he put up a warrior's effort as always. Glen Johnson was unbeaten, but completely untested and looked clueless against Hopkins's mastery. He was also not the pressure fighter he would go onto be. In both cases the fights were stopped simply because they were too one-sided, not that either man was KO'd.

Impressed with the fights for different reasons, the Barkley fight because Toney handled the pressure with such calmness, the Johnson fight because Hopkins's stamina and workrate were incredible. In the end I have trouble separating them.

Short highlights:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B3kLNrF2tg[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMLqQrGDQhw[/ame]

 

Excellent post.

 

Indeed. Compare that with say, a Pryor, who was unbelievably frenetic, yet almost sloppy by comparison to these two.