Can we just STFU already about Bernard Hopkins knocking out career WW Tito Trinidad

Stop making sense this is a Hopkins hater thread no place for common sense here lol.

Also the illegal hand wraps Tito used added nothing to his power. It was just a different method of how to wrap the hands, legal in some states but illegal in others including New York. So it's not like Tito hand plaster of Paris in his gloves.

 

But don't tell me that you never heard about Tito wrapped his hands illegally during his boxing career.

 

I remember it like it was yesterday. 9/11 had just recently happened and everything seemed to be in slow motion for a while.

 

Yep, you have to really live at the time lol, after the demolition of Joppy, everybody caught the Tito express. I guess only a handful thought Hopkins had a chance.
Hopkins had to pull out one of the most discipline fight and uncover what a great fighter he really was.
It took one great fighter to stop another great one, without Hopkins I wonder how far Tito can move forward. The Puerto Rican one was fearless but I think if he would have somehow get pass Hopkins, prime Roy will definitely stop him.

 

I think it more got to do with Hopkins defensive skills and chin than the trinidad wrap.
Oscar gave the blue print, Tito has to plant his feet before he wings his taunted left hook. Hopkins never stay in one spot long enough and he fully respect Tito's power.

 

Bernard had the option of moving up to face better opponents, but he chose not too, so he could have an easier ride.

The LHW division that Roy fought in wasn't weak. It may not have been the strongest division in boxing, but it certainly wasn't weak. And it was stronger than the MW division that Bernard was a part of for many years.

Yes, Bernard's career is overrated.

Check out the quotes that I uploaded of his.

 

The way Hopkins was brutally KOed out of the ring and the delusional interview after the fight really made me see what a ***** Hopkins really was. Also wasn't too keen on the John Ruiz fighting style he adopted for the final years of his career and faking low blows etc. I mean this is a guy that loved to tell us how hard he was and he did prison time yet faked low blows in a fight? Who does that?

 

He could have moved up but there weren't any big fights up north. The big fights were at super middleweight and welterweight. Light heavyweight was all about Roy Jones. It was a weak division from middleweight to heavyweight during the stretch of his peak years. There were only a few names that drew revenue or attention from the public. Bhop wasn't one of them. Roy of course was, but he wasn't bringing huge money for his opponents. Roy took the bulk of the purse and there weren't PPV dollars attached to fighting him. Hopkins was seen as low reward high risk.

Hopkins stuck around the middleweight division long enough for it to be infused with better talent and started to get more money and gain more popularity while improving his legacy.

Hopkins is only over rated if you think he ranks higher than guys like Ray Leonard or Roberto Duran. That's not easy to do for any boxer in the last 35-40 years. If you look at his body of work and what he has accomplished, they history he's made...and value its worth from that lens, there shouldn't be any question he's an ATG and is up there amongst the best. What he had done in the sport should be respected

 

We used to have fight parties every single Tito fight. Great times. My only regret was not getting out to see him in person. Never got to meet him either. I will someday though.

 

Yep. Tito was DK's money man at the time.

 

There were many named fighters he could have targeted at SMW and LHW.

In 2002, he turned down $6m to rematch Roy at a 168 C-W.

He deliberately shrunk himself down to MW to have an easier ride, where he enjoyed size advantages over the majority of his opponents.

I respect his longevity, but he played it safe until there was no where to go after the Taylor defeats. Whilst I respect him for fighting the likes of Joe, Tarver, Dawson and Kovalev etc, he would never have fought guys of that calibre when he was at his peak. He only fought them after his he'd secured his MW legacy, where he was in a position where he had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

 

That is exactly how it was perceived at the time. Myself included. I was at the Trinidad-Joppy fight, and Tito looked unstoppable at that point. I thought Hopkins had no chance.

 

I thought Tito looked good at MW.

I liked Keith Holmes too.

I've been a member on here for over 5 years now, and nobody ever talks about Keith Holmes.

I think that at the time, most people just assumed that Tito would beat Bernard.

I know that Roy pretty much thought it was a given than Tito would win.

As others have mentioned, there was a lot of talk regarding a C-W between Roy and Tito afterwards. That seemed crazy to me though.