Charley Burley v Bernard Hopkins

do you think the zivic - burley fights show any indication?

this would be a good fight.

another I'd love to see is toney v hop at mw.

 

Too bad we don't have more footage of Burley. I get the feeling that he'd be a nightmare for just about anyone at his best, though. Jones I'd pick over him without hesitation and Hopkins might just be too big and strong combined with his skill, as well. This is just pure, wild speculation, though, seeing how little footage there is of Burley.

 

Haven't seen any of Zivic, so really can't say.

Feel kind of pissed off that it never happened (not that it ever was close to as far as I know) now that you mention it.

 

I am kinda pissed at toney in general. from 95-2003 he just went missing really. he should have been competing at a higher level in the lhw division keeping his name in the picture.

I'm watching a lot of him atm, fighting at such a high level vs nunn, mccallum, johnson, barkley, littles etc. then nothing, then jirov, holyfield, booker, guinn, he clearly still had his talent as a heavyweight which makes me angry we essentially missed 8 of his best years due to him being a dick.

rant over lol

 

Yeah. Great talent and great discipline seldom go hand in hand, unfortunately.

 

The comparison with Jones is a valid 1, but Jones was much bigger/stronger (likely 10-15lbs in the ring), hit far harder and was taller, probably rangier. Hopkins has allot of range on Burley and if he isn't having success outside likes to come inside to rough up faster opponents with better jabs, Burley being a natural WW would be susceptable to these tactics

I'm going with the natural MW on this 1, a good big man beats a good small 1

 

he fought like he HATED echols in that one if memory serves. his torturing of robert allen and joppy rank up there with me

 

The rematches with Echols and Allen were as filled with hate as any I've seen. Hopkins operated at his very best when he really wanted to punish and destroy the other guy.

 

How is he going to do that exactly? And why does it make you favour Burley?

One could argue Pascal is of 'that' style.


As for the fight, I genuinly don't know how Hopkins would approach it. Be interesting if McGrain or SH89 have any thoughts on it.

 

Thread oddly lacking in customary pretentious analysis from McGrain

 

I just don't know McGrain.

 

i'm certainly not nearly the analyst they are but i think hopkins would approach it like most of his big fights: strip away burley's strength.

i imagine hopkins realizing that timing, judgement of distance, power and working at range are even or in burley's favour. based on styles, id lean towards hopkins speeding the tempo up slightly to throw off the long range, precision punching and trying to walk burley down. he'd work to negate burley's outside game, force the fight on the inside and make it a bit rough.

even a prime hopkins wouldn't be averse to tying burley up, frustrating him and picking his own shots carefully. bhop would have a size advantage by fight night and would damn well use his physicality to bust up burley in close. when ready, he'd then engage at middle distance behind the jab and time burley coming in with a right hand

round after round, following a patient strategy and ad******g as burley does. just how i see it anyway

 

Depends on what you mean by 'muscled', as this is boxing not wrestling, he bossed and bullyed most LHWs with his punches, which pretty obviously have much more weight behind them than Burley's with the 2 men being 2 natural weight classes apart. And weight has advantages in many ways in boxing, being able to push a man back, durability, being able to parry/block punches, holding your own in clinches - and BHOPs does like to hit and hold. It seems Charles and Bivins both managed to impose their size on Burley. As for Moore, Moore wasn't a LHW back then and probably wasn't as good by that stage either.

Your analysis is focusing on the older BHOPs, who had changed his style and/or slowed down a bit. The 90s version is ofcourse much more aggressive