Dick Tiger vs Bernard Hopkins

Okay I'm misremembering I was sure I had higlights of one and two full fights. Definitely gave Tiger one of 'em.

But it's true, he was a plodder. It would cost him here. I still say he was the 'greater' middle than B-Hop, though that's debatable depending on how much stock you put into Hopkins' defences.

EDIT: I'm probably mixing this up with Tigers series with Fullmer, which I have only highlights of one of the bouts (the 1st?)

 

Hopkins has his hands full here, as DT would make him work more than he's used to. I do agree that X might trouble him with his skills, but I think if Mr. Ihetu can top Giardello a time or two, he can outpoint Hopkins. That's my take.

 

atsch Tiger is going to make Hopkins work more than Glen Johnson?

 

Tiger is certainly much better than Glencoffe.

 

Skillwise Tiger is not much better than Glen Johnson.

 

Harder puncher and stronger though, arguably.

 

Not buying what you're selling.

 

Awww, I'm devastated.

Anyway, Johnson got much better with experience. Hopkins beat up a green Johnson.

 

Some people tend to disagree with me, but I think that Hopkins had quite a bit in common with Griffith stylistically.

Not completely so for a couple of reasons, but I always thought they went about business in a similar way (and were both turgid as **** to watch as they got older).

And if we're talking a younger middleweight Griffith, I'm not really sure that Hopkins was that much more skilled or effective, if even at all. Maybe ever so slightly better at some things on the defensive/transitional side. But Griffith's opponents were generally a lot more skilled than Hopkins', so it can be hard to tell sometimes, and I'm uncertain that Hopkins would consistently present the same type of difficulties that Giardello and Archer did if he tried to do so. I don't feel as confident as others here do on this, it seems.

Hopkins wasn't quite as fleet footed as either imo and didn't quite have Archer's jab nor Giardello's style even if you wanted to say that the constructed layers of his defensive makeup were better as an overall package. He was often content to mix his movement and mid-range positioning with scrapping, spoiling and mauling up close, which is what Griffith did against Tiger. And I thought Tiger edged their fight tbh.

Hopkins was generally good at close range in this day and age of nonexistent inside tussling, but I can't quite shake the notion of him being something of a flat track bully who never responded well to people who had ring intelligence that challenged his own or the gumption to take him on at his own game up close, which was depressingly rare. So I'd be very interested to see what he made of Tiger at that range and how he might respond.

As Griffith did? Or go entirely defensive after much bitching and moaning to the ref? I'd bet on the latter, so it's just a question of whether he could keep himself half a peg in front over the 15.