Finally scored Hopkins Jones, surprisingly one sided, Hopkins did nothing

Round 1: Jones 10-9
Round 2: Jones 10-9
Round 3: Jones 10-9
Round 4: Jones 10-9
Round 5: Jones 10-9
Round 6: Jones 10-9
Round 7: Jones 10-9
Round 8: Hopkins 10-9
Round 9: Jones 10-9
Round 10: Jones 10-9
Round 11: Jones 10-9
Round 12: Jones 10-9

Jones 119-109

2nd time I watched the fight, first time was about 3-4 years ago. What a stinker, but I wanted to score this fight after hearing people say that Hopkins made it a close fight.

Completely uncompetitive fight. Hopkins did nothing. He just didn't initiate any offense. He just threw the left jab out there with his reach advantage, but never committed to it, he only wanted to avoid Jones' incoming fire.

I gave Hopkins round 8 because of that instance where he landed the 2 right hands back to back.

 

I have a theory about technical fighters and what they do when they are physically outgunned. When a well schooled fighter finds himself physically overmatched in the ring either through speed or size differential they can either use their skills and fight negatively to ride out a stinker decision loss. Or they can refuse to yield and go out on their shield which usually leads to them getting violently KO'ed.

Hopkins was the better technician than Jones and so was Toney too. But they were just too far outgunned and physically overmatched. So instead of fighting to win the fight, they just fought to not get knocked out. They ended fighting a completely negative bout and rode out a lopsided decision loss where not much happened. They just refused to initiate offense. Another example is Loma-Rigo. Both master technicians, but Rigo was totally outgunned by the speed and size of Loma. So instead of going out on his shield he fought negatively as possible and refused to initiate offense. He later quit anyways, but he weaseled out with all his faculties in tact.

On the other hand we have instances where the superior technician is physically outgunned, but instead of yielding he goes down swinging. A good example is Duran-Hearns. Obviously Duran is the superior technician, but the speed, power and size of Hearns was too much. It was like Duran had too much pride to just clinch, run away and potshot his way to a shutout loss. Before the knockout he laid on the ropes almost as if to say, I have nothing for you, just finish me off right here with dignity.

Barrera was the same way with his fight with Pacquiao. Even though MAB was the superior technician, he was physically outgunned by Pacquiao. The Filipino was just too fast and Barrera didn't have the power to get him to back off. If you recall in the 3rd round Pacquiao scored a flash knockdown with a blazing fast straight left. Barrera went down unhurt, but had a look on his eye before rising to beat the count. The look said it all, his eyes conveyed I can't beat this man, he's just too fast, what can I do, I just can't handle the speed. Barrera refused to yield the fight though and fought to win instead to survive, which is he got knocked out and brutalized. In the rematch a older Barrera survived, but a prime or close to Barrera couldn't survive. Why is that? Because in the rematch Barrera just chose to survive.

Last example is Pryor-Arguello. Clearly the better technician is Arguello, but he was outgunned by Pryor's speed, size, workrate and toughness. If you recall later in the fight Arguello landed a massive, flush straight right hand that Pryor just walked through astonishingly with ease. Nobody and I mean nobody walks through Arguello like that except Pryor. It was at this point that the fight became a foregone conclusion, Pryor was going to walk through him and finish him off with a violent KO.

Hopkins chose to survive and not win the fight. You could say that a shutout loss or a 11 rounds to 1 loss is far less honorable than a brutal KO loss. Because many times when a fighter loses that lopsided it's because they just fought to survive with negative tactics. But getting knocked out viciously is a sign your ambition to win the fight, your refusal to yield, even in the face of a physically superior opponent.

My 2 cents.

 

Hopkins performance doesnt look good. It looked tentative and cowardly. Instead of refusing to yield and place himself in harms way and risk himself getting knocked out he rode out a surefire decision loss by fighting negatively to survive.

 

I think schooling is the wrong word, but I totally agree with your sentiments about how uncompetitive it was.

To be schooled you have to actually show up to class. You have put yourself out there and take risks.

Hopkins didnt show up. He was absent. He was physically in the ring that night, but all he did was run away and huge Roy Jones.