Hagler vs Hopkins both in prime at 160 who wins?

hagler would probably be better suited to making hopkins come to him, it would allow him to take full advantage of his much better jab(his best weapon to offset Hopkins lankiness) and quicker in-out movement.

I think if either fighter is drawn into being on the front foot too often by the other, they would lose.I favour hagler if it stays mainly a clean textbook fight, in large part due to that significantly better jab being by far the best safe, simpley pointscoring weapon either possess.if it gets dirty and more of a brawl, i lean towards Hopkins.

The ring generalship thing would be key as well...hagler was inconsistent here.I think i'd like his chances more if he was in the position of being champ defending against Hop, or if they two were both fighting in a non "superfight" sort of scenario.i don't think Hagler handles the build up as well there.hopkins could take advantage of that.

btw i think the only good southpaw Hopkins fought his entire career was Calzaghe.i've never quite bought the great against lefties thing...big deal doing well against ancient tarver(impressive as coming back at the higher weight was), shot JD Jackson etc, these fighters were hardly shining examples of southpaw ringcraft.Though i agree hagler's switch hitting skill is overstated too, he rarely did anything worthy as an orthodox fighter.

 

I can assure you Alan Minter doesn't agree with your analysis. Straight from his own mouth he told me that every punch from Hagler was hurtful, and when he tried to push him around the Marvellous one was way too strong.

 

Alan Minter wasnt exactly what I would call a strong middleweight. He was bulled around by several more fighters than Hagler such as Sibson, Tonna, Antuofermo first fight, Finnegan, etc. There are a lot of fights where Minter was not the strongest guy in the ring. What he did best was box and move but when someone got inside it could give him problems. Nevermind that Minter wasnt as big as Hopkins to begin with and was, IMO, one of the poorer MW champions so any comparison between what he is going to do against Hagler and what Hopkins will is night and day. Its not as bad but similar to saying that Lucif Hamani said Hagler was strong so Hagler had to be stronger than Hopkins.

 

yes prime Hopkins can use his extra size to keep lil Marv at bay and squeeze a SD.

but marv will beat up old 40something Hopkins - in fact anyone decent enough can do that if they are have lung power on their side so that they can sit out hopkns early skills and then capitalise on his gassing out due to pace.

 

Hopkins would "get inside Hagler's head", he'd find a boxing glove, and he'd get killed.

Hagler, for all his famous mental fragility , would be too much for Hopkins.

 

Hopkins would get into Hagler's head, just like he did with Jones, Taylor, Calzaghe, Dawson... oh, erm. It sure worked on Tito, though.

On the subject of mental fragility, what odds that after three bruising rounds Hopkins will collapse in a heap clutching his groin after a non-existent low blow, or maybe he'll just fall out the ring and be unable to continue.

 

With all due respect I'll take a former word champions word over yours every day of the week, no matter what you might think of him. Unless of course you have fought Hagler, or even Minter for that matter, and you can prove you know how strong each of them was.

 

Hopkins didn't fight ugly in his prime.


Hagler UD.

 

...

 

Thats fine but I'll take a bunch of welterweights moving up in weight to fight Hagler who didnt have any problem dealing with his strength over what a cut prone drunk who was the bottom of the MW barrel had to say on whether Hagler was too strong for a guy who fought and defeated big, hard punching, strong light heavyweights. The bottom line is that Hagler is beyond overrated these days. He was a bald, mean looking, muscular black man and like Hurricane Carter before him this seems to win him extra brownie points despite the fact that his resume against legitimate MWs is weak, for all his bluster he was rarely the destroyer he pretended to be, he often choked in big fights which either cost him decisions or at least left his performances sorely lacking, and made some of the worst tactical blunders in history. What Hagler was was a good all around technician, a southpaw, durable, with very good not great power. Well guess what: Hopkins is every bit the technician Hagler was, is smarter, just as durable, has solid if unspectacular power, has a great record against southpaws, and is much bigger than Hagler. Anyone who thinks Hagler is going to blow Hopkins away, make him quit, defeat him easily, or most ludicrously outmuscle him is blowing Hagler up to something he wasnt.

 

Oh no you didn't just lump Hagler in with Carter! :shock:

 

Hagler ko 6-7!!

 

Bald and black that's all they had in common:roll:

 

Neither was Hopkins, ask Jermain Taylor... Hopkins get into Hagler,s head,that,s comical !!

 

Hopkins is absurdly overrated. A classic example of being a big fish in a very small pond. Put someone with an average IQ in the dunce class and they'd look like Einstein by comparison. That's Hopkins in this era. Murat? Shumerov?? Beaten easily by Jones but of course at 28 he wasn't in his prime then. Dropped twice and drew with Mercado, but of course at 29 he still wasn't in his prime. Finally beat Mercado at the second attempt and made loads and loads of forgettable ABC defences against the likes of Hakkar, Eastman and Council, before finally being chased out of the division by Jermain Taylor. Obviously couldn't get into Jermain's head.

What else is there? An inexperienced Glen Johnson, who he'd never fight again, a drained to death Tarver returning from his jaunt in Hollywood. Average fighters like Pascal and Pavlik? Hop was struggling to handle Robert Allen before Mills Lane, all 5'7 of him, did Bernard a favour and catapulted him out of the ring with a shoulder tap. Calzaghe turned him into a whining club fighter, pulling his protector cup up to his armpits and writhing on the canvas trying to win on phantom fouls. Had to resort to the same tactics against a shot to smithereens Jones. Not to mention being one of the foulest (and dullest) fighters of recent times.

But yeah, he'd chase Hagler out of the ring.