Holmes,Echols and Johnson were good wins. Trinidad(Tito had just destroyed Joppy) and Tarver were excellent wins. Quite a few meaningless wins in there I agree, but I think some fighters can be considered atg even if they haven't beaten any 'greats' in their prime or at a simular weight (Oscar and Tito obviously)
Echols wasn't anything special but at 160 he had a big punch and brought the pressure. Johnson wasn't thought to be anybody when Hopkins fought him but now he is. Tito couldn't make Welterweight no more so he HAD to move up. Then he beat the 2 best 154 pounders then moved up to 160 and beat the #2(and many people might not remember this but Joppy was thought to be underrated and Jopkins overrated) Middleweight in the world. Not only did he beat him but he DESTROYED him like no one has done before or after. Great win for Hopkins esp since he comepletely dismantled Trinidad. Eastman lost a close decision to Joppy and some people might not to remember but Joppy was ****in good. Holmes was a very good fighter in his prime.
This guy deserves no respect. Talking about a former P4P best with one good win when he lost a title he defended 20 times and won another. This is why I say people should study boxing backwards in time before talking about what they do not know fo'sure!
As Bunce put it Hopkins gave Calzaghe a "master class." All you have to do is watch the fight to determine who the better fighter is. It's unmistakable.
Were you a boxing fan at the time? Trinidad was the 5-1 favorite. He had just destroyed Middleweight champion William Joppy in 5 rounds, and was 40-0. Trinidad is 5'11 and now claims he can't fight any lower than 170 or so pounds, and now all he ever was was a "Welterweight?" GTFOH.. Yeah, that's not a GREAT win for Hopkins. That wasn't absolutely HISTORIC.
TIto was his biggest win because most people were expecting him to get knocked out, tito looked the goods at middleweight but by the time him and hopkins got in the ring hopkins done a fine job of gettin inside his head prior to the fight and forced him out of his gameplan. He was favoured against hoya, wright, pretty much everyone else. I do feel if tito continued and middleweight and kept on fighting he would be a top2 or 3 middleweight right now and hold one of the belts, but he decided he wanted out so fair enough
Hopkins was extremely cautious with Trinidad for the first half of the fight. Extremely. Hopkins was deadly serious about avoiding Trinidad's left hook. People like to use alot of 20-20 hindsight bull**** now, but it was an unbelievable win at the time. There were people who had just finished watching Trinidad almost kill Vargas, and Joppy back to back - and both were very highly rated, especially Vargas of course, but Joppy wasn't any joke either - that could not believe, literally, that Hopkins had beaten him. It was ****ing surreal. UNREAL. IMPOSSIBLE. That kind of ****. Larry Merchant said what Hopkins did was possibly the best performance he had ever seen in a boxing ring. And Merchant goes back a loooooong way. That's a statement.