By Dominic Athwal: I sometimes think that B Hop doesn't ever get the credit he truly deserves. For a man who lost his first fight and came in to boxing through being in prison I believe he is only second to Mayweather Jnr and Roy Jones in this era. He made 20 title defenses in the mid division which is unheard of these days especially as he was the undisputed champion and held the proper world titles and not the WBO rubbish. Even though he lost a few fights during his career he always has been willing to fight against anyone. In his first bid to the title he fought a young Jones who was regarded as the best propsect in the US at the time. Even though Roy beat him by UD 116-112 it is in my opinion the closest anyone got to a peak Roy. Up until the first Tarver fight no one had won that many rounds against Roy. So whilst a defeat it was one which he could be extremely pleased with. He then won the title from Mercado. After thier two fights I truly believe Hopkins ended his career because Sergio took a lot of punishment in them two fights. He then went onto defend agaisnt tough oppoistion undefeated prospect Lipsey 25-0 who he knocked out in 4, then he knocked out John Jackson a former 2 weight champion & a highly rated fighter. He then fought the Road Warrior who was undefeated with a record of 32-0 and is the only man to ever knock him out in a 61 fight career. Bear in mind that Johnson has been in with (Dawson,Tarver & Jones.) Then he went onto beat two weight champion Brown who never won again after B Hop finished with him. He then beat some good fighters including Allen before his first unification fight with Holmes. He dominated Holmes a two time world champion. Then came his big moment when he beat undefeated and the highly favoured "Tito". Who was 40-0 and in his peak. This is an underestimated achievement. Tito had only moved up two weight classes and was regarded as the best pound for pound. It's the same as FMJ moving up to l.welter and losing to someone who was taller and people saying its not a big deal he was the smaller man. He then went onto dominate beating William Joppy a former two weight champion, before becoming the first man ever to stop 6 weight world champion ODH. He could of retired then a legend But no he carrried on fighting. He lost to a hungry Taylor in a very close decision when he was just shy of his 40th birthday. Then lost another very close fight to Taylor neither really clearly being the victor. SInce them two fights Taylor has never been the same a testament to what Hopkins does to fighters. He then returns and moves up two weights and beats the heavily favoured Tarver to an easy UD before beating Winky for the first time in 7 years. He then schools Calzaghe in thier fight but in all honesty lost simpy because he ran out of gas. Now he is set to fight Pavlik. Win or Lose you have to respect the man no other fighter in the history of the sport can claim to have fought and won so many top fighter
