Hopkins' Best Victory

mgdb26 · Jul 16, 2009

itrymariti said: ↑

Which is Bernard Hopkins best victory?

1. Kelly Pavlik

Pros:
Beat a young, prime, unbeaten fighter
Dominating victory; Pavlik arguably lost every round
Hopkins was coming off a loss to Calzaghe, way past his physical prime and with serious stamina and conditioning issues
Shut Pavlik's work-rate down from 80-100 punches a round to under half that

Cons:
Pavlik was outweighed by about 10 pounds and well above his best weight
Claims of Pavlik suffering from Bronchitis on the week of the fight
Couldn't KO Pavlik despite being the bigger man and Pavlik being helpless
Pavlik pretty much an ideal stylistic match up for Hopkins, with mediocre hand-speed, fairly simple and plodding footwork

2. Felix Trinindad

Pros:
Beat a young, prime, unbeaten, top P4P fighter
Trinidad had had several fights at LMW and close to MW to settle him into the weight
Won with a KO against a tough opponent
Trinidad was a well rounded fighter who was widely expected to out-speed Hopkins, and with no massively distinct weaknesses

Cons:
Trinidad perhaps over-rated somewhat

3. Oscar de la Hoya

Pros:
Beat a very gifted and well-rounded fighter
Scored a great KO with a fabulous precision body shot

Cons:
Oscar probably wasn't a veritable MW, and only had a handful of fights above WW, only just getting past Sturm
Oscar probably was reaching the end of his physical prime and looked quite tentative for much of the fight
Oscar was very much in the fight, perhaps only 1 or 2 behind, at the time of the KO - would B-Hop had've won had he not connected with that one punch?
Oscar had already bean beaten by Mosley and Trinidad and driven out of his proper weight zone

4. Antonio Tarver

Pros:
Leapt up two weight divisions to face Tarver
Tarver rated very highly at the time
Lopsidedly outboxed Tarver

Cons:
Tarver almost certainly over-rated
Tarver getting to the end of his career

I'd say Trinidad.
Click to expand...

The fact that you can't come up with any cons for the Trinidad fight shows that its the obvious choice here.

ryanty22 · Jul 16, 2009

bhops best win was obviously against calslappy although the tarver win was awesome too. oh, wait hops was robbed against the worlds greatest BRITISH super middle weight

Jolly Roger · Jul 16, 2009

ryanty22 said: ↑

bhops best win was obviously against calslappy although the tarver win was awesome too. oh, wait hops was robbed against the worlds greatest BRITISH super middle weight
Click to expand...

His win against Big George Foreman was awesome aswell. SUPER B-HOP!!!

thewoo · Jul 16, 2009

mgdb26 said: ↑

The fact that you can't come up with any cons for the Trinidad fight shows that its the obvious choice here.
Click to expand...

The most common con and one that I am surprised he did not mention is that this was only Tito's second fight at the weight and most did not view him as a true middle.

I picked Tarver. Hopkins did this at a time when it was clear that he himself was well past his prime, jumped up 2 divisions and didn't just win but completly dominated. In this fight he shed the myth that he could only beat smaller guys.

Log in or Sign up

Hopkins' Best Victory

mgdb26 Boxing Addict Full Member

ryanty22 VRWC Sledgehammer Full Member

Jolly Roger Active Member Full Member

thewoo Boxing Junkie Full Member

Log in or Sign up

Forums

Hopkins' Best Victory

mgdb26 Boxing Addict Full Member

ryanty22 VRWC Sledgehammer Full Member

Jolly Roger Active Member Full Member

thewoo Boxing Junkie Full Member