Hopkins is not over the hill

Joe Louis was 76 years old when he fought Rocky Marciano.

 

he looked good in his last fight because he was fighting a fat LMW.

the winky win means nothing.

 

his tarver win was spectacular but tarver was never much to begin with. still i think the way hopkins beat him was what impresses people. the wright win was good but not great, but then again at any weight, wright is an awkward challenge. hopkins is not in his prime (ala trinidad win) but is still up there

 

I think the key to Hopkins' success is that in 40 years time Oscar De La Hoya will be the High King of Earth and Hopkins will be his Chief Visier. Using his influence Hopkins will have a time machine created on the sly and uses it to take the dna enhancing drugs of the future back in time and inject them into his infant self thus giving him increased ring longevity but the wily old ******* has the smarts not to go too over the top and tip off future High King of Earth to his plan which would change the future and Bhop's position in said future, and without that he cannot go into the past. You follow? Stranger things have happened.

 

Actually, Hopkins was past his prime in the Trinidad fight. He was 36 years old then. Before the fight I was telling someone, "If this was the Hopkins of five years ago, I would make him the favorite in this fight." As it turned out, Hopkins surprised me in that one. He has been able to use his ring smarts and skills to make up for his lessening physical ability.

 

and if calzaghe had fought, lets say, cory spinks (an awkward little fighter who shouldn't go above 154), would he be getting this special treatment that b-hop does for beating up a smaller man?

winky is not a very big middleweight, his best weight is 154.

 

You nailed it. People who haven't seen a young Hopkins think he always fought this way. It just isn't the case, he used to be a high pressure, break-your-will type of fighter. He always had a strong desire to win, but it was his study of the sport, and his knowledge of its history that allowed him to take what he had seen of past legends and apply it to redevelop himself as he aged. This allows him to still compete today.

In terms of his peak? He's clearly past it.

 

I doubt Winky could go back to 154lbs anymore, which means he is no longer of that weight class.

People seem to forget that Hopkins only jumped up in weight two fights ago, and is a career Middleweight. He was not "much bigger" than Winky.

 

he also started his career at 175 then dropped for a short while down to 168 (i think?) so it's not exactly alien to his body, winky on the other hand looked like a fish out of water, the fact he had to eat his way up to the weight sums it up.