I see people constantly bashing hopkins for all the fighters he beat, by making excuses for them. But when he loses(and he hasn't even really been beatin in 15yrs. if you wanna get techinical about it) everybody talks about how old he is and how overated he is. They didn't give him credit when he beat Tito, and said he was blown up, but Tito just knocked out Joppy and was in his prime. They didn't give him credit when he knocked out De Lahoya, and said he was blown up(and that was true) BUT De La Hoya not only carried his speed up to the middleweight division but that was the last time De La Hoya looked physically great for a fight and I even thought he peaked out for the fight. What makes that fight more impressive for Hopkins was to prove he was not only bigger but better and he did that by boxing with him instead of imposing his size to show people that it wouldn't of mattered if they was the same size and he still didn't get credit. They didn't give him credit when he beat Winky, And said he was blown up when Winky hadn't been beatin decisively in 13 yrs. and was coming off some good wins agaisnt Quartey and a draw agasint Taylor(and everybody should be aware that Winky beat Taylor, that shouldn't even be a dispute) the same Taylor that people on this board tries to say beat Hopkins.( I thought Tyalor loss twice to B-Hop) Winky actually walks around at 185 and is not even really a junior middleweight if you think about it. He didn't look to small when he backed up Taylor, a suposedly bigger man and actually gave Hopkins probably his hardest fight, but yea he was too small. Hopkins has been quoted for sayin Winky hits harder than Calzaghe on boxingtalk.com. They didn't give him credit when he beat Tarver, a guy who beat Roy Jones Jr. twice and knocked him out cold in the 2nd fight(and that was the best Roy Jones for the 2 rounds it lasted in that 2nd fight with Tarver we've seen since his glory days in the lightheavyweight division) but he was deydrated and wasn't prepared. He sure looked motivated in training until the fight and than even went out and said his water was poisioned. Maybe that's saying that he doesn't really think it had nothing to do with losing the weight cause in order for him to say that, he had to have felt good coming into the fight. And last but not least, people are now not giving him credit for beating Kelly Pavlik. All of sudden Pavlik was never that good, blown up(when in actuality is a bigger man than hopkins and stronger too) and he was sick. He didn't look that sick and slow in the fight in my eyes, infact he said he never got tired one time in the fight, so he couldn't been that sick if he never got tired. But wait, his speed looked no different than the gary Lockett fight(I ananlized it) and his workrate didn't look no different than the 2nd Taylor fight, although the only difference was the target and that's cause Tyalor doesn't have defense like Hopkins, so that'll make anybody look subpar. Oh but wait, this the same guy who beat Taylor twice decisively, the same Taylor Calzaghe boast about that Hopkins couldn't beat. Being that Hopkins beat Pavlik and Winky decisive, guys Taylor couldn't beat, I think it's fair to say Hopkins is better than Taylor and the whole Taylor/Hopkins arguement should be put to rest, but i'm only bringing this up, just in case any doesn't realize it since nobody has addressed it yet. The fact that Hopkins got the job done against Taylor, even though he didn't dominate him like Pavlik(but still did more than enough to the decision) should say how versatile he is and how he could deal with different styles when confronted with it. Well, I don't know, is Hopkins really that good, or does he have careful match making? I don't know too many boxers who stay on top as long as he has and everytime he wins a big fight people critize it. Now I know you can get lucky but not 4 times in your career when your a big underdog, nobody keeps getting lucky like that. Any thoughts?
Yea but as the air clears people are now trying to find ways around it and saying Pavlik was sick, blownup, never that good and this has been a consistent thing with Hopkins since the Trinidad fight.
In your eyes, not in my eyes and all observers at ringside didn't think so either. So that means it's been disputed.
hopkins has done alot of great things...no doubt....but he also fought alot of garbage fights in those 20 title defenses Robert Allen- not once, twice, but 3 times! M Hakkar ( haha) William Bo James steve frank andrew council simon brown ( blown up welter) carl daniels when he fought Joppy he was beyond shot but alot of the other people were pretty tough guys early on vander pool, mercardo 1,2 lipsey john david jackson glenn johnson trinidad, DLH, taylor 1,2 roy jones, calzaghe, tarver, pavlik i mean, the good outweighs the bad...he still has the best resume of anyone in the last 30 years.......
There's been more than one poster on this board who hasn't gave him credit for what he's done. Anybody who keeps saying Pavlik was sick and ain't that good is basically sayin Hopkins didn't really do anything. Hell, even Roy Jones tried to bash the victory by saying he would beat Pavlik easy, and how Pavlik was green and how hopkins ain't worth fighting cause he beat him already. Nobody on this board thinks Pavlik could beat Abraham or Kessler now after the Hopkins fight and I know they was sayin before he fought Hopkins.
In my eyes being that Hopkins was the champ and Calzaghe needed a Ko going into that 11th round, it wasn't even questionable, I had Hopkins winning by 2 points.
It's not his fault the talent pool wasn't big in the middleweight division. That's the reason he stayed around in his 40's to get more credit from people.