If You Knock Bernard Hopkins For His Biggest Wins at 160lbs being Against Welters..

I agree somewhat.

Thomas Hearns ended up winning a light-heavy belt. Sugar Ray Leonard ended up winning a Super middleweight belt. And even Duran won a middleweight belt, and is arguably a top 5 all time fighter.

Out of all Hopkins "smaller" guys, none of them could hold the extra weight properly (barring possibly Trinidad), hence why none of them have won a title at middleweight or above (barring Trinidad against Joppy; and if you wanna count Dela Hoya-Sturm).

I also think fighting Wright at 170 isn't the same accomplishment as if he fought Wright at 160.

And of course the other fact that Duran, Leonard and Hearns are Top 20 all time p4p fighters, where Dela Hoya, Trinidad and Wright are not.

Hopkins is certainly up there with Hagler, however. Although Hagler did win the undisputed title in his first title win, and made 14 defences of that undisputed title. Whereas Hopkins won the vacated IBF middleweight title (that he lost to Roy Jones earlier) from a nobody and made a few non-descript title defences for a number of years.

Hagler's the greatest middleweight of all time for me.

 

Hagler fought a better slew of middleweights on the road to the title than Hopkins, which is the main reason why I'd probably rank him a little higher on an all-time middleweight list than Hopkins.

Hopkins jumped two divisions though, to beat the Ring light-heavyweight champion in Milkdud.

I really wouldn't argue too much with either guy being ranked above the other, it's just that I don't think either should be considered greater by a real wide margin.

 

I rank Roy and James toney higher than calzaghe for all time 168 guys...thats just me...

 

and that was during a time when Echols was the biggest puncher in the division...Joppy and Holmes decided cheerfully not to mention Echols' name...i think we know what would've happened...

 

What gets me about nard is that he clinched and held all fight and gets praised by these idiot posters on here. Whereas hatton does it for 4 rounds against urango and he's dubbed mini-ruiz. **** hopkins!
He'll get his ass handed to him by calzaghe.

 

Hopkins did NOT "clearly" lose to that HBO-hype job Taylor. He "lost" two VERY debatable decisions, and has since proven what a joke those two GIFTS for Taylor were. :nod

 

Yeah I thought the first fight was a draw and the second fight Bhop edged Taylor. You can make an argument for Taylor losing to Cory Stinks, and BHop just beat the FAR better JMW in Winky Wright. Stinks vs. Bhop when Bhop was 26 years old, that would be a massacre :yep

 

mix in the fact that hagler cleared out a very good middleweight division long before he fought the smaller fighters who were all atg fighters.

being objective rate haglers best wins, against hopkins best. at 160 and you will see why marvelous is rightfully viewed in a better light.

scypion, minter antofuermo, hamsho x2, briscoe. give me 5 hopkins fights against decent competiton without using the smaller fighters.

 

The Napoles win is hardly ever mentioned as a top win for Monzon becuase he didn't do anything at middleweight. The likes of Griffith and Benvenuti proved themselves at 160 time and time again, unlike Oscar and Felix. No comparison.

 

What, by wanting to face Taylor again? Only an idiot thinks the second fight was a gift. And Hopkins hardly set the world alight in the first contest.

 

Haglers untouchable on this board. According to everyone Mugabi is an all time great, Leonard lost by 7 rounds, and Duran was prime when Hagler beat him.

 

People will ALWAYS have this argument
My opinion is- fighters fight FIGHTERS. regardless of weight

Hagler wanted to fight the best in/around his weight, which includes 147-168, etc.. same with Hopkins
you gotta fight everyone..
the best available-
true, Bernard defended that IBF belt 20 times, but he fought some pretty good fighters in there- 20 times without a loss against SOLID fighters, period:

WILLIAM JOPPY
GLEN JOHNSON
FELIX TRINIDAD
ANTWAN ECHOLS twice
SYD VANDERPOOL
FELIX TRINIDAD
HOWARD EASTMAN
OSCAR DE LA HOYA
SEGUNDO MERCADO

that's a pretty good list of solid fighters he defended against
He also beat Tarver and Wright later on in his career, and has a chance to beat RJJ and Calzaghe still.
I've never understood the argument about fighting blown-up welterweights, junior middleweights, etc..

 

I don't recall anyone saying these things. No one is untouchable on this board....not even SRR.

 

Hagler would have easily beaten de la hoya,trinidad,johnson and winky,probably tarver as well.....Do you think b-hop would easily beat hearns,duran and leonard????? I think that answers who has the better opposition and who is the better boxer....

 

Exactly what I said on the other thread.