Try to keep their careers going or trying to revive their careers, when its evident that they're no long on the elite level. It seems as though they feel that they can fight some lower class fighter or some inexperienced fighter to get their name back in the spot light then everything before is all forgotten. I don't agree with that _ There are some cases when fighters do legitimately revive their careers but more times than not, its not the case. Prime example _ Roy Jones Marco Antonio Barrera Oscar De La Hoya Bernard Hopkins Antonio Tarver What do you guys think? and if you got more, please share.
Hopkins is no longer on an elite level? Huh? I think most of those fighters fight because they don't understand that they can't do it anymore. It's like when a baseball player realizes he can't even hit the fastball anymore. They just don't know what to do with themselves at this point.
Hopkins is not elite anymore ... his time has past ... he has great skill and discipline, but thats it. His win over Pavlik wasn't all that to me _ He can't handle a youthful athletic fighter ... when he fought Taylor he lost and he hasn't fought a young fighter since. He won't step up to the plate and fight a guy like Dawson _ He wants to fight a fighter who will stand there and let him use his tactics against him. Against a guy who moves and who's busy will give Hopkins alot of problems.
hops is still a top guy at smw/lhw, so don't know why he's mentioned (he beat lesser comp in pavlik???) i got no problem with older guys fighting so long as they're tested, know the risks, and don't try and cherry pick "money fights" without having beaten a legit contender (ala dlh and to a degree rjj)
I doubt I'll change your mind, but Hopkins is pretty much a consensus top-5 (top-3, really) p4p fighter. If that's not elite, what is? I'd agree, he's getting selective about who he fights, but he's competing at a very high level; I wouldn't put him in the same boat as Jones, Holyfield, etc. In short, he's aged but he has yet to prove to be shot by any stretch.
p4p is really more political than accomplishments thats why boxing purist and historians don't take much stock in p4p ... its more of a marketing tool than an actual measure stick of skills and abilities. There aren't 10 legit fighters that fit the true definition of p4p ... there are only 4 maybe 5. Hopkins doesn't fit that mold ... he's a skillful fighter and an all time great, but a current p4p elitist he is not.
