Jones Vs Hopkins

Hopkins got better with age, he went life and death with a colombian dude like 2 fights later. Hopkins was fighting straight bums before the jones fight

 

I don't think it was a peak Hopkins that Jones beat in 1993. He had a couple of unconvincing performances not too long afterwards and his opposition beforehand hadn't been too taxing. He certainly hadn't settled into the kind of boxing which we now most associate with him at that point in any case and was perhaps still a little bit wet behind the ears.

That said, he was obviously still a good fighter at that stage and you could argue that Jones hadn't quite reached his real peak yet, either. Particularly when you consider the injured hand against Hopkins and the fact that he seemed to elevate himself to another level after moving up to 168.

It's not as if Jones just scraped by. It was a bit of a safety-first performance but he still beat Hopkins more clearly than anyone else did for almost twenty years afterwards. Hopkins was always a touch vulnerable against speed (Jones, Taylor, Calzaghe etc.) so he's always the underdog against Jones whenever they meet in my opinion, provided they're both in or around their best years.

As for why a rematch didn't take place around the time it might have meant something (so basically 2002 / 2003), well the weight difference is one aspect but a bigger one is that Hopkins was never serious about it anyway. Those demands he was making around the time of that doubleheader we he and Jones faced Daniels and Kelly respectively were pantomime stuff. Hopkins knew they'd be rejected and they were designed to be.

Jones had beaten him once already, it would have been Jones' titles on the line rather than Hopkins', Jones had already said he was open to a catchweight of something like 165, 168 or whatever and he was the bigger name / draw on top of that....Yet Hopkins was still holding out for a 50:50 split? Nah, it was all window dressing and lip service for a fight he didn't really want.

You'll notice Hopkins wasn't asking for catchweights a few years later when it was Tarver who held the Ring belt at 175 and, when Jones (or anything like a prime Jones) had been removed from the picture.

 

He’s never been impressive until his age was a factor. During his MW reign he got by with superior Ring IQ and offensive discipline He knew where to place shots, when to jab/hook/etc.. But more importantly he took away his opponents best offensive weapon then snooze the fight until the decision. No really impressive but good enough. Think about it his best wins at MW was against 2 long time WWs.

It wasn’t becoming impressive until it was 41 years old Hopkins moving up two weight classes and beating Tarver. Or 43 year old hopkins beating undefeated Kelly Pavlik, 46 year beating Pascal to become lineal LHW champion and the oldest to ever win a title. 49 year old beating Cloud for the IBF breaking his oldest record then becoming the oldest to ever unify vs WBA Shumenov. His LHW run had a lot to do with how great his career is perceived.

 

Hopkins was boxing years before he went to prison.

 

Because they're strategically steered into showcase fights against clear no hopers who usually have no experience at all for one.

And no, not 5 years into a career, it doesn't. It wasn't his 3rd fight, he was 20+ fights in.

I can't be more clear than I already was, you cannot use the "green" excuse once you are 5 years into a career. If they fought each other a year into their careers, sure. Half a decade into a journey...............no

 

He absolutely did, and there's no disputing it. Hopkins at his peak at MW (vs. Tito) would not have beaten SMW Roy, no matter how much better he got with age

 

Hopkins killed a rematch w/ his demands. He might have been a tad green, considering his amateur experience was prison boxing.

 

Interest in hearing the response, what was his record?

 

Doesnt really matter if it wasnt the very best version of hopkins or not i think any knowledgable boxing fan knows the best version of roy beats the very best version of hopkins every day of the week.

Hopkins was a great fighter but roy was special. Will be a long time before we see someone with that level of natural talent than roy had imo.

 

What most people don’t realise, is that Hopkins only asked for a 50/50 split live on air during their famous argument on HBO.

This has been discussed many times before, and about 5 years ago, I posted some direct quotes from Mark Taffet of HBO. He states that he went to meet Bernard in person after the live on air argument with Roy. He said that he purposely let the dust settle before meeting Bernard privately. They then spoke with each other, where Taffet told him that they had a package where was Roy to make $8m, and where Bernard would receive $6m, plus a further fight on HBO in the future. It was for a proposed 168 pound C-W.

At the time, Bernard’s highest purses had been $2.5m against both Tito and Carl Daniels. Most of his other fights had been just over $1m. Yet Bernard told Taffet that it would have to be $10m or no fight. He didn’t ask/demand for the same $8m which Roy would have received. It was simply $10m or no fight. So he had absolutely no intentions of ever taking the fight back then.

He only took the rematch in 2010 when he knew that Roy was shot. He’d even said in 2008, that he had no intentions of fighting Roy, as he was no longer ‘Superman’

 

Bernard wouldn’t take the rematch until he knew that Roy was done.

 

Plus, Tito wasn't himself at 160 anyway.

 

Hopkins has a better farewell bout thats for sure. Knocked out into the abyss.

 

Fanboyism.. Toney weighed 207lbs when he started training camp, he was dead at the weight ... in fact he lost straight away at 175 too.. his fat ass was so fat his body was even outgrowing the vast amount of natural talent he had.. I suspect both of them were using vast amounts of steroids through their careers as well