Just re-watched Hopkins-Trinidad

the calzaghie fight was a masterpiece

 

100% agree with you.... I was the ONLY person in the room of 10 guys pulling for Hopkins. The other guys drank the HBO Tito hype machine koolaid... casual fans are the best people to bet against. I won $450 and I don't generally bet at all but I knew it was a sure thing that night, thanks B Hops.

I may bet enough $ to retire on the Mayweather vs Pac fight because there's plenty of casual fans that actually think Manny is going to ko Floyd! Gotta love it

 

It was a good win. Trinidad wiped his **** with William Joppy. Joppy was a title holder in the division, although in my opinion, Joppy wasn't better than the Robert Allen of the time, or Harry Simon. Joppy was still a top level middleweight though. So for Tito to move up and beat him down like that showed Trinidad was a viable opponent at middleweight. How would Trinidad have done against other middleweights? I am of the opinion he wouldn't have been invincible. Others outside of Hopkins could have probably beat him as well.

 

I would take Calzaghe. Calzaghe would have slapped his way to a decision.

I thought Hopkins fought Trinidad too cautiously. I think he respected Trinidad's power too much. Tito wasn't hitting any harder than Jones Jr., or Antwun Echols etc. Hopkins could have mauled him, and got him out of there earlier. He just played it safe.

 

Great win by a Hall OF Fame fighter.

 

I give full credit for Hopkins beating Trinidad. I'm Puerto Rican yet grew up and raised in Philly, but I can give Hops his props. Trinidad was a former WW, but Trinidad dared to be great. A true champion with an extremely fan friendly style and actually fought for the fans instead of just picking up a paycheck. I don't take anything away from Napoles getting KO'd by ATG Carlos Monzon when he moved up, and not taking anything away from Tito from getting KO'd by Hopkins.

That being said, Hopkins made an absolute full out of himself during the build up. Some of the stuff he did was just cringe worthy. He apologized and said it was to build up the fight, but then does the same racist antics with the Calzaghe fight.

This is why I can't be a fan of his.

 

It's a great fight to watch but as others have said, Trinidad was not exactly a great fighter at MW.

Still good though.

Hopkins has a library of great dismantlings that are fun to watch.

Trinidad
Pavlik
Pascal I
Pascal II
Cloud
Shumenov
Murat

All classic examples of what it looks like when a great fighter uses 100% skill to outbox and dominate a younger, seemingly more athletic opponent. Again, not like these guys are great fighters but the level of domination and flawless nature of the victories makes them worth watching again and again.

 

A true clinic one of the best of the era.

 

It was a good win for Hopkins. Trinidad was a good puncher at middleweight, not a great puncher. Joppy was a physically smaller middleweight than both Trinidad and Hopkins. Trinidad had leverage on him. I also have to note that Trinidad did not look particularly good against Joppy. He looked sluggish, and I felt he may have been a little shop worn on top of moving up. I knew against Hopkins he wasn't going to win. I told everybody who would listen, if Hopkins boxes, uses his reach and height he will outbox him and that's exactly what happened.