KOing Bernard Hopkins, is it possible?

There is only 1 middleweight I can think of who had the power and size to KO Hopkins. Gerald McClellan. He was 6'1" and could destroy a guy with either hand.
Just don't think he would be able to land enough to do it. But if there was a guy that had the tools, it was G-Man.

Foster, Charles and possibly Spinks at 175. But even the old Hopkins is still a genius.
He was too smart for Hagler, too big for SRL and in to good of condition for SRR to be stopped by any of them.

 

Well, Segundo Mercado almost got it done.........and that was a prime Hopkins,no BS, alitude or not.

He makes fights close when the going gets rough but he goes into a shell, fights ugly, clinches, wrestles etc ......and does not take chances under those circumstances, see RJJ, Taylor, Calzaghe and so on.

He also fought many guys who had to come up in weight and for the vast majority of his fights he was the "Big" guy.

For the record I watched Hopkins when he was a upcoming fighter still fighting on the then very popular Tuesday night fights on cable.......and I have seen pretty much most of his televised fights over the last few decades . I do respect his accomplishments but I cannot say I like his style of fighting from the mid nineties on.

 

It's true, prime Hopkins was in some degree of trouble against Mercado.

But still, after all this time, no one has stopped him.
I think it's pretty obvious that a fighter like Ray Robinson would stand an excellent chance of doing it though.

 

It only takes one punch, and Ray Robinson knocked out middleweights as big and as durable as Hopkins.

 

No one think Monzon has a good chance of a late stoppage?

 

Hopkins ended up a much better fighter down the track. Put the Hopkins of the Trinidad fight there and Mercado doesn't get a look in. Hell, he whooped him in a rematch straight away, actually stating that the previous fight was career changing per dedication and the like.

 

Hopkins at his best is essentially Bennie Briscoe with a great defence; he is (or at least was) incredibly hard to stop.

As has been mentioned he loves to clinch which takes a guy who was previously difficult to stop and makes him near impervious.

This isn't silly worship. Posture is Hopkins most underrated aspect whereby his chin is seemingly always angled ever-so-slightly down and that right hand is stapled to his chin to shield against boxing's most dangerous blow.

Nothing is impossible. If we were hypothetically evil and had the physical marvel run a gauntlet he would get stopped somewhere, but when perfectly prepared around 160lbs, Hopkins getting stopped is a scenario about as likely as Ted Spoon saying something out of turn.

 

Factor that durability with ring smarts, text book fundamentals and a spoilers mentality.

Ain't happening.

 

Hopkins didn't really truly develop the spoiling skills until he got older, post-tito.Though obviously he already had his good defensive skills and poise by then, and didn't really need to spoil at that point much.

Nonetheless, the toughest Hopkins to stop all things considered, isn't ideally the Hopkins you would want to see in with other great and excellent fighters at middleweight if you want a best against best scenario, which imo makes this question a bit more interesting and difficult to predict.

I wonder if 160 Hopkins wouldn't be more aggressive than we might expect, if he gets seriously buzzed in these hypotheticals against Robinson etc

 

lol Of course. The Hopkins worship, especially as a MW, completely baffles me. Have him come along a decade earlier and he would be mentioned less today than Nunn. For the record Pascal never even stopped a half decent SMW yet he rocked Hopkins world, Pascal isn't a puncher.

 

:dealMe too...this Hopkins-mania cracks me up. Today's fans are just starved for a legend to marvel at.

 

Pascal briefly stunned a 46 year old man who kicked his ass. Nice bit of supporting evidence there.

 

:deal

If a 190ish lbs man whacks you at 46, you're going to feel it.

Hopkins is a legend, you can judge him against idiolized greats from by-gone eras all you like, but he belongs in the conversation.

 

Chad Dawson will answer the thread question in the rematch with Hopkins.