Larry Merchant vs Bernard Hopkins: The War

Who did you want Hop to face? Just make RJJ and Hop II, III, and IV? Hakkar was a Euro champ at the time, and who else would he fight?

 

I don't care who Hopkins fights. I appreciate Larry Merchant for facing the real issue head on.

Maybe it wasn't Hopkins directly at fault for the farce, maybe it was Boxing in general, but at least that was made apparent by Larry actually saying, "Look, this fight sucked and should never have happened" instead of glossing over the truth. Like Larry, I'm also wondering why Hopkins made a point to call out all Junior Middleweights.

 

Merchant annoys the **** out of me. He's says stupid **** all of the time. Maybe he was right for calling out Hopkins and Roy and Floyd but its hard to give him the benefit of the doubt with how many idiotic things he says during a fight.

 

Hopkins fought Hakkar, when he could have earned substantially more against Calzaghe or Jones or even fought a true decent MW like Sturm who would have outboxed him to a close UD

 

Ground breaking. I actually agree with something you wrote. Merchant is annoying, and I dont like him either. But thats as friendly as we will get, because Merchant was correct to question Hopkins for his level of competition and for calling out smaller fighters

 

Thing is alot of the dudes on this thread are on the other thread saying Hopkins is ranked ahead of Floyd and Roy for fighting these welterweights. Yet are with Merchant in saying he shouldnt have fought these welterweights. But thats what Hopkins resume is based off of.

But.. Oh dear I've gone crosseyed :nut

 

merchant is hung like a buffalo

 

Tito Trinidad moved up a division to challenge himself further and was seen to be an absolutely destroyer when he almost killed William Joppy. That fight then has credibility, not only because Trinidad was perceived as being one of the best fighters in the world anyway, and Hopkins was relatively unproven, but because Trinidad proved himself at that particular weight.

You honestly don't see the distinction between those circumstances and Hopkins calling out "All Junior Middleweights" after beating Trinidad and practically clearing up at 160lbs? You honestly don't see the distinction? If you don't have any Middleweights to fight then move up and challenge yourself like Trinidad did, don't call out all smaller men after being the likes of Hakkar. Are you kidding me?

 

They have been a la Kelly Pavlik and the Klitckos brothers. You can argue Shane/Mora but the undercard was great IMO.