Prime Bernard Hopkins vs Prime Jake Lamotta at 160

I think Hopkins was the weaker at 160 but B-Hop has the better frame for 175....Jake was a very strong fighter and his resume was better at middleweight. Hopkins big wins came over blown up Welters....Jake was in your chest and had fast hands for a bull.....B-Hop is not a slick fast handed mover with great power like SSR...Its a great match-up vs Jake....I like Jake

 

One think which is quite funny, LaMottas best win by miles is up against a "blown up" welter, whom he got dispatched by multiple times after it, and who he significantly outweighed.

I am not talking about resume. He did not have "fast hands" for anybody he had average handspeed at very best, also he has very slow feet.


Basically style wise Jake is at a disadvantage, skills wise he is at a disadvantage and hell he is disadvantaged in nearly all facets of what would help you win a boxing match.

Short, slow pressure fighters with average power will not trouble Bernard Hopkins, Speed would trouble him. La Motta would get outboxed and badly, Hopkins has very good handspeed as well, and was significantly better defensivly than Robinson.

 

Robinson weighed in no more than 152lb even in his middleweight prime, so him weighing in at around 145lb vs Jake Lamotta should not be discounted. Lamotta was the first to beat a Prime Sugar Ray Robinson, the greatest fighter this earths ever seen. Give the man his due.

Also, I would like to add why not say Marcel Cerdan(top 15 middleweight) was his greatest win? Lamotta floored cerdan in the first with a left hook then beat the **** out of him, then cerdan tried to get physical and lamottas strength caused cerdan to hurt his shoulder. then the next 9 rounds lamotta beat the **** out of a great middleweight some more. Once again, give the man his due. Marcel Cerdan is a great fighter.

 

Lamotta in his prime was not slow. He was quite quick. He was short, but he also had unbelievable strength, Concrete Chin, and Human Windmill like Stamina where he would never get tired in his prime. Lamotta was very adapt defensivley, slipping jabs very well

 

It was more of a dig at the "blown up welter comment"

I still would say the Robinson win would be better. I have already said Jake is a great fighter, but Stylistically he does not match up well with Hopkins.

 

He did not have quick feet from what I have seen, he had average handspeed. He is at a handspeed disadvantage and not an insignificant one.

He was good at slipping jabs, indeed. Hopkins was never a fighter who built his game around throwing the jab. Hopkins would love a guy who he is faster than him going towards him constantly. I am not going to say LaMotta was unskilled or even had awful defence but it was not great. Hopkins would not find it hard to time him and with his defensive skill would not get hit clean very much at all.

 

Well just so you know, I pick Hopkins too. I just dont think it will be one sided.

 

Hopkins outboxes Lammotta the same way he did Pavlik, Trinidad, and Johnson.

 

Hopkins would win a Ud for me. No one at 160 makes easy work of a prime Lamotta though it wouldn't be one sided.

 

This isn't going to be a case of Hopkins being too clever for a come forward fighter, in fact it's far from it. But i feel he could win a decision and that's my pick.

 

Yeah, it pretty much is.

I agree that Hopkins takes the decision, but it'd be a very competitive fight. LaMotta gets more underrated than overrated these days.

 

By the way, there's footage (albeit shaky) of a prime LaMotta against Joey DeJohn up on Youtube, finally. Again, not the best footage, but it shows the effectiveness of his style pretty well IMO. His upper-body movement is very underrated, as is his defense in general. He was good at parrying and rolling punches, as well as countering with the leverage gained from his head movement, mostly with the left hook. He also had a good, sneaky jab to go along with his already highly regarded body attack. When you take into account his strength and inhuman durability, you're left with a very difficult task for any MW to handle, despite his limitations.

 

He's also(and I'ma include Ray Robinson in this too) never seen a complete masterful boxing tactcian like Hopkins either.

 

Next please.

 

I'd say that LaMotta peaked during 1943-1946 (before the Billy Fox fix) but the Joey DeJohn fight is as close as we will get to seeing a prime LaMotta.

Here's LaMotta vs Cerdan (more footage than the usual 1 minute hl):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onb-p3YsQk8

Here's a highlight I made of LaMotta's past prime fights:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6vhwn_jake-lamotta_sport