For me: 1.) W12-Antonio Tarver 2.) W12-Jean Pascal 3.) TKO12-Felix Trinidad 4.) W12-Kelly Pavlik 5.) TKO11-Glen Johnson 6.) W12-Tavoris Cloud 7.) TKO11-Antwun Echols 8.) TKO7-Robert Allen 9.) KO9-Oscar De La Hoya 10.) W12-William Joppy In my opinion the top 5/6 wins were all pretty easy, with some possible debate over some should be shifted up or down a spot. But after that it becomes tough to choose, with some quality scalps missing the list: i.e. the wins over Winky Wright, Karo Murat, Howard Eastman etc. It really depends on the grading criteria. On one hand Winky is a great fighter who landed in the IBHOF, but that fight was a nightmare to watch. Robert Allen wasn't a hall of famer, but he was world class with heavy hands, and Hopkins gunned him down after that controversial first fight. And the third Allen fight was pretty clinical as well. What about his violent encounters with Segundo Mercado or Joe Lipsey, or the record breaking finish of Steve Frank. How do those in-your-face muggings stack up relative to a history making win over Beibet Shumenov? Curious to hear what everyone says.
Good list. I would throw the Mercado, Holmes and Wright wins on there. He had to beat Mercado on the road in high altitude and got hurt by Mercado which was about the only time I can recall him being hurt. Beating Winky was a hell of an accomplishment. He was an incredibly difficult guy to fight. Keith Holmes was a damn fine fighter as well.
I feel Wright was better than all the fighters listed above even at middle, even though Hopkins exposed a lot of flaws that most fighters couldn`t at light middle.
No doubt about it, Wright was one of the top 3 fighters Bernard faced, but my rationale for excluding that fight was that it was a particularly ugly foul fest. Hopkins' fights in his later years were typically pretty much mauling waltzes, but this one was really tedious to watch. The way Bernard won was a bit like a football team where the only points score were for one or two field goals. Also, the cut to Wright, which wasn't a small factor in the fight, was the product of an awfully intentional looking headbutt. Plus Wright was significantly smaller, and he looked awfully soft around the middle. There had been rumors in boxing for years that Winky was a bit of a slacker, and in this fight it looked like he had a lot of fun getting up to 170lbs. This is borne out by the fact that he was seen eating KrispyKreme doughnuts during the HBO Countdown show. Just one more word about that Countdown to Hopkins vs. Wright show...I was in high school when that fight went down. Toward the end of the show Brother Nazim Richardson was talking about what motivated Bernard to keep fighting after what would have been the fairy tale ending against Antonio Tarver. Naz gave an amazing speech about how Bernard lusted after challenges the way other men lust for women, and how if Bernard wasn't able to box he would get bored and would sneak into the zoo at night to climb in the cages and fight the wild animals to see how he stacked up against the animal kingdom. Afterward I was so fired up I went outside and ran like 6 miles nonstop.
Unfortunately, Hopkins didn't get the decision against Mercado in their first encounter, when Hopkins fought him in Ecuador (it was a Draw). The win for him came in their rematch, which took place in the US.
You are correct. I thought the draw was in the US and the win was in Ecuador but I was wrong. Mercado seemed to fall of the face of the earth after losing the belt. To this day Hopkins has said that Mercado hit the hardest of all his opponents.
Solid post. Hopkins was known for fouling. It was an art form for him. Fouling is the primary reason Hopkins stopped Tito late, as he's slip in kidney punches to the ref's blind side. I would not put Pascal at #2. He simply wasn't that good, and once again Hopkins didn't fight clearly here. What amazes me about Hopkins was how ling his career was, and his stamina in the later rounds past the age of 40.
You might be right. I would probably revise the list to rate that win below the Pavlik victory. He looked brilliant about Pavlik and that win clearly meant a huge amount to him as evidenced by his reaction post fight
1: Felix Trinidad 2: Kelly Pavlik 3: Antwun Echols 2 4: Antonio Tarver 5: Jean Pascal 6: Glen Johnson 7: Segundo Mercado 8: Joe Lipsey 9: Keith Holmes 10: Winky Wright
It's a tough question because there's a lot of things to consider. In my opinion, the Tito win is the first name that I think off when I consider his best wins. I know Tito had only had 1 previous fight at MW, but I thought he looked good. Bernard was 36 and the underdog. The Tarver fight would be up there for me, but I think there's a strong chance that Tarver was drained for that fight. The performance over Pavlik was absolutely sensational, but it was at a C-W above MW. I couldn't rate the win over Winky high for the same reason. Winky had never fought at that weight in his life. I think the win over Pascal was great only due to his age at the time. Pascal was tough and Bernard's longevity has to be respected. But I wouldn't rate the win as highly as what you have.
Good lists. For me the Trinidad win is no. 1 as it made Hopkins a legitimate great middleweight. It was the most significant win of his career.
