Rate Hopkins best middleweight title opponents. Who would be your top 5?

I'm assuming this is an exercise designed to rip apart Hopkin's middle weight reign and has been done before. But here goes.

1. Tito Trinidad - Not a middleweight but still an excellent win over a great champion especially considering Hopkins age.
2. Glen Johnson - solid undefeated contender who later became a light heavyweight champion. He was stopped only twice in 67 fights. One of them by Bernard.
3. Oscar De La Hoya. Pretty much the same reasons as Tito.
4. Carl Daniels - Former champion and solid contender.
5. William Joppy - Long time champion and fellow title holder.

 

Are you missing one?

Not sure in no order Taylor, de la Hoya, Trinidad, Glen Johnson, John David Jackson.

 

I think his reign was solid despite the efforts of his critics to take it apart. Bernard Hopkins was middleweight champion for a period of 10 years and 20 title defenses. His record doesn't have much glitter in the win department but some of those guys were quality opponents who just lacked charisma and popularity. We praise Marvin Hagler for beating super stars who ascended in weight to face him, but don't seem to give Hopkins much credit for his wins over Oscar and Tito. Fact is, Bernard is the only person to ever beat a "reasonable" version of Trinidad. Duran was well past it and fought Hagler to a practical standstill.

 

Tito was undefeated 40, still in his 20's and coming off a solid TKO victory over a long holding middleweight title holder. The notion that he was simply " a blown up welter" is over stated. Duran started at light weight just as Oscar did. Going into the Hagler fight he was past prime, had never beaten anyone at middle, had a recent lost to Kirkland Laing and still gave Marvin all he could handle. Sure Duran is leagues better than Tito on an all time scale. But the timing of the fights and the circumstances going into them tell a different story to the honest and diligent.

 

1. Taylor
2. Tito
3. Oscar, rated above Holmes bc he seemed prepared for Hopkins unlike Sturm
4. Holmes, ~prime beltholder
5. Joppy, last legs beltholder, but still good enough to beat most of the division

Echols is a narrow miss bc I think he would've lost to that version of Joppy. Johnson was too green to be considered. It would be (many) years before he started making noise. Lipsey had his career ended by Hopkins so we can't be sure of his potential.

 

What about Joe calzaghe?

My bad, didn't realise it was just middle weight. Calzaghe got to be best he's fought though

 

Tito, De La Hoya, Johnson, Joppy, Holmes.

Very solid resume with 2 ATG men, a future LHW "champion" and two men who shared the top 3 rankings with him for a decade.

 

1. Trinidad- Not a great middleweight but a good one with a lot of experience and enough power to be a real threat even at 60.
2. Glen Johnson- not a high profile fight but in a pure boxing sense a quality defense.
3. William Joppy- Solid belt holder wit a decent degree of talent.
4. Awnton Echols- He was dangerous. One of those guys that gets forgotten about. Echols could hit and he stunned Hopkins a couple of times.
5. John David Jackson- Crafty Southpaw. Not a fun guy to figure out but Hopkins broke him down.

 

Am I mistaken, but wasn't Jackson way past his best by that point?

Anyways, my top-5:

1. Roy Jones Jr. (This was for the IBF trinket, not sure why this is missed)
2. Jermain Taylor
3. Felix Trinidad
4. Oscar De La Hoya
5. Glen Johnson

Definitely not the toughest bunch, comparatively.

 

I'm not sure if he was way past his best. Jackson may have been on the downside. I remember he had a tough southpaw style. Good skill set and not an easy guy to look good against.. A smart guy. I liked the way Hopkins broke him down. If you look at a guy like Oscar certainly a great fighter but not really a threat in any way as a middleweight. He had actually been beaten pretty soundly by Felix Sturm before facing Hopkins.

 

1;Joe lipsey for sure b/hop knocked dude out on his feet literally he was a decent fighter never fought a day after that fight. 2 jermain tylor good two fights. 3 Kelly pavlik OG. took the knockout kid showed him a great lesson, never recovered after that fight became a substance abuser career done, 4 tito trinidad psychology won that one and Trinidad was big at that time never won a big fight after and retired for goog. 5 glen johnson very good fight benard applied him self... b/hop thanks for your memories!!!

 

RJJ was far and away the best MW Hopkins fought. After that perhaps Keith Holmes, who had been a belt holder for some time. So had Joppy but he was beaten by both Taylor and Tito. So these five with Jones comfortably at the top.

Some say Taylor is the best, but that's must be to a large degree because he beat Hopkins. But he's probably in the mix anyhow. Echols and Allen looked like tough SOBs to me. Not the most skillful, but guys that are uncomfortable to come across and who can mess up good records if not taken seriously enough.