:good Just for fun, what's your top ten list look like in its entirity? I tend not to rate heavyweights on pound-for-pound charts, although, the one exception that jumps to mind would be Tyson of the late 80s.
No problem- it's always changing, but here's what it looks like now. Since you asked nicely, I'll throw in 11 as a bonus :good. 1)Manny Pacquiao 2)Joe Calzaghe 3) Miguel Cotto 4) Izzy Vasquez 5) Juan Manuel Marquez 6) Kelly Pavlik 7) Cristian Mijares 8 ) Rafael Marquez 9) Wladimir Klitschko 10) David Haye 11) Bernard Hopkins
It was a good win. Always good to see a top fighter close the show. Much better then the Ibragimov mess of a fight.
Average Southpaws??? Ibragimov was an undefeated champions and silver medalist. Thompson was undefeated since 2000, and had never been dropped before. What do people want from Wlad??? He knocked the dude out and won basically every round. Thompson is a big ass HW with an awkward style. He's certainly better than a David Diaz, Phillip Ndou, Carlos Baldomir type fighter (skill and stylistically speaking of course)....
I personally think you're selling Hopkins short. Even though I think it's time for Hops to hang'em up, given most people had Hops and Calzaghe 3 or 4 in the P4P charts, I reckon Hops should still be in the top five, especially given that there are some who thought he beat Joe. Otherwise, I agree with your top three, in that order.
It could have gone way worse. Still not a fan of Wlad keeping his left arm out trying to block jabs, but it works for him. And he only really did that more early on. But he at least let his right hand go WAY more then her did previsouly. Hoping the Ibragomov fight was a fluke. Amnd Thompson is a loty better then many will probably give him credit for. He's give any HW a tough fight.
Interesting: Before the fight the media and the majority of the posters on this board were saying that Wlad needed to be tested and that Wlad needed to win by KO. Tonight Wlad was tested and he won by KO; yet, some people are still finding reasons to complain.
Rating Hops higher could definitely be justified. Part of the reason I have him that low is I'm not sure if he's going to fight again, but I didn't want to completely leave him off since he's more in limbo than anything- no future fight's been set, but he hasn't officially said he's hanging them up, either.
I thought Thompson was a lame opponent, so I can't backpeddle, now. Gotta stay with that original stance, or else I'll lose what littl credibility I have......LOL Can't praise Wlad too much for beating someone I deemed lame. LOL 6.
I think Thompson's reach, strong chin, and left handed stance was harder than expected to deal with. Took Wlad landing alot of punches (punches that would KO most other opponents he's faced) to get Thompson to start wearing down and dropping his defense a bit to where he could really get to his chin. I think even though he lost, Thompson won't lose much clout in the division, as he did alot better than most expected.