So, Hopkin's Wins Over ATG Welterweights...

Hopkins was willing to fight De La Hoya at 154lbs during the late 90's. 1999 if memory serves me correctly.

 

Benvenuti was proven at 154 and 160, and was not as out-sized by Monzon as the others were by Hopkins.

Griffith was also very proven at MW, one of the best ever in fact.

The Napoles win was a dominant one over an unproven fighter at MW and a much smaller man, and is thought of about as well as Hopkins's wins over Tito and Oscar, difference being he was definitely better than Oscar, and though Tito at least showed he could compete at MW beforehand, Napoles was more skilled than him as well.

The problem is most of Hopkins's top wins are smaller guys, such as Wright as well. Otherwise he holds wins over Tarver, arguably Taylor, and a young Glenn Johnson, who was not the fighter he would later become.

Hopkins just doesn't have the resume to stack up to a guy like Monzon because his legit MW opponents were nowhere near as good as guys like Valdez or Briscoe. He has the skills though.

 

Trinidad wasn't outsized by Hopkins. When they were both sharing the same ring they were close in overall size. Certainly from the viewing on television their was next to nothing between them. Nothing like Napoles against Monzon. Not even remotely comparable.

 

He had a clear advantage over Wright and Oscar.

Somewhat odd, when you consider that when they fought each other, Tito looked bigger than neither Oscar or Wright. He did look closest in size to Hopkins though, just not as solid.

As for Briscoe and Valdez. Yes, there is a difference in class between them, but which of Hopkins's MW wins would you consider as good as Bennie? Briscoe may not have been the most consistent, but a fair amount of his losses came at the end of his career, as is the case with many fighters with his amount of fights.

 

Hopkins kept himself in such great shape that he wasn't a big middleweight. He started his career at light-heavyweight, but he was comfortable making 160lbs for years. Just the discipline and sheer dedication kept his weight down between fights. He never let himself go above 166lbs between fights. Want to know Hopkins' waist size when he was a middleweight, 28".

Could Hopkins have made light-middleweight to fight Vargas, Wright, and De La Hoya? No problem at all. Logic tells us that if he weighed 156lbs in 2004 then 154lbs 4-5 years earlier would not have been a problem.

 

Which of Hopkins's wins at MW was as good as Briscoe? I honestly can't think of any, that just goes to show you how poor his comp was.

As for Wright, yes Hopkins was older, as Hopkins aged better than most boxers throughout history, but Wright was just as far removed from his prime at that point as Hopkins, given not only the time, but the weight of the bout.

 

Tito Trinidad
Height: 5'11"
Reach: 72"
Weighed in at: 158 1/2 lbs (1 1/2lbs heavier than Hopkins)
Previous fight at middleweight: Dominant stoppage over WBA middleweight champion William Joppy (only 1 previous defeat)
Age at time of Hopkins fight: 28
Record at light-middle (6lbs lower than middle): Held WBA title then unified by becoming 1st man to beat (& stop) Fernando Vargas (20-0)
Trinidad's record pre-Hopkins: 40-0 (34) inc wins over Whitaker, De La Hoya, Camacho, Vargas, Reid, Joppy, Carr, Campas
- Ended 2000 as #2 The Ring pound-for-pound rankings


Now we can allow Trinidad's post-Hopkins career to dilute the significance of that win, or we can take into consideration the above facts, and accept that it was a stunning victory, one that can justifiably be called a career-defining one. In my opinion Trinidad is one of the top 10-15 welterweights ever (as is DLH but I think Tito was better at middleweight), and Hopkins's stoppage win over him was even better than jumping 2 weight divisions at age 40+ and dominating the linear LHW world champion.

 

Oscar had become a money grabbing hack by the time Hopkins got to him and has been one for many years now.

His inept performance against Sturm showed us all we needed to know about his worth(or lack of it)at middleweight.

To compare him to Benvenuti or Griffith is to give Oscar a level of respect he is far from deserving.

He's not deserving of being compared to any good middleweight actually.Add in i strongly suspect he quit in the Hops fight just as he was starting to get dominated and you have a farce of an effort all-round.