So where does Hopkins rank now all-time?

He's sure in my top 50.

 

What a fantastic performance, winning would be great enough but to totally dominate - WOW!

 

Having Hopkin's outside of your top 50 is insanity in my opinion.

If he wins his next big fight, potentially against the winner of RJJ/Calzaghe, he'll shoot up even more.

It's going to be interesting, the Jones/Joe match. If Jones win he conclusively shows he's improved over the last few years, which nullifies a Hopkin's win over Jones being "useless".

And on Jones, he's seemingly learned from his two knockout losses and adapted a new style around his remaining strengths... High guard, more ring smarts, and so on.

And if Hopkin's beat Calzaghe in a return match, well...

Either way, Bernard has a chance to become over greater now.

 

I have the funny feeling Jones is going to get beaten. Hopkins has showed all along he still has it, Jones is a long way from convincing me.

 

Right now, I think Hopkins has to go down as a better fighter than Roy. Even though Roy beat him way back when they were proverbial kids, Hops has come off far better vs. common opponents with Roy and has much more impressive achievements IMO.

 

I agree completely.

It'd be nice to see Roy vs. Hopkin's again if only to see how they've both changed with age... But eh.

Yeah. Favoring Calzaghe quite a bit myself.

 

EASILY top 50. He went undefeated and reigned over the middleweight division for over a decade, won the light heavyweight title at over 40 years of age, and, now well on the darker side of 40, has beaten two of boxing's pound-for-pound elites (Wright and Pavlik), and arguably beat the man who many consider world's pound-for-pound #1 (Calzaghe). Aside from Archie Moore, Hopkins is the best over-40 fighter in the history of professional boxing. His sum career resume (wins over De La Hoya, Trinidad, Tarver, Wright, Pavlik, etc.) is outstanding, his longevity is nigh unheard of, and the only clear-cut loss of his entire career was to a prime Roy Jones Jr.; if he were a judges'-darling like an Ali, he could be 54-1 right now. Hopkins may be the greatest fighter of his generation, and is without the slightest doubt one of the top 50 of the gloved era, in my estimation.

 

I think people are getting carried away with this win already.

It was sensational, it was dominant, it was unexpected but it remains to be seen what this win really means.

Pavlik has had a short and relatively meaningless reign at middleweight and he may not go on to do great things. He may never have any impact out of middleweight nor even go down as an ATG fighter there.
Somebody was going to do this to Pavlik one day..I mean really.

But massive props to Bernard, he continues to cement his greatness.

 

Hopkins greatness was "cemented" a long time ago. He's now adding to it.

 

True. Even I'd admit that. But Jones faces a far superior opponent than Hopkins did.

 

Great post.

 

Coming from a massive Hopkins fan, Jones is still greater, but I think B-Hop is a guaranteed top 50 now IMO. To outclass a world class and truly elite level fighter at age 43 is phenomenal. This is perhaps my favorite moment I've ever had in boxing.

 

Not many considered him "far" superior 2 hours ago. Not at all. Many will now take down Pavlik as best they can and minimise Hopkins achievement. Didn't see barely anyone taking Hopkins pre fight tho. To be honest i reckon Jones might have more hope of beating Caz than Pavlik, Pavlik would get to his chin as Roy's no longer the defensive wizard Hopkins showed he is today and Pav carries big power. At least Jones has a pretty ordinary hitter to fight power wise, one that might not be able to get to his biggest post prime weakness. Fantastic clinic by Hopkins today.

 

Didn't they? Yanks maybe. Oh, and don't you think they'll knock Calzaghe down a peg or two if he loses to Jones? And so they should.