The curious career of Bernard Hopkins

Although I can see what you are trying to say, I cant fully agree, as the point the TS is making is that one fighter is naturally bigger than another and in this case that he feels Hopkins was often the naturally bigger man, which does appear the case in some fights even if his weight was less than his opponents. He may well have weighed less than Tito but I dont think he was the naturally lighter fighter and think he would have had to have maintained a massive amount of discipline to remain at the weight, where I expect Tito could probably afford to blow up in weight a bit between fights at MW

 

Ever since boxing allowed these ridiculous early weigh ins, the whole concept of weight divisions and making 'natural' or 'fighting weight' has been skewed.

The weight divisions are a fraud ever since they started allowing fighters to weigh in 24 or 36 hours or 48 hours or more before the fights.

It now comes down to how much a fighter can manipulate their body weight and cheat the scales, which relies a lot of genetics.
It always existed to some extent but the variations are more extreme now because the period between weigh-in and the fight is so much longer.

Yes, Bernard Hopkins might have been squeezing himself down extremely to make 160 but I dare say he fought a few fighters who were more extreme freaks that he was.

 

You can cheat scales and manipulate your body..but you can't cheat boxing. You have to actually fight the fight and win, and have skills to succeed in the sport and Hop had that tenfold. You're height doesn't determine what division you should be fighting in. Hop succeeded at mw and eventually lhw.

 

Guys,I'm right here?

 

Hey Bernard, do have any plans to officially retire? If not, I'd like to see you fight somewhere in Europe, like Australia, before you do.

 

I didn't want to take 60/40 or Rou to 'kick my azz'

 

Like who at MW?
Or who even that debuted heavier than Hopkins on his debut?

 

how come hopkins didnt fight proper mws bika, kessler and ashira when they were active mws.

 

ah just checked its because they had no/little success at mw. they only became successful after moving up to the then weaker SMW division, bika and ashira got a title shot without needing to prove themselves at smw, andkessler won two titles there having had no success at getting a title shot at MW.