Tommy Burns vs Bernard Hopkins

Burns was a great lightheavyweight. The best in the world for a while.

That being said, as a lhw, hopkins, by my card, has victories over tarver, winky, calzaghe, pavlik, jones, pascal (x2) and he's due to fight dawson.

That's a decent top 7 and it shits all over burn's resume.

Burns had a very nifty right hand but, to date, hopkins has never come close to being stopped and there's no way burns can outpoint him.

Hopkins by a wide ud. Maybe 9-3.

 

:nutcase

There's a lot of us nutters on here then.

 

I wouldn't argue that date.

For me, it seems to be much more (1880-1925) as old school. (1925-Present) as modern school.

I'd argue that modern school is superior to those from the old school in general (level of contenders, journeymen etc) BUT the guys who stood out from the old school era, did so (by and large) because of qualities that would have seen themselves very well aquitted in a latter era.

 

i tend to use benny leonard as the start of the modern era so close to those dates myself

 

Good shout :good

It seems to me that right around the time of Walker Law the skillset in boxing generally (from top to bottom) had a big improvement and I'm not overly sure why.

Prior to this, the sport was sometimes unrecognisebale with fights being fought to different rules etc.

Bit like comapring Rugby Union to Rugby League really.

 

in general the pre 1920's guys spent more time in the clinch. i think burn's has more experience there, and can move weight an generate power well. i underestimated how long hopkins had been at lhw when i did those odds.

 

Hopkins was surprised by the sheer force of Pascal's attack, even it the case can be made that he deserved to win both fights. Burns' offense can probably match that level of force, and honestly, he's not really that far removed from most modern offensive fighters in terms of punching technique and hand speed.

That being said, I think Hopkins would find a way to neutralize Burns' attack on the inside after a while, and eventually carve out a closer than expected UD.

 

Hopkins.