Was Tarver really a 3-1 favourite against Hopkins?

The one that's more shocking to me is that Winky Wright was a 3-1 underdog against Shane Mosley.

 

Hopkins coming off 2 losses, Tarver coming off the RJJ trilogy and a win of Johnson

Hopkins moving up 2 weight classes at 40+ years old

 

It was hardly crazy if you experienced it when it actually happened, not saying you probably didn't but almost everyone picked against Bernard in this one, it was also worse than the Pavlik fight which was quite similar.

Let's face it, Bernard was 41 years old at the time, Tarver was coming off a major victory over Roy Jones in a third fight, a fight where many were actually giving Roy a chance even though he was the underdog. Bernard was coming off two losses to Taylor, the first fight was controversial but the rematch was a clear win for Taylor. Even though that's a LIST of negatives for Bernard the worst part comes here, he was moving up two divisions in weight to fight Tarver, something SRR tried to do and failed, which is what made it WAY worse and against the best Light Heavyweight. No one thought Bernard will be able to do anything in this one, the majority picked Tarver by KO and the other few picked Tarver by clear one-sided UD in a fight where Bernard doesn't throw much and stays on the defensive leaving Tarver to score rounds easily. I remember I picked Bernard to win that fight though I admit my confidence in that prediction was very low.

 

Hopkins being the underdog was hardly shocking at the time, it's just that people like to pretend "WOW, how can he be an underdog like that! :shock:" when the result is out. Wright being the underdog wasn't that shocking either, Winky was unknown at the time and hasn't proven his skills against enough elite fighters for the bookies to make him the favorite. Though Hopkins being the underdog made far more sense but both seemed logical at the time and that can't be denied even after the result was out.

 

Ali was a 7-1 underdog to Liston in their first fight. After the fights happen, things become much clearer.

 

But Mosley had been performing poorly as of late. He had those 2 fights with Forrest where he looked terrible, and even the DLH rematch, he didn't look very good.

Wright at least had been seen as one of the top 154 lbers, but hadn't gotten a fight with a big name since 1999.

The majority of people on the boxing forums I was on picked Wright, so did I, that's why I was surprised that it was 3-1. With the name recognition, I figured that Shane might've been the betting favorite, but I thought it would've been much closer odds.

 

thats it.

 

Yeah, but Tarver had to lose a lot of pounds in a short time after the Balboa movie.

 

-Moving up two weight divisions against one of the most dangerous fighters in the sport at the time and top 10 P4P. Not to forget Tarver was coming off a major victory over Jones and Johnson.

-41 years old.

-Coming off two major losses at Middleweight.

Sounds VERY fair to me that he was the underdog, even if you look at it right now and ignore what happened you will still see it as impossible for Hopkins to win or even make it to the final bell.

 

You could also bring up Trinidad vs Wright, this comes close with Mosley vs Wright even though Wright made it on the big scene already after beating Mosley twice yet still was the underdog there as well.

You make some good points there then again Wright was still unknown at that point and his loss to Vargas(the only big name you could mention) didn't help pick him as the favorite. Despite looking bad against DLH in the rematch, Mosley still got the victory there(a victory I disagree with even as a huge Mosley fan).

 

No one really gave a damn about that, as far as I remember none even brought it up till the fight was over with and that's not only on ESB but many other boxing sites/articles. It was still looked at as a movie and nothing serious enough to pick Hopkins over Tarver for.

You can put it this way. Hopkins is 41 years old, coming off two major losses at middleweight, moving up two weight divisions above to fight the #1 fighter at Light Heavyweight. Tarver is coming off a major win over Jones and is losing a lot of pounds for a MOVIE. Which one looks worse?, FAR worse that is.

 

oh please, dont you people start acting like you knew Hopkins was going to win it and could never understand why he was the underdpg.

Almost everybody was picking Tarver and the most hardcore Hopkins fans were just hoping that Hopkins puts up a good fight and last all 12 rounds.