When exactly was Bernard Hopkins prime?

bernard hopkins has no prime!

 

I agree. Beetle Bailey is very emotional when it comes to Calzaghe. Sort of like a den mother protecting her hoes. Joe has far less wear and tear than your average fighter since he fought only bums and b level competition in his own prime while Hopkins and Jones were fighting champions and future elites.

 

vs tito

 

I totally agree with you. It's virtually impossible to pinpoint one moment in which BHop was in his prime. When he fought Roy Jones, he was physically in his prime but he was clueless as to what strategy to adopt.

Today, he is obviously physically past it, but he undoubtedly knows a lot more about strategy. He knows how to study an opponent and figure out a way to beat him.

He's a boxer in which the mind and the body were never at their best at the same moment. You might say that his prime was when he was in his mid-thirties, when he had a great deal of both his physical and mental prime. But then someone might argue that the mind is more important than the body, or vice versa that the body is more important.

Almost impossible to answer the threadstarter's :dealquestion.

 

Hopkins has not progressed technically or strategically in the past 10+ years. In fact, his overall technique has seemed to be on a slow, but steady decline recently. There wasnt a single thing he couldn't do from '97-'03 that he did better before or after. Mentally and physically, he was at his absolute peak during that span.

 

Just as hypothetical considering that Calzaghes hands were at their worse towards the end of his career and Calzaghe was closer to the end of his career than Hopkins and had also shown decline before facing Lacy.
People peak at different times, some in their early 20s, so lets not get too sensitive. With Calzaghe people dont notice his prime and peaks as much as he was never defeated

 

I dont need to do any protecting, an undefeated record with names like Hopkins and Jones speaks for itself. Calzaghe was also beating champions.

You just have to learn to accept that Calzaghe beat Hopkins and Jones. Live with it but never forget it

 

Prime: 1996-2003
Peak: 1997-2001
Absolute peak: 2000-2001

All-round best performances: Trinidad (2001), Echols II (2000), G.Johnson (1997)