Who had better boxins skills: Hopkins or Mayweather Jr ?

Paulie the slapper.....who throws arm punches.... who ever sits down, tighten up, or put meangful body into his shots. If you were to put guys in the same weight classes in a weight room you'd find that the gap between their strength is not very different. Skill plays a big part in your ability to hurt your opponent. Skill may even be the dominant role is being a power puncher.
Again.. it's trivial. Good points tho.

 

Hopkins is more skilled.
Floyd is more fast.

 

Hopkins is a bit overrated.... it proves it when he is classed as more skillful than Mayweather.

Mayweather > Hopkins

 

And that response concludes our debate for the day.:hat

 

Skills around the same, Floyd better athleticism. Bhops can be a dirty fighter and use that to his advantage like no other, I'm not sure to consider that as skills, but he's extremely effective with dirty fighting.

 

I wouldn't say Taylor "outboxed" him either time, he just stayed slightly busier, which even though he wasn't more effective, won him both fights on the cards. RJJ was an athletic freak, and beat Hopkins with pure speed.

 

Hard question.

Mayweather is the better athlete and therefore boxer.

Hopkins is more of a strategist that has done much more with much less.

 

Yeah, well, gym strength does not equal punching power, and it's funny that you brought up a guy like Hearns...How much do you think he could bench press with those freakishly long, skinny ass arms? A whole lot less than a whole lot of guys who can't hit anywhere near as hard as he could. Also, I guarantee you I'm stronger than Tim Lincecum, but **** if I'll ever be able to throw a ball anywhere close to 90mph. Why is that? Natural Ability...

 

Good thread.

I give Hopkins the edge based on greater success without the physical gifts.

 

How? I don't see any greater skill from Mayweather, just better reflexes and speed. Hopkins is every good (better) on the inside, had equal footwork and movement (even if he wasn't as quick), was a brilliant counter puncher, and his lead right hand was every bit as good. For my money, May has NEVER beaten an opponent as good as Trinidad (even a middleweight Trinidad), and he hasn't showed me those types of skills that Hopkins displayed in that fight. He DOES make more errors than Hopkins did.

 

SOLD! Hopkins it is. I still gotta say Floyd is better though, when you factor in his superior natural ability.

 

Floyd has a wider variety of skills & he`s shown them, his punch accuracy (connect%) is greater than Hopkins & he has shown a greater adaptability when things arent going to plan... Hops has came up against styles that he cannot solve, he struggles with speed, Floyd eventually figures out an opponent & uses the correct skills to break an opponent down.
Bernard has been caught out more than once, Mayweather has overcome every opponent to date due to ring iq & having a deeper skillset than his opponent.

 

Id say Mayweather has better boxing skills.Id say Hopkins has made the most of his boxing skills.

 

Wouldn't you chalk up that to B-Hop losing those fights PAST his 40th birthday? I honestly can't see him losing to Taylor or Calzaghe in his younger days. And in those earlier years, his only real loss was to RJJ - a higher level of fighter than Mayweather has ever faced.

To each his own though. I just find Hopkins SKILL SET more impressive, as he did more and displayed such brilliant craft and technique without the same physical gifts as Floyd. This isn't to say he's more EFFECTIVE... Mayweather's superior reflexes, athleticism, footspeed (in the lower weights as he's slowed in this department now) and handspeed can balance that out imo.

 

Hopkins is a bit cagier and is generally more sound technically

Floyd is a great technician as well but his cat-like reflexes let him get away with some of the occasional technical sluggishness

Hopkins vs. Trinidad though tops any performance by Mayweather imo, as impressive as many of his performances are. probably the most i've enjoyed a one-sided fight this decade