Who were the best fighters Hopkins beat at MIDDLEWEIGHT ?

Winky went 2-0 with Mosley around the DLH fight, so it could probably have happened after, although I think Eastman was the mando. The Wright win is a little underrated, Winky was out of his depth at 170 catchweight but deserved the win over Taylor the fight before.

If Hopkins had gone all the way back down to 160 for Winky instead of fighting him at 170, it may well be his best win at that weight. But he would be drained though

 

Actually it is not as bad as I thought, Most of them that were unranked were ranked the year before, so it would be fair to say that Hopkins may have knocked them out of the top 10. Presuming this, that means only 2 or 3 of his opponents were not ranked in the top 10, so it is fairly impressive.

However, there is a big list of names that could have boosted his standing had he met them, but most of these were earlier in his career and by the time he was in his prime, there was no outstanding opponent so the routine top 10 contender had to do.

I have basically changed my mind again on it, he has gone down slightly in my opinion but not as much as this morning.

Fair point.

 

This are the annual ratings too, so there probably are plenty of them who were ranked at the time he fought them but not at the end of the year or the year before like Glen Johnson, DLH, Trinidad, Vanderpool. Anyway, he went down in mine. At mw at least.

 

Still looking at the names there is not one name that he really should have faced, is there?

 

Aquino was a shot fossil when Hopkins beat him Greg.he did his best work in the mid-80s and had gone off the rails before the 90s even started.

Nard doesn't want that one in any top ten list i wouldn't think.Or the Simon Brown farce.

 

Or the great Carl Daniels and Morrade Hakkar.

 

I don't know much about Aquino's career, I just know the name.

 

It doesn't matter about who he 'should have face'. Calzaghe is criticised for not seeking challenges at the weight above (even for not moving down in weight to meet Hopkins), so Hopkins should be held to the same standard. He was a huge middleweight, 6 feet tall apparently, so he should have moved up for the challenges instead of sitting on his IBF belt for years, same as Calzaghe should have ditched his WBO.

 

I have not mentioned Calzaghe once. I think Hopkins has marginally better quality of opposition, for what it is worth.

I don't hold it against Calzaghe he never moved up sooner, I do feel however that he could and should have faced better opposition at Super-Middleweight, perhaps slightly more so than Hopkins at Middleweight.

 

If you had visited the British ESB and Boxrec forums from 2000-2006, you would have seen most the fans completely disillusioned with Calzaghe, he had become a running joke until he squared off with Lacy. There was so many decent although not defining fights that could be made at SMW and that whole 6year period was a disapointment and a waste maybe barring the Mitchell/Brewer fights and both were coming off loses. There was the Reid rematch (first fight controversal), Otke, Beyer, Mundine, Green, Vanderpool, Echols, Larson. Calzaghe did call out Otke but only after he looked terrible against Reid and Otke retired. He also pulled out of a Glen Johnson fight, TWICE in 2004, although he was going through a messy divorce at that time so maybe he gets a pass. BUT guess what, he wanted to pull out of the Lacy fight too His dad made him take the fight and we all saw how good he was

BTW do you have a brother who boxes, I think someone posted a fight from a younger Pater on Boxrec

 

That is what I was meaning.

Aye, I do have a wee brother that boxes, good wee boxer as well.

 

Exactly

 

No issue with that assesement, no issue with the choice of words marginally and slightly.
Head to head I think Calzaghe beats Hopkins at every stage of their careers, too fast, too quick, too many punches and equally good determination, heart, ring craft and will to win.

 

Calzaghe had a real rival in his division that was even ranked above him until he retired. Hopkins hadn´t. I think that´s the main difference.

 

According to ring magazine, Roy Jones was #1 super middleweight between 94-96 {3 years}, Calzaghe did not win his first title till 97 against Eubank, Ottke was ranked #1 by ring 99-01 {3 years} with Calzaghe ranked second for every year, Calzaghe offered to fight Ottke for one Euro or was it one dollar plus expenses in Germany, Ottke werent having it, Ottke was a fraud and had many gift results in Germany but it did not stop Calzaghe offering to fight him for just Joes expenses. Calzaghe was ranked #1 by ring 02-05 {4 years} with Ottke #2 for the first two years and Kessler #2 for the last two years, there was no title holder or champion during the history of ring rankings for the super middleweights until 06 when Calzaghe became the title holder after beating Lacy I guess, Calzaghe was still the title holder in 07 when he beat Kessler, both in 06 and 07 Kessler was the ring #1 behind the title holder Calzaghe, for the record in 08 when Calzaghe moved up to light-heavy there was no title holder but Kessler was the ring ranked #1.
Calzaghe was ranked #2 in 98,99,00 and 01 {4 years} and Calzaghe was ranked #1 02,03,04 and 05 and ranked as the champion in 06 and 07. {that 6 years as #1 and champion}.
When Calzaghe moved upto light-heavy he became the ring champion in 08, Hopkins was the ring champion in 06 and 07 but Calzaghe became champion in 08 with Hopkins being ranked as the #1 after Calzaghe beat Hopkins..