Who were the best fighters Hopkins beat at MIDDLEWEIGHT ?

He beat the great Felix Tito Trinidad at his peak.

 

Yep Allen was taking it to him. Hopkins looked for a way out of that fight. I made a thread a few years ago asking people if they thought Hopkins was looking to quit. I felt he was that night.

 

I have seen that fight. I did not get that impression at all. Just don't see it.

 

Id post the fight for people to watch it, but its not on the tube. I thought Hopkins was looking for a way out. Allen was doing well and Hopkins seemed to be off that night. He was in a big pissing match at that time with Butch Lewis and Don King who kept winning the purse bids for his fights and trying to get him beat.

 

Lupe Aquino needs a mention here, I think he could potentially crack the top 10.

I think we can all be fairly certain that Hopkins was dominant in a poor era, with not the best of names on his record, surely because of the circumstances a more pertinent question is who Hopkins did not face at Middleweight, and should have?

 

He should have stopped being the big fish in a small pond. Much like the criticism Calzaghe gets.

 

The big 1 he missed was Calzaghe a division up in 2003, an offer was made, Hopkins doubled his demands figuring it was worth more. It may have been Hopkins wanted to see out his Don King contract, which may have seen him not take the majority of his purses, before taking this fight though

When he first got on the world stage Julian Jackson, McClellan, Steve Collins, Reggie Johnson were all champions, but he wasn't necessarily in a position to fight these men

I'm not sure on the whys and wheres of it but I've heard it said Hopkins was not keen on a Reggie Johnson fight when both were at middleweight

Harry Simon was an undefeated WBOgus titlist witha win over Winky Wright, he retired after he killed someone in his car though. Sturm probably deserved a shot after the Delahoya performance but Eastman may have been the mandatory. Otis Grant was a decent WBo titlist to, that ended fighting Roy Jones instead.

 

Here are the ring magazine annual rankings from 1993 to 2005, the guys Hopkins fought in bold:

1993
Title Vacant
Roy Jones Jr.
Gerald McClellan
John David Jackson
Reggie Johnson
Julian Jackson
Thomas Tate
Lamar Parks
Bernard Hopkins
Vinny Pazienza
Otis Grant

Hopkins fought: Baptist, RJJ, Ritchie, Hall
Ranked going in: Jones

1994
Title Vacant
Gerald McClellan
Jorge Fernando Castro
Bernard Hopkins
John David Jackson
Reggie Johnson
Quincy Taylor
Segundo Mercado
Steve Collins
Joe Lipsey
Agostino Cardamone

Hopkins fought: Wynn, Aquino, Mercado
Ranked going in: none

1995
Title Vacant
Quincy Taylor
Bernard Hopkins
Shinji Takehara
Jorge Fernando Castro
John David Jackson
Reggie Johnson
Joe Lipsey
Dana Rosenblatt
Lonnie Bradley
Julian Jackson

Hopkins fought: Mercado
Ranked going in: Mercado

1996
Title Vacant
Bernard Hopkins
Keith Holmes
William Joppy
Lonnie Bradley
Jorge Fernando Castro
Quincy Taylor
Dana Rosenblatt
Otis Grant
John David Jackson
Robert McCracken

Hopkins fought: Frank, Lipsey, James
Ranked going in: Lipsey

1997
Title Vacant
Bernard Hopkins
Keith Holmes
Julio Cesar Green
William Joppy
Lonnie Bradley
Otis Grant
Robert McKraken
Brian Barbosa
Hasine Cherifi
Dana Rosenblatt

Hopkins fought: Jackson, Johnson, Council
Ranked going in: Jackson

1998
Title Vacant
Bernard Hopkins
William Joppy
Hacine Cherifi
Keith Holmes
Otis Grant
Antwun Echols
Robert Allen
Robert McCracken
Ryan Rhodes
Julio Cesar Green

Hopkins fought: Brown, Allen
Ranked going in: none

1999
Title Vacant
Bernard Hopkins
William Joppy
Keith Holmes
Hacine Cherifi
Antwun Echols
Otis Grant
Robert McCracken
Armand Krajnc
Dave Hilton Jr.
Bert Schenk

Hopkins fought: Allen, Echols
Ranked going in: Allen, Echols

2000
Title Vacant
Bernard Hopkins
William Joppy
Keith Holmes
Armand Krajnc
Antwun Echols
Hacine Cherifi
Andrew Council
Syd Vanderpool
Carl Daniels
Howard Eastman

Hopkins fought: Vanderpool, Echols
Ranked going in: Echols

2001
Bernard Hopkins, Champion
Felix Trinidad
William Joppy
Howard Eastman
Armand Krajnc
Harry Simon
Keith Holmes
Hacine Cherifi
Carl Daniels
Antonio Perugino
Tito Mendoza

Hopkins fought: Holmes, Trinidad
Ranked going in: Holmes

2002
Bernard Hopkins, Champion
Harry Simon
William Joppy
Howard Eastman
Antonio Perugino
Robert Allen
Tito Mendoza
Sergey Tatevosyan
Hacine Cherifi
Rodney Jones
Erland Betare

Hopkins fought: Daniels
Ranked going in: Daniels

2003
Bernard Hopkins, Champion
Howard Eastman
Robert Allen
Rodney Jones
William Joppy
Sergey Tatevosyan
Jermain Taylor
Evans Ashira
Felix Sturm
Kingsley Ikeke
Raymond Joval

Hopkins fought: Hakkar, Joppy
Ranked going in: Joppy

2004
Bernard Hopkins, Champion
Howard Eastman
Oscar De La Hoya
Felix Sturm
Felix Trinidad
Jermain Taylor
Robert Allen
Maselino Masoe
Kingsley Ikeke
Sam Soliman
William Joppy

Hopkins fought: Allen, DLH
Ranked going in: Allen

2005
Jermain Taylor, Champion
Ronald (Winky) Wright
Bernard Hopkins
Arthur Abraham
Felix Sturm
Howard Eastman
Sam Soliman
Sebastian Sylvester
Kingsley Ikeke
Scott Dann
Kelly Pavlik

Hopkins fought: Eastman, Taylor 2x
Ranked going in: Eastman, Taylor 2x

Keep in mind those are the annual ratings, so fighters that seem to be going into a fight not beeing ranked may have been rnaked at the time of the fight, I´m sure this fits for Johnson, Trinidad, DLH, Vanderpool, Hakkar, Mercado (first time).

 

Actually, that is pretty poor going by Hopkins. He has actually went down in my estimations now, because of this thread. I still love the guy though.

 

I've always said his competition was on a par with Calzaghe's. His recent work is what is starting to set him apart.

 

In my mind too. It´s different looking at it this way than just at the record, isn´t it? Still, ony of my fav fighters.

Slightly better I think.

 

He couldn't necessarily make fights with them all though

 

True. I´d like to have see him fight McClellan instead of Mercado the first time around, Castro, R. Johnson, Jackson, Joppy, Holmes, Eastman earlier than he did and Sturm. Outside of that I don´t think there is much more he could have done.

 

McClellan had bigger fish to fry with the Benn and Jones superfights though

1 big fight for Hopkins would have been Winky Wright straight after he beat Mosley

 

Yeah, McClellan was after bigger names but I would have liked to see that fight anyway.

Ah, well, yeah but wasn´t that the time he faced DLH? And didn´t Winky want to go after DLH instead as well? And of course he faced him later, although under dissapointing circumstances.