Who's the Greater Fighter Hopkins or De La Hoya

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by Joeywill, Sep 18, 2022.


Who's the greater fighter

Poll closed Sep 25, 2022.
  1. Bernard Hopkins

    68.4%
  2. Oscar De La Hoya

    31.6%
  1. Joeywill

    Joeywill Boxing Addict Full Member

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    Who is the greater fighter
     
  2. mr. magoo

    mr. magoo VIP Member Full Member

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    I went with Hopkins.
     
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  3. GoldenHulk

    GoldenHulk Boxing Addict Full Member

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  4. Fogger

    Fogger Father, grandfather and big sports fan. Full Member

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    I think that De La Hoya had a greater peak and Hopkins had a greater career. This sounded like a career question so I went with the Executioner.
     
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  5. PhillyPhan69

    PhillyPhan69 Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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  6. Boxing GOAT

    Boxing GOAT Active Member Full Member

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    Oscar. He took more chances and was champion in six weight classes. Former Olympic gold medalist. He was also robbed versus Mosley, Floyd and Trinidad, though he does deserve some of the blame versus Felix for trying to coast the last few rounds. Oscar elevated the sport.

    Hopkins hid out at 160 padding his record against a long string of long forgotten, never-was fighters. Avoided 168 until Jones and Toney were long gone, priced himself out of a rematch with a prime Jones, put on a disgraceful acting performance against Dawson and Jones and was rewarded. He was a boring and dirty fighter. He is also a racist turd, a blemish on the sport.
     
  7. NoNeck

    NoNeck Pugilist Specialist

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    Stopped reading at "Floyd."
     
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  8. Themessiah

    Themessiah El Jefe Full Member

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    Sounds like you don't like him personally so you're biased
     
  9. robert ungurean

    robert ungurean Богдан Philadelphia Full Member

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    At there peaks Oscar was the better more highly skilled fighter. Better resume too IMO.
    Not a big fan of either
     
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  10. Jel

    Jel Obsessive list maker Full Member

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    I think it’s prettty clearly B-Hop. He’s a top 10, arguably top 5 all-time middleweight who dominated his division for years and then became the best light-heavyweight in the world for a decent period.

    Always difficult to compare weight jumpers with a guy who dominates a single weight class but I think that Hopkins was the man in two weight classes (and two of the traditional 8) whereas Oscar was only really ever the man in one - the others he was one of the best but either wasn’t the man for long or he wasn’t the man at all. Plus the six weight classes thing is overblown with his WBO titles at junior lightweight and middleweight (when Hopkins was the real champ).

    Oscar probably challenged himself more during his prime but he also came up short in a fair few of those. A couple of those Ls becoming Ws and it might be different.

    Interestingly, I don’t think their actual head to head fight has any bearing in how I rate one over the other.
     
  11. Bigcheese

    Bigcheese Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Oscar faced the tougher competition and he was better at his peak. Having said that doing what Hopkins did at 49 will probably never be done again.
     
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  12. Reinhardt

    Reinhardt Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    I agree, at his best Oscar may have been better
     
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  13. JohnThomas1

    JohnThomas1 VIP Member

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  14. ETM

    ETM I thought I did enough to win. Full Member

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    No way, Oscar didn't have the skills of Bernard Hopkins. DelaHoya was basically a one handed fighter, he lacked the pocket defense that Hopkins had..Bernard could fight at any range, better balanced than Oscar, he didn't have the stamina problems DelaHoya had.
    Hopkins style wasn't always pretty but he was a complete fighter DelaHoya never got there, too many changing of trainers, extreme changes in his style fight to fight Oscar lacked a ring identity in a sense.

    Oscar DelaHoya may have been more talented than BHOP. He was a bigger star and generated more $. He had opportunities to do whatever he wanted. Hopkins had to bide his time and outlast his competition including some of the promoters, networks etc that were hoping he would just go away.
    Oscar DelaHoya isn't the man or the fighter Bernard Hopkins was.
     
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  15. ETM

    ETM I thought I did enough to win. Full Member

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    Absolutely
     
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