Why did Hopkins skip 168?

The correct answer

 

WTF? :huh

 

The new 'junior' and 'super' division are not as prestigious or glamorous as the traditional divisions like middleweight or light heavyweight.

 

It was a case of "Joe who?" at the time.
Tarver was a less talented fighter who generated a heck of a lot more money than a Calzaghe fight would've.
Still a good achievement for Hopkins though.

 

What does this have to do with the fact Hopkins skipped two divisions to fight Tarver? He didn't fight Tarver BECAUSE he's a light heavyweight.

 

Tarver offered low-risk (in Hopkins' eyes anyway), legacy and money.

Hopkins would have been insane to target anyone else.

 

errrrr. i would of thought it was pretty obvious. MONEY!!!!!!
calzaghe wasn't pulling big pay cheques back then and tarver was.
easyer fight for more money. its a no brainer really.

 

Not sure what youre trying to say.

ps, he skipped one weight division.

 

He had nowhere to go at middleweight and there were no real American names at 168 (this was after Calzaghe's tanning of Lacy), all the champions at that weight were European.

 

Wrong, Tarver at the time was looked at as a FAR bigger fight than Calzaghe and also looked at as a FAR more dangerous fight. Calzaghe at the time had his first major win in a long time against Lacy and then fought Bika, Tarver was a light heavyweight coming off a win over Johnson in a rematch and Roy Jones in a third fight. That's why Hopkins was a huge underdog going in and almost NONE gave him a chance.

 

[quote="TKO";3158518]He had nowhere to go at middleweight and there were no real American names at 168 (this was after Calzaghe's tanning of Lacy), all the champions at that weight were European.[/quote]


This one makes about the most sense to me.

 

In addition to that, maybe he wanted to avenge his first lost which he weighed in at 177 pounds.