Yes. 100% fact. :roll: Actually, I do think he'd beat Pascal. Mostly because if fights were 15 rounds, Pascal probably wouldn't have been a boxer.
Probably. He was better than anyone Hopkins beat at light-heavy. I'm not a big fan of Pastrano, but he was a slick fancy dan, hard to hit.
I've watched Pastrano many times, I became interested in him a couple of year ago when I found out a guy I worked with's dad beat him (Chic Calderwood). Pastrano was a very good fighter but you're criminally underrating Hopkins here. Bernard is on another level to Pastrano.
Harold Johnson was clearly better against Pastrano than Hopkins was against Pascal as far as I'm concerned. Pastrano against Harold Johnson was better than Bernard last night too imo. Pastrano is a guy Hopkins would not have touched with a barge pole at any time throughout his stage-managed post-middleweight career.
There is nothing Hopkins could have done to change your opinion, because your posts consistently discredit modern fighters and you probably made your mind on that before the fight even happened.
What if I told you I think that Andre Ward would near shut Bernard out? Would you believe me then? Hopkins looked a shadow of himself last night imo. Just because he was in there with Pascal don't let it make you think Bernard is still on top of the world as a fighter. The guy has deteriorated quite a lot, despite still being a tricky proposition for one-dimensional fighters or guys with many weaknesses in their game.
I wasn't talking about the Hopkins of last night, I was replying to the guy who said that Pastrano would beat Hopkins at any stage of Hopkins career. The Hopkins who beat Tarver would, in my opinion, have beaten Pastrano.
Does Johnson have a better defense? better footwork? better timing? ring smarts? I'd say no to all I'd say Hopkins has far more in common with Old Archie
Defense, at best I'd say Hops is on par last night with the Johnson of the Pastrano fight. Footwork, Bernard wasn't as sharp last night as he has been in the past, so I'd say about even there too. Timing? Clearly Harold Johnson had better timing in the Pastrano fight than Hopkins last night. As I said in another thread, Hopkins had to do a Calzaghe at times to land on Pascal. He didn't land too many clean shots for the fight with the exception of the left rip to the body. Ring smarts? Let's give it to Bernard though Johnson was obviously no slouch there.
:huh Do you realize that there are professional boxers and trainers with more experience in boxing than anyone on this board who make wrong predictions on fights happening now, between guys whose primes are in the same division at the same time? I'm not going to take anyone's opinions as gospel.
Not asking you to. But you were making a claim that I across the board give **** to modern fighters, and that's what I'm trying to dispel here. Obviously I could be wrong and Hopkins could school Ward from the first to the last bell. What I'm saying is that I am not just as a general statement saying anyone modern is by definition ****.