By Michael Marley
It only takes an ounce of boxing sophistication to recognize an all-time great and a fighter who is one of the greats of his era.
There is a difference, you know.
While 46 year old Bernard Hopkins is taking a well-deserved victory lap and his former nemesis, 42 year old Roy Jones should be hanging up his gloves on a permanent basis, it is a wise move for fight aficionados to observe the demarcation.
Fight historian Johnny Bos, for one, blanched when I provocatively suggested that BHop might be a great in any era.
“Oh, stop it,” Bos said by phone Monday from his Clearwater, Fl., hideaway. “Hopkins could not stay in the ring with light heavyweights such as Bob Foster and the so great Archie Moore.
"Hopkins is only great for what's around today, no more than that."
I don’t know if that’s a case of the “Wizard Of Bos” feinting with damned praise or damning with feigned praise but even being mention in the prestigious company of Foster, Moore and Michael Spinks seems like a real compliment for Hopkins to these ears.
Of course, the whole parlor and barroom banter game of debating who from one era beats who from a different era is strictly academic.
We shall never, ever know factually if Hopkins could've competed successfully against Marvelous Marvin Hagler just as we can never know how Hagler might have fared against middleweight giants named Carlos Monzon and the nonpareil Sugar Ray Robinson.
But I think I get where Bos is coming from, and I don’t mean the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn, in discussing BHop as more of one of the clearly best of this era than as a fighter of the ages.
Having said, wouldn’t love to see desperate for enticing opponents middleweight king Sergio Martinez go after Hopkins?
Martinez and his minions were eager to bark out challenges to welterweights Floyd Mayweather Jr. and to Manny Pacquiao but they don’t show any willingness to climb from the 160 pound level like BHop did to the light heavyweight limit.
More’s the pity.
As far as another mythical but usually fun pastime, I think Hopkins’ second victory over Jean Pascal (he should’ve had his hand raised in the first fight also) jumps him in the P4P rankings.
Don’t forget that I, like many others, bumped inactive Mayweather off my list recently. Going a full year without a fight merited Floyd’s delisting.