By Tom Donelson
Going into his last fight, Bernard Hopkins felt that he still had something to prove. When the final bell rang, his defeat of Antonio Tarver revived what should be no longer a debatable point. Hopkins is one of the great middleweights. Before this fight, many questioned how a 41-year-old middleweight coming off two consecutive losses could really have a chance against the best light heavyweight in the world. But Hopkins once again surprised his critics and those of us who already conceded this fight to Tarver.
Since he took the IBF middleweight title from Segundo Mercado in December of 2004, Hopkins dominated the middleweight division with 20 title defenses. Hopkins problems' were similar to the problems of Larry Holmes, who dominated the heavyweight division in the late 70's and early 80's.
Holmes never truly had a defining fight but in winning 21 straight heavyweight title bouts, he wiped out the division. Hopkins accomplished a similar feat when he won those 20 title bouts and wiped out the middleweight division. Until he fought Felix Trinidad, he never had that defining victory as a champion that often defined greatness. (He did lose to Roy Jones by decision early in his career but he became a better fighter as he gained more experience.) When he fought Trinidad, the old fighter gave the young Puerto Rico boxer a boxing lesson as he dominated the action throughout the fight.
His next big fight was his 9th round stoppage of Oscar De La Hoya, but along the way he would end up losing his title to Jermain Taylor in a very close decision that could have gone either way. His upset of Tarver simply echoed what should have been obvious to us. Hopkins was one of this generation's best pound for pound fighters.
There is the question of where to rank Hopkins among the all time greats. Ranking. There is no doubt or should be no doubt, that Hopkins would have been competitive in any era. At 6'1", he would have been taller than most middleweights and he knew how to use his height and strength to it utmost advantage
As a fighter, Hopkins was not great at any one thing but he was very good at many different aspect of the sweet science. His 32 knockouts in 47 wins showed that he had pop in his punches, but at the same time he was also one of the best defensive fighters of his generation. In many ways, he resembled James Toney in that he rarely got nailed with a big shot in a bout and his ability to slip punches or move his body just enough to avoid the full impact of incoming punches help prolong a brilliant career. Like Toney, Hopkins proved to be an effective fighter late in his career and one reason was that his defensive prowess prevented him from getting bloodied in any major war in the ring.
His overall skills would have allowed him to compete very evenly with many of the historical ranked middleweights. His size would have presented trouble for most of the great middleweights and his defensive skills would have made it difficult to knock him out.
Finally, the Tarver fight showed Hopkins' ability to win big fights against favored opponents. Great fighters often defeated fighters that they were not supposed to beat. Ali defeated Sonny Liston to gain his title despite being a 7 to 1 underdog and a decade later; he defeated one of the most feared heavyweights in George Foreman to regain his title! Ali's greatness was measured in those fights that he was not suppose to win but managed to persevere. In two of his bigger fights against Trinidad and Tarver, Hopkins executed brilliant game plans to perfection while pulling off the upset. He was not supposed to win either of the two fights, but he did. That is one of the many signs of his greatness. Winning 20-championship bouts as middleweight is another. Joe Louis' claim to greatness was garnered as much on the quantities of championship wins as the quality of opponents he pounded. No one has beaten more middleweights in championship fights than Hopkins and that has to count for something.
Bernard Hopkins' greatness in the ring can no longer be denied. When Hopkins officially hangs up his gloves, his career in boxing is still not over. With his Golden Boy Promotions partnership with Oscar De La Hoya, Hopkins still has much to accomplish in boxing. The Hopkins story is still an ongoing affair as he helps build a new promotional empire in the boxing business.