is margarito the next hopkins???

I think 3 years tops. He's not really making any huge improvements in defense or boxing technique and you can't eat punches forever no matter how tough you are. If Margarito had 100 amateur fights back in the day he would be a much better technician and perhaps close to unstoppable at 147. It's too late to teach an old dog new tricks this late in the game.

Given how long Margarito has been fighting, and his style of fighting, I'm not sure of how much longer Margarito can keep fighting at such a high level.

hopkins was a good fighter coming up but he did not reach his prime until his 30s. margarito is a man who has slowly gotten better and better over his 14 year career and he is now entering his 30s and hes looking unbeatable. hes in his prime now and i can see margarito terrorizing the welterweight division for another 10 years if anyone is man enough to fight him. :boxing: No he is not. Hopkins longevity comes from his ring generalship and good defense. Margarito has been taking blows for a living for the last 10 years. How long can he keep doing that and be effective with the high workrate he wears his opponents out with. He doesn't have a Mike Tyson knockout punch so coming in and knocking guys out in a round is out of question. I say Margarito will start fading in the next 3 years tops, specially if he doesn't move up to 154. A 5'11 guy entering his 30's can't be draining himself to 147 for too much longer. Just ask Vernon Forrest.

If he can beat Pwill in the rematch then am pretty sure he will stay in the division for a good time.

Tony's at his peak career wise, but not necessarily in his full blown prime anymore. Maybe still prime, but at the end of it. Even if you don't get hurt in individual fights, the damage of gettin hit a lot does accumulate. He's still a fuckin beast now, but he won't have the same fury in 2 yrs. And he's big for WW so i don't think he'll be at 147 for a very long time before he has to move up.

I was about to make a post about this after the Cotto fight. But no, Marg is past his prime, the Margarito that got past Six Head Lewis with those fairly decent fast hands was far more faster then this Margarito we see now, but now he's got more weight in his punch. Tony had some decent handspeed for awhile there, but he couldn't get a major fight like he's gotten now. Shit, I think his biggest fight aside from Lewis, was Cintron back then. I wasn't even watching boxing yet, but I looked at some video, and I can't believe he never got a fight with Mayorga. That would have been brutal. Would have been twice as better as this Cotto fight. But this Margarito we're seein now is gonna get outboxed eventually, unless Tony gets that all natural red-bull in him, gets some premium focus, talkin about some dedicated concentration, to where he gets his reflexes exercised to the point his torso and head can slip away from fast punches. Not like Mayweather or anything, but more like Duran. If Tony can do that, I think he'll last a good minute at welterweight. I really don't want to see him end up like a Cesar Bazan. Obviously tough, but too old to mount an offense for 12 rounds. Nice post. Indeed, a fight with Mayorga back in '02 would have made Margarito an instant star, at least in boxing circles. Instead they continued to avoid him (while he took all the fights THEY didn't want to take: Cintron, Clottey, Williams) until one star finally stepped up. No, Margarito is not in his prime and I don't think he's getting better. On the contrary, the Cotto war may affect him much like the Mugabi war affected Hagler. We shall see.

hopkins was a good fighter coming up but he did not reach his prime until his 30s. margarito is a man who has slowly gotten better and better over his 14 year career and he is now entering his 30s and hes looking unbeatable. hes in his prime now and i can see margarito terrorizing the welterweight division for another 10 years if anyone is man enough to fight him. :boxing: He was Hopkins years back, when he was the best fighter in the division and avoided by many. And just like Hopkins, people think he got better as he got older simply because they never watched them in their primes. Antonio Margarito was an absolute monster 3-5 years ago, when he was beating on guys like Lujan, Cintron (the first time), Six Heads etc. I believe that while he's gotten craftier, he's slowed some. Go get the fights. Same with Hopkins. B-Hop was in his prime from ages 30-33, battering the likes of Glen Johnson, Syd Vanderpool, Andrew Council, etc. It just took longer for them to get noticed.

He's not running Welter for another 10 years no way. Williams beat him and even if it was an off night for Margarito (which I don't think it was) it showed the blueprint on how to beat Margarito.

No, Tony's no Hopkins but I agree that he's gotten much better in the last couple of years and is in his respectable 'prime.' However, Tony takes too much punishment in his fights to protract any longevity in his career. I see him staying around for another 5 years and then retiring...