Hopkins as Middleweight King vs Calzaghe as Super Middleweight King

I am not a big Hopkins fan so i cant believe i'm defending him, but Hopkins fought just about everybody you could at middleweight at the time. You go through the rankings year by year when he was champion and you'll see he fought almost everyone. William Joppy, Daniels, Antwun Echols, Keith Holmes, sid Vanderpool, Felix Trinidad, Oscar Delahoya, Robert Allen, Joe Lipsey, and Glen Johnson. All those guys were ranked in the top 10 or top 5 in the middleweight division. He proved without a shadow of a doubt that he was the best Middleweight in the world by fighting every challenger in his division. He deserves respect. Besides if my memory is correct, wasnt Trinidad the big time favorite when he fought Hopkins? I agree and I don't think anyone can take away from what either guy did in their division based on what was there. If you pick really hard, Hopkins missed two solid contender types (Simon and Bradley). Same with Calzaghe who missed Liles early on, maybe Girard, and never got Ottke. Ottke is the big one and, well, whatever. Take Ottke out of Germany, where it sometimes appeared hitting him was considered a foul, and he's a six or seven loss fighter just against the guys he fought. He's a disgrace on the Hall of Fame ballot if one actually saw what happened in a lot of his fights and his people were never really interested in Calzaghe. Can't make folks fight you. Both fighters foes can be nitted at, but their respective bodies of work were outstanding, they both had good foes often enough, and both earned their eventual trips to the Hall. There's not a huge gap between the two reigns but Hopkins deserves a slight edge.

I am not a big Hopkins fan so i cant believe i'm defending him, but Hopkins fought just about everybody you could at middleweight at the time. You go through the rankings year by year when he was champion and you'll see he fought almost everyone. William Joppy, Daniels, Antwun Echols, Keith Holmes, sid Vanderpool, Felix Trinidad, Oscar Delahoya, Robert Allen, Joe Lipsey, and Glen Johnson. All those guys were ranked in the top 10 or top 5 in the middleweight division. He proved without a shadow of a doubt that he was the best Middleweight in the world by fighting every challenger in his division. He deserves respect. Besides if my memory is correct, wasnt Trinidad the big time favorite when he fought Hopkins? That is true, but at the end of the day his resume is very similar to Calzaghe's, every time a fighter decides to stay in one division they will always end up fighting a lot of cab drivers and bus conductors

I am not a big Hopkins fan so i cant believe i'm defending him, but Hopkins fought just about everybody you could at middleweight at the time. You go through the rankings year by year when he was champion and you'll see he fought almost everyone. William Joppy, Daniels, Antwun Echols, Keith Holmes, sid Vanderpool, Felix Trinidad, Oscar Delahoya, Robert Allen, Joe Lipsey, and Glen Johnson. All those guys were ranked in the top 10 or top 5 in the middleweight division. He proved without a shadow of a doubt that he was the best Middleweight in the world by fighting every challenger in his division. He deserves respect. Besides if my memory is correct, wasnt Trinidad the big time favorite when he fought Hopkins?

Hopkins mw resume=Calzaghe smw resume

A look at their resumes as champions. Looking through both fighters title defences I can honestly say neither have great wins. Hopkins best win as a title defence at middleweight was against Glen Johnson IMO, Hoya was blown up coming off a controversial win over sturm and Trinidad was also overweight fighting a much bigger man so i cant give hopkins credit for either win. He then lost twice to the average Jermain Taylor. Calzaghe started his reign as champ with a win over an old but still capable Eubank and then had a SD with Robin Reid a couple fights later. Just like hopkins he didnt really have any fights worth mentioning for a while. His best wins come from an overhyped Jeff Lacy and a tough but nothing special Kessler. In conclusion both are great fighters but why is Hopkins so much more recognized when both their records have no special names on them? Is it because he is American? Is it because middleweight is a more respected weight class? Please discuss.... O and btw I am a fan of them both but I always had problems with their records. Johnson was the best win in retrospect, but not his best win. It can be as easily overrated as RJJ's win over Hopkins. When matters, and Johnson was still a few years away from developing into who he would be. Fought in a different style then and had faced largely slop to then while Hopkins was hitting stride. Tito was the best win by a lot. I agree that there isn't as much separating Joe and Hopkins in their title reigns as some would want to believe. Tito, who was hot as hell and fully at the peak of his stuff, gives Hopkins the edge in comparison.

He said at middleweight... So that doesn't include Tarver, Wright, Pavlik Even if it did you can give B-Hop the Tarver win but can anyone truly say that Wright and Pavlik had any place fighting at Light-Heavyweight?

really? hopkins wins may not look all that impressive after research is done, but on paper, hoya, trinidad, pavlik, tarver and wright are much better than the names on calzaghe's resume and that's why hopkins is looked on as being the better fighter He said at middleweight... So that doesn't include Tarver, Wright, Pavlik

read the thread properly im talking about hopkins at middleweight not light heavy. and same for calzaghe. i just dont think you can credit hopkins for beating up small men.

A look at their resumes as champions. Looking through both fighters title defences I can honestly say neither have great wins. Hopkins best win as a title defence at middleweight was against Glen Johnson IMO, Hoya was blown up coming off a controversial win over sturm and Trinidad was also overweight fighting a much bigger man so i cant give hopkins credit for either win. He then lost twice to the average Jermain Taylor. Calzaghe started his reign as champ with a win over an old but still capable Eubank and then had a SD with Robin Reid a couple fights later. Just like hopkins he didnt really have any fights worth mentioning for a while. His best wins come from an overhyped Jeff Lacy and a tough but nothing special Kessler. In conclusion both are great fighters but why is Hopkins so much more recognized when both their records have no special names on them? Is it because he is American? Is it because middleweight is a more respected weight class? Please discuss.... O and btw I am a fan of them both but I always had problems with their records. really? hopkins wins may not look all that impressive after research is done, but on paper, hoya, trinidad, pavlik, tarver and wright are much better than the names on calzaghe's resume and that's why hopkins is looked on as being the better fighter

only people that pretend they know something about the sport say hopkins win against johnson means anything yh but its still the best win he has at middleweight imo, who else was better? and had business to be at middleweight?

only people that pretend they know something about the sport say hopkins win against johnson means anything

A look at their resumes as champions. Looking through both fighters title defences I can honestly say neither have great wins. Hopkins best win as a title defence at middleweight was against Glen Johnson IMO, Hoya was blown up coming off a controversial win over sturm and Trinidad was also overweight fighting a much bigger man so i cant give hopkins credit for either win. He then lost twice to the average Jermain Taylor. Calzaghe started his reign as champ with a win over an old but still capable Eubank and then had a SD with Robin Reid a couple fights later. Just like hopkins he didnt really have any fights worth mentioning for a while. His best wins come from an overhyped Jeff Lacy and a tough but nothing special Kessler. In conclusion both are great fighters but why is Hopkins so much more recognized when both their records have no special names on them? Is it because he is American? Is it because middleweight is a more respected weight class? Please discuss.... O and btw I am a fan of them both but I always had problems with their records. Hard to say, probably a combination. I'm interested in hearing peoples thoughts though. BUMP.