Would You Still Call Bernard Hopkins a Natural Middleweight?

http://a.espncdn.com/media/box/2006/0323/photo/g_hopkins_taylor_275.jpg Seriously?? I have to disagree. Hopkins was extremely lean as a Middleweight and was not whatsoever "big" at the weight. Never was that more obvious than the Jermain Taylor fights. Taylor was clearly stronger, bigger and more physically imposing overall. its all good we can agree to disagree on this one....

If Hopkins was 10 years younger I'd would say he could make 168 easy, but he's goddamn nearly 50 I'd say it would take a lot out of him to cut weight.. And Hopkins was always a big middleweight...

A guy with a 31 inch waist is not killing himself to make weight. I recall Hopkins saying he would move down to junior middleweight to chase skins of the big name fighters before the middleweight tournament took place. Today Hopkins is a solid supermiddle but fights at lightheavy cause he chooses too.

wasn't always fighting @ 175, but was always a lighheavy imo... that aside, outside of the shotroy jones fiasco, he's put together a solid 175 campaign fighting the likes of tarver, calzaghe, dawson 2X, pascal 2X, & cloud @ the 175 lb limit... froch, kessler, etc., can make more $ fighting each other than moving up and fighting hopkins, lets be real, but catchweight fights with any of those guys at this stage of his career would be pretty solid and can go either way... if there's anyone @ 168 that should be moving up a full division and fighting him to make a statement, it should be andre ward http://a.espncdn.com/media/box/2006/0323/photo/g_hopkins_taylor_275.jpg Seriously?? I have to disagree. Hopkins was extremely lean as a Middleweight and was not whatsoever "big" at the weight. Never was that more obvious than the Jermain Taylor fights. Taylor was clearly stronger, bigger and more physically imposing overall.

BTW, I'm not defending the SMWs. Some of them should definitely take the challenging and move up

No he's not. He wasn't even a MW at the end of his MW career. He had outgrown it and looked much healthier against Tarver than against Taylor. BTW, Hopkins only moved up because he lost . If he didn't lose, he'd still be fighting at MW I was just about to post this. If Hopkins still had all the belts he would still be destroying himself to make the weight.

No he's not. He wasn't even a MW at the end of his MW career. He had outgrown it and looked much healthier against Tarver than against Taylor. BTW, Hopkins only moved up because he lost . If he didn't lose, he'd still be fighting at MW

I don't know if Hopkins is still a middleweight today. Hopkins knows his own body. He was a middleweight in his prime of course. He weighed in at 156 when He KOed Oscar when the contract called for him to make 158. In his many fights at middleweight until he was over 40 years old I never heard about him having any trouble making weight. He often weighed in 2 or 3 pounds below the 160 pound limit.

wasn't always fighting @ 175, but was always a lighheavy imo... that aside, outside of the shotroy jones fiasco, he's put together a solid 175 campaign fighting the likes of tarver, calzaghe, dawson 2X, pascal 2X, & cloud @ the 175 lb limit... froch, kessler, etc., can make more $ fighting each other than moving up and fighting hopkins, lets be real, but catchweight fights with any of those guys at this stage of his career would be pretty solid and can go either way... if there's anyone @ 168 that should be moving up a full division and fighting him to make a statement, it should be andre ward

No I wouldn't.

He got some **** for calling out guys in the weight class below, Froch, Bute But it's not like B-hop was always fighting at 175, he moved up Something a lot of these *****es at 168 are too scared to do I would not call him a middleweight (he was already a big middle when he first moved up). He's pretty established at the 175 right now, but he's been able to make 170 catchweights before so he could definitely do it again. http://www.boxingonbluray.com/images/bernard_hopkins_vs_jean_pascal_2_screen.jpg