who were more credible challengers at 160?

[Bhopreign]

Becuase he was 6'2 and was pulling himself down to make middlweight. I also considered Taylor and Pavlik super middlweights becuase they are so big and in reality, not middlweights. Felix Sturm and Aurther Abraham are the only natural middlweight champions. Just look at Barkely's frame, he finshed his career at heavyweight.

Not saying I disagree, but if that is the case then Oscar and Tito arnt natural welters since Oscar is listed at 5'10 and a half and Tito at 5'11.

[TheGreatA]

How was Barkley a natural light heavyweight but nobody say Tito nor Oscar was a natural 154 or 160. Barkley hadnt fought above 160 before he beat Duran so why not call Barkley a natural middleweight.

Barkley cut a huge amount of weight to make 160 and put on almost all of it back by fight time.

Trinidad is a big welterweight and a solid middleweight, Hopkins deserves all the credit for that win but Oscar could make even 130 earlier in his career.
He is definitely not a natural middleweight.


Oscar looked like a tub of lard against Felix Sturm.


Trinidad

[mspiegelo]

Trinidad was a very credible challenger as well as champion and even till this day i don't think Hopkins the credit that he deserves for that win. People ***** about him being a blown up welterweight, when he was unbeaten up until that point and was blowing out every other middlweight champion until he ran into Hopkins. Funny how he is all of a sudden a lesser opponent and past his prime.

GOOD POINT! He blasted out all the middleweights he faced into he ran until B-Hop, the greatest middleweight of all time!!!! OH no, I said it!

[Sweet Pea 50]

i understand.

but you have to understand this......

roy jones nuthugger = left hook tua + tito trinidad nuthugger = left hook tua + big winky wright fan = left hook tua

that means : **** bernard hopkins!

Your math is awesome, Tua.
But I got to pick Haglers bouts vs smaller opposition over B-Hops. I mean, just LOOK at the names....

[Bhopreign]

Barkley cut a huge amount of weight to make 160 and put on almost all of it back by fight time.

Trinidad is a big welterweight and a solid middleweight, Hopkins deserves all the credit for that win but Oscar could make even 130 earlier in his career.
He is definitely not a natural middleweight.


Oscar looked like a tub of lard against Felix Sturm.


Trinidad

I understand that but something can be said about fighters in between fights. Its been well documented that Hopkins trains all the time and didnt have to get down like most, what if others did the same, say Barkley then it probably wouldnt be too farfetched to say middleweight was somewhat natural for him given his frame. So if Hopkins didnt train all the time he would have had to cut weight just like Barkley did.

[Left Hook Tua]

GOOD POINT! He blasted out all the middleweights he faced into he ran until B-Hop, the greatest middleweight of all time!!!! OH no, I said it!

?????

he fought one fight at 160 before fighting hopkins.

he fought 2 fights total at 160 excluding hopkins before retiring for the first time.

[Left Hook Tua]

Tito was a middlweight champion, he had a belt. He was undefeated and a 6-1 favorite over hopkins. He was a very credible opponent.

Oscar didn't look that good his fight prior at 160, so he probably wasn't as credible as an opponent, however his natural weight class was (is) 154 so it's not that much of a jump. Besides, Oscar challenged bhop and like I've said before, only an idiot would turn down a fight with oscar.

tito and oscar offered bernard opportunities previously unavailable for him.

i'm not saying he shouldn't have taken the fights.

my point is don't compare tito and oscar to duran , leonard and hearns.

[Left Hook Tua]

3 Vs 2????

what does it matter if i'm comparing 3 people to 2?

i'm asking what group is more credible. average it out.

if you want add winky to the tito and oscar group.

[Dan...]

I think its pretty clear that Hearns, Leonard and Duran present far greater challenges than what were really two blown up welters.

[KnockoutTheFat]

Hopkins was ducking the true full-fledged MW David Tua so I'd have to go with Hagler's opponents.