Did Hopkins just supplant Mayweather, Jr as "best of his era"?

[Bobby Shaw]

Who is Mayweather?

He's the greatest of all time.His skills will be studied 100 yrs from now,his strategy in boxing will be used in economics at schools like Harvard and Wharton as part of competitive strategy.

[Ryn0]

Jones went from Middle to Heavy. And beat the weakest HW there was.

Floyd fought 75% of his career at LW and below. Then beat a still-good HoF'er at JMW.

The weight jumps are equivalent...and may actually favor PBF.

Yes, that Toney win is the signature win. AWESOME performance. Toney was #1 p4p at the time. But people may forget that Corrales was #3 p4p when Floyd beat him.

Corrales is no where near the fight Toney is, Corrales was a good fighter but he blocked punches with his face, had great heart and power but no chin, he was hella exciting but he hasn't got half the skill Toney has. Granted he may have been P4P 3 at the time but he Toney was number one at the time.

Not to mention Roy Jones Jr. was the number 1 at the time that Corrales was number 3 the skill gap between number 3 and one can be immense (isn't always as if the case now but sometimes it is)

Corrales is a two weight world champ, Toney is a 4 weight world champ. He has beaten the likes of Michael Nunn, Reggie Johnson, Mike McCallum, Iran Barkley, Doug Dewitt, Vassiliy Jirov, Evander Holyfield.

[DIOS DOMINICANO]

Corrales is no where near the fight Toney is, Corrales was a good fighter but he blocked punches with his face, had great heart and power but no chin, he was hella exciting but he hasn't got half the skill Toney has. Granted he may have been P4P 3 at the time but he Toney was number one at the time.

Not to mention Roy Jones Jr. was the number 1 at the time that Corrales was number 3 the skill gap between number 3 and one can be immense (isn't always as if the case now but sometimes it is)

Corrales is a two weight world champ, Toney is a 4 weight world champ. He has beaten the likes of Michael Nunn, Reggie Johnson, Mike McCallum, Iran Barkley, Doug Dewitt, Vassiliy Jirov, Evander Holyfield.

Nobody will ever need to sell me on James Toney. Trust. I'm a fan.That being said...

Roy fought a top guy early in his career, and went up four weight classes and fought Ruiz.

Floyd fought a top guy early in his career and went up four weight classes and fought Delahoya.

nahmean?

[SD_Mexirican]

Bernards resume is just amazin, even im going to have 2 say hes the greatest of this era . even his losses its just a crazy resume, and at 43 makes it more special. Hopkins best in this era , thats that !!!!!!!

[OptimusWolf]

I have

Mayweather
RJJ
Pacquiao
Hopkins
Calzaghe

for fighters with primes in last 15 years, based on resume rather than matchups or my assessment of their abilities.

[The Gambler1981]

I still prefer Floyd over B-Hop and Roy Jones. B-Hop for sure deserves to be in the discussion for best of the era though. No one beat B-Hop clearly in his whole career and no one has beat him up; it is a shame that middleweight was such an ass division while B-Hop ruled it but there is no doubt that B-Hop style is timeless (also his crazy outsider mindset probably cost him a lot of fame earier in his career).

[Ryn0]

Nobody will ever need to sell me on James Toney. Trust. I'm a fan.That being said...

Roy fought a top guy early in his career, and went up four weight classes and fought Ruiz.

Floyd fought a top guy early in his career and went up four weight classes and fought Delahoya.

nahmean?

True, but the respective guys they both fought that defined there careers early on namely Corrales and Toney (both great acheivements by the way) Toney is the better fighter P4P not just in achievements in skill as well.

They are very even overall but IMO Toney puts Roy on top, I mean Toney is one of the greatest fighters of this generation aswell Corrales on the other hand isn't.

[DIOS DOMINICANO]

True, but the respective guys they both fought that defined there careers early on namely Corrales and Toney (both great acheivements by the way) Toney is the better fighter P4P not just in achievements in skill as well.

They are very even overall but IMO Toney puts Roy on top, I mean Toney is one of the greatest fighters of this generation aswell Corrales on the other hand isn't.

Yeah, but other than Corrales , floyd went on a Castillo/castillo/goyo/famoso/chavez/manfredy/gatti/oscar/zab/hatton/ etc jag.

Roy's resume between Toney and Tarver is , um, suspect. I jerked off to the beating he gave Pazienza. I will always love Roy for that. But Vinny was a LW fighting as a roided SMW.

[SkillspayBills]

Second only to Floyd. Floyd didn't lose at all. Hopkins has some L's on that record.

[Pullcounter]

Last night's win was a big one for B-Hop. The way BH bitched his way through the second 1/2 of the Calzaghe fight had taken some lustre off his career.

Now, he has probably established himself as "best of his era" in the eyes of many boxing observers.

What are your thoughts?

its a great win, but unless hopkins gets another crack at calzaghe (and rjj to a lesser degree because he's shot), imho he will not be able to say he's the best of the era, because he can't say he's beaten everybody he's ever faced.

mayweather on the other hand can say he's beaten everybody he's faced and on top of that he's undefeated and retired p4p #1 winning belts in 5 different weight classes.