Bernard Hopkins is pure scum. A case study.

[djtmal]

sorry hopkins is a fraud...scaled down lightheavy who beat up on weak middles....every fight in which he was pitted against an equally sized, equally talented fighter he lost....oh excuse me except for part-time movie star antonio tarver....made a good living making winky, pavlik, oscar, tito, etc. move up two divisions and mug and maul 'em to death....

btw...street bully will make up any excuse to defend his overrated a**...lol

[General Zod]

Who has Joe beat near the level of Trinidad or De La Hoya? Joe's best win is Bernard...

Bernard has the 20 title defenses and other significant wins...Winky, Pavlik, Tarver

De La Hoya was a A+ welterweight, but a very poor middleweight. His record at mw should really be 0-2, so it isnt exactly a great win, just a ok win.

Tito was a A+ ww, but at best a B grade mw, his record was 3-2, I believe and then he retired. Both times he tried to step up the competition by fighting A+ mw's he lost by complete shut out.

Neither Winky or Pavlik have achieved anything at lhw, so those wins are good wins, not great wins. Why did Hopkins make fights with guys two divisions below him anyway?

Ill give him the Tarver win.

You also have to take in account his losses:
Jones, Taylor*2,Mitchell, Calzaghe

Undeserved draw: Segundo Mercado, what kind of great fighter has to resort to headbutting to get a draw with this kind of fighter?

What harms his legacy at mw, is he lost to the two best mw's he faced.

Joe Calzaghe has 20 title defences like Hopkins and his best wins are:
Chris Eubank
Bernard Hopkins
Mikkel Kessler
Jeff Lacy

I really dont see much difference.

[REMOVED SHARK 97]

Agreed.

There's Hopkins as a professional sportsman, who is held at high regard and then there's the otherside, outside of the ring in which I've already discussed before.

[IMDAZED]

De La Hoya was a A+ welterweight, but a very poor middleweight. His record at mw should really be 0-2, so it isnt exactly a great win, just a ok win.

Tito was a A+ ww, but at best a B grade mw, his record was 3-2, I believe and then he retired. Both times he tried to step up the competition by fighting A+ mw's he lost by complete shut out.

Neither Winky or Pavlik have achieved anything at lhw, so those wins are good wins, not great wins. Why did Hopkins make fights with guys two divisions below him anyway?

Ill give him the Tarver win.

You also have to take in account his losses:
Jones, Taylor*2,Mitchell, Calzaghe

Undeserved draw: Segundo Mercado, what kind of great fighter has to resort to headbutting to get a draw with this kind of fighter?

What harms his legacy at mw, is he lost to the two best mw's he faced.

Joe Calzaghe has 20 title defences like Hopkins and his best wins are:
Chris Eubank
Bernard Hopkins
Mikkel Kessler
Jeff Lacy

I really dont see much difference.

I disagree. The Tarver win alone trumps nearly Calzaghe's whole resume. And it was a convincing, one-sided win where he leaped two divisions. Joe C. has never attempted anything like that.

[General Zod]

I disagree. The Tarver win alone trumps nearly Calzaghe's whole resume. And it was a convincing, one-sided win where he leaped two divisions. Joe C. has never attempted anything like that.

I personally think that the only reason he took that fight because he was counting on Tarver being drained. In order to prove me wrong Hopkins can either give Tarver a rematch, which Tarver has been calling for or fight a legit light heavy weight. Hopkins made his pro debut at light heavy weight as well, so him returing to his original division isnt as amazing as say a fighter who started at mw moving up.

[IMDAZED]

I personally think that the only reason he took that fight because he was counting on Tarver being drained. In order to prove me wrong Hopkins can either give Tarver a rematch, which Tarver has been calling for or fight a legit light heavy weight. Hopkins made his pro debut at light heavy weight as well, so him returing to his original division isnt as amazing as say a fighter who started at mw moving up.

Hopkins was out of shape in his pro debut and didn't know how to train properly. That has little bearing on him returning to that division nearly 20 years later.

Second, you don't leap two divisions hoping someone is drained. Tarver naturally walks around near the 200lb marker so the movie was irrelevant. And if he was really drained, he wouldn't have remained at LHW for four more years.

[General Zod]

Hopkins was out of shape in his pro debut and didn't know how to train properly. That has little bearing on him returning to that division nearly 20 years later.

Second, you don't leap two divisions hoping someone is drained. Tarver naturally walks around near the 200lb marker so the movie was irrelevant. And if he was really drained, he wouldn't have remained at LHW for four more years.

1: Do you have a link for that?
2: Why not, Sugar Ray Leonard fought Hagler because he was counting on him being way past prime after the Mugabi fight. Pac did it as well against Oscar.
3: Tarver bulked up to around 220 for the Rocky film. he also has said he didnt fell right come fight night and has been asking for a remtch ever since.

[Mr. Philadel]

Lets look at the career of the overrated clown with buckteeth and limited geography knowledge known as Bernard "Street Bully" Hopkins.

First off, the man is a petty thug. He got put in the can for trying to ****** a 12 year old boy on his way to catechism class. I took catechism, so I know how hard that could be on a young man.

Secondly, while in the joint, he tossed a grip of salads. The older inmates thought it would be kosher to make an example out of such a weak, limpwristed coward.

Thirdly, he's a fraud. He made 20 title defenses against the worst kind of opposition you could imagine. Secretaries, nurses, high class hookers and goddamn journeymen. To make matters worse, he lost to goddamn Jermain Taylor 2x who lost to Carl Froch and Kelly Pavlik ffs!! What a disgrace!

****, if I fought that bunch, I'd be 100-0 w/ 99 k.o's by now.

Fourthly, he's a racist. He told Joe Calzaghe ( a true ATG) that he'd never let a "whiteboy" beat him in front of the "real" press.

Fifthly, he's a dumbass. He showed his racist colors to the world like an idiot and thinks Australia is in Europe.

**** you Hopkins you overrated prison *****.

YOU MAD!!!!

[SplitSecond]

Hopkins was out of shape in his pro debut and didn't know how to train properly. That has little bearing on him returning to that division nearly 20 years later.

Second, you don't leap two divisions hoping someone is drained. Tarver naturally walks around near the 200lb marker so the movie was irrelevant. And if he was really drained, he wouldn't have remained at LHW for four more years.

source:http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/07/Sp...ns_meet_.shtml

It seems so silly, what with all the years of training and the punches and the running and the impressive histories of Bernard Hopkins and Tampa's Antonio Tarver, but for almost everyone determining a favorite for Saturday's fight in Atlantic City, it will come down to this:

Two men, in their underwear, standing on a scale in front of hundreds of cheering onlookers.

The limit for the light heavyweight fight is 175 pounds, but how close each fighter comes to that number at Friday's weigh-in, and how good they look doing it, will influence who many think will win.

Weight is always an issue in boxing. Just ask Jose Luis Castillo, who cost himself hundreds of thousands of dollars last week by failing to come close to the 135-pound limit for his fight with Diego Corrales. But rarely does it take center stage like it has for Saturday's 9 p.m. showdown on HBO pay-per-view.

Hopkins (46-4-1, 32 knockouts) is coming up in weight. Tarver is going down. Somewhere in the middle, the two men will slug it out.

"Everybody is mentioning one side - Bernard Hopkins and having to fight heavier," said boxing historian Bert Sugar. "I think coming down is tougher, though. Just ask Jose Luis Castillo."

When Tarver (24-3, 18 KOs) fought Roy Jones Jr. the first time, it came on the heels of Jones' successful move to heavyweight, where he beat John Ruiz for the WBA title. Jones escaped with the victory over Tarver, but the 30-plus pounds he had to lose were used by the fighter and his camp as the excuse for a lackluster showing.

Tarver derided the excuse (and knocked him out in the rematch), and is insisting he won't use it.

He packed on roughly 45 pounds for his role as heavyweight Mason Dixon in the upcoming Rocky movie. He has not revealed his exact weight at the time of filming, but Sugar said it was 218.

"I was on the set because I have a cameo, and in one of the the scenes Tarver, or Mason Dixon, got on scale," Sugar said. "It was 218."

But filming wrapped in January, and Tarver says he is on target to make 175.

"That's part of our job," Tarver said. "And I mean, we've got to lose weight. I mean we all lose weight. That's not a problem. Only people like Roy Jones make excuses for it. I don't have a problem with it. I'm lean, mean, I'm ready to go."

Many fighters walk around 15-20 pounds heavier than their fighting weight. (Hopkins is an exception). It's those who must lose a lot quickly who pay the stiffer price.

Tarver has followed a careful plan to take the weight off safely so he is not drained on fight night.

"What people fail to realize, and they won't recognize until June 10, is that actually, I've been training since the middle of October," Tarver said. "Do you think I was sitting around eating doughnuts out there with Sylvester Stallone? I was working out with one of the most revered trainers on the West Coast. We worked hard to put on the muscle, we lifted weights, we did exercises, we worked."

With the exception of his first fight, a loss that ironically helped convince Hopkins that 175 was too heavy to fight at, the Philadelphia legend has campaigned his entire career at 160. He won a middleweight title and set a division record by defending it 20 times, knocking out the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya, before losing to Jermain Taylor twice.

With Taylor in control of the division, Hopkins looked elsewhere for his career finale. Instead of moving up one division to 168 pounds, he decided to jump two classes to meet Tarver, with whom he has long had a tempestuous relationship.

Only one notable boxer, Sugar Ray Robinson, tried the feat, losing in 1963 to Joey Maxim.

Hopkins moved his camp to the home of renowned New Orleans fitness guru Mackie Shilstone, hiring him to help pack on pounds in a way that adds power but retains speed.

Shilstone has worked with hundreds of athletes. He got Jones ready for Ruiz, and his most famous project was helping light heavyweight champ Michael Spinks dethrone much bigger heavyweight champ Larry Holmes in Ring magazine's Upset of the Year in 1985.

Hopkins has been coy about his goal weight. One thing is certain: Hopkins and his team don't seem very concerned with hitting 175.

"Well, I'm not sure why you think he has to go up over 170 because Bernard Hopkins is a seasoned veteran," Shilstone said. "And I think the best way to put it is (we want him at) a championship weight. I think it's what he does with what he has."

Tarver is taller, bigger and by extension, the harder puncher. Regardless of what the scales say, when they tangle Saturday he will be heavier, maybe by 20-30 pounds.

Consider: Corrales declined to fight Castillo at what would would have been a similar disadvantage, which most boxers feel can be the difference between life and death.

"It favors Tarver; so does his reach and so does his height," Sugar said. "But what he gains after the weigh-in won't make any difference. It's how he loses the weight, if he makes it easy, or if it's a struggle. It comes down to what he has left."

[The_Demon]

na hes a good fighter with great defensive skills and very dedicated to the sport
that said,he is slightly over-rated by some,and his antics in the calzaghe fight were laughable,i kind of felt sorry for the guy