Bernard Hopkins at it again: "The Klitschko Brothers Are "Just Lucky"

[Mayas]

Hopkins is just upset that Black Champions have diminished in boxing.

Hopkins doesnt realize that the reason there were many black champions in the 1940's, 50's, 60's, is because they mainly fought amongst themselves, and didnt have to worry about fighting Mexicans, Russians, Europeans, because many black boxers then, defended their titles to their own kind,.

and now, that boxing is more Global, blacks cant compete with other races, so Hopkins is desperately overhyping blacks, and critizices the other races.

[BrooklynBomber]

does klitsckos bros combined record have a H.O.F. on it besides Lennox Lewis

That would only be a good argument in other weight divisions:
Klitschkos may or may not have anyone who will get into HOF because they fought heavyweights, if any one of their opponents gets into HOF it is to THEIR discredit for not shutting them down on their way in.
In other weight divisions fighters move up and down the divisions, and they could face HOFers seldomly, because a dominant champion from one division would be fighting a dominant champion from another division. When you fight in one division your whole career, the testament of your own greatness is complete lack of success of everyone else in it.
You've got to overshadow everyone, thats how they know you are good.

[BrooklynBomber]

This is the problem with many of you on nsb, you have to try and justify everything with stats, why can't you just use judgement and know? There doesn't have to be material evidence. I think this is a weak division because I have seen heavyweight boxing since the early 90's, in the flesh and tv and I have boxed myself for several years, and think I have enough knowledge in the sport to identify when someone is a good fighter or not, whether they are fast or not, whether they have good fitness or not, etc. The heavyweights have been on a constant decline since lennox lewis days, there was a shortage then and it has only got worse. At least Lennox beat a lot of good fighters...b, b+ type fighters, and also beat holyfield when he was still very good.

At least there is somewhat of a barometer with vitali because we know he could compete at a level with lewis even if he was past his best, he was still on top when vitali fought him. With Wlad there is no way to know apart from using judgement, like with the current crop of heavyweights its obvious to me that they are at a very poor level, and I have a sneaky su****ion wlad would not last too long with a really good heavyweight.

And thats just your opinion, I am simply not going to delve into another analysis of what HW division was in the 90s because it was done a million times before, but both brothers beat plenty of guys with very good records over the last 10 years. Lost some as well, cant take it away from them, but its the **** that happens. And the quality of actual boxing, especially if the fight had a Klitschko in it had been good as well.

[GoogleMe]

Bernard The Racist is going at it again....

[sunny31]

outside of tarver, every marquee name he beat was a welterweight moving up in his middleweight days, or a middleweight moving up to lightheavy at a catchweight...he outboxed tito after watching oscar do it, he was big enough to not fear tito's power enought to step inside and go for the ko, with oscar he was getting outboxed until he mugged and mauled him into submission...and i don't want to hear s**t about how green he was against jones...he was actually ranked higher than jones @ 160 at the time they fought and had identical records....so him having the nerve to say anything derogatory about another fighter makes him a complete hypocritical idiot...

Phaha ha ha! Oscar was out-boxing him? I must have missed that. That tells me everything I need to know about you. I suppose dominating good fighters like glenn johnson and antwon echolls means nothing. Size isn't everything, you seem to think it is, if b-hop wasn't very good then tito would have beat him, or oscar would have, if he was just another fighter those guys would have beaten him not got completely dominated. So what he was ranked higher than jones they were fighting for a vacant title, and when do the ibf or any of the alphabet rankings mean anything? Fact is b-hop fought a great fight against a jones that not soon after dominated james toney and fighter after fighter. Fact is regardless of size his resume is great, the klitschko's is the opposite of great...he said so...he has as much right as anyone including me or you. Fact is he has lost 4 fights in the last 5 years and everyone one of them could have been scored in his favour.

[sunny31]

And thats just your opinion, I am simply not going to delve into another analysis of what HW division was in the 90s because it was done a million times before, but both brothers beat plenty of guys with very good records over the last 10 years. Lost some as well, cant take it away from them, but its the **** that happens. And the quality of actual boxing, especially if the fight had a Klitschko in it had been good as well.

Good Record and good fighter can be 2 completely different things, I haven't seen them beat many good fighters, they may have had decent records. But honestly Wlad's record is poor, very poor. At least in the 90's there was heavyweights who were actually athletic. These guys now are god awful, I mean the 90's forget about tyson, lewis, holy, you still had guys like moorer, bowe, bruno, tua, and those guys were mostly the mid late 90's. Im sorry but wlad is not good to watch, he is scared to exchange and holds a lot the quality is not good, vitali can be exciting cos he takes more chances

[BrooklynBomber]

Good Record and good fighter can be 2 completely different things, I haven't seen them beat many good fighters, they may have had decent records. But honestly Wlad's record is poor, very poor. At least in the 90's there was heavyweights who were actually athletic. These guys now are god awful, I mean the 90's forget about tyson, lewis, holy, you still had guys like moorer, bowe, bruno, tua, and those guys were mostly the mid late 90's. Im sorry but wlad is not good to watch, he is scared to exchange and holds a lot the quality is not good, vitali can be exciting cos he takes more chances

That would be your opinion. I dont need your apologies, however.

[ИATAS]

And you know that how? I know that in magical world of Natas only fat people can rehydrate weight, but in real world of boxing you can rehydrate up to 10% of your bodyweight without actually getting any bigger in waist.

Has hopkins been known to rehydrate 10%+ of his bodyweight? In all of his fights on HBO with the day of fight weigh in, he's never been one to rehydrade crazy amounts of weight. This is non-debatable.

Also there are no sources outside of Bernard Hopkins that would say that he was walking at around 160

Everyone who has ever trained with bernard hopkins has always stated he works like a machine and stays in shape year round. Again, this is common knowledge.

neither that he actually had a size 27 waist. I am pretty confident that you also dont know what a size 27 waist looks like, since even size 29 waist on a 6 foot + adult makes him look malnourished.

If it's a 27" waist or a 29" doesn't make much of a difference to me, HBO reported numerous times 27" including the Tarver fight, if they were incorrect and it's 29" that doesn't change the fact he stays in shape year round and has the reputation as one of the hardest, cleanest living boxers in the sport.

You don't fight at this elite level at 46 years of age blowing up in weight between fights.

First of all, lets define whats a weak division -- is it a division where top 10 contenders have more then 5 losses each?

Amount of losses can't define a weak division. If the vast majority of the fighters in that division suck, of course there are going to be guys with good records.

Again, this is another non-debatable issue as far as I'm concerned. If you're honestly going to sit here and tell me the heavyweight division is not weak right now, then I know exactly what I'm dealing with - a complete fucking moron. There isn't a boxing historian alive that will tell you the heavyweight division is good right now. It's terrible.

Does that make the klitschko brothers terrible? Absolutely not. What it simply means is they are dominating a weak division. Maybe the flipside is it's unfortunate they are fighting in a time in such a weak division because they don't get to showcase their talent against better opposition.

For the record I'm not agreeing with Hopkins that Haye beats both Klitschko's. I don't think that's the case but I understand where he's coming from and why he, and thousands of other people, aren't impressed with the Klit brothers.

[Mr. Philadel]

LOL, that's bit naive, isn't it?

It's ALWAYS about race with B-Hop, or haven't you been listening to him over the last few years?

Given his past statements, it's obvious why he depises the Klitschkos.

“I’m a big fan of David. We got to be friends when we were training in Miami a few years back. He has a lot going for him. He has the sound bites, he’s not a bad-looking guy and he can fight,” praised Hopkins.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/boxin...the-klitschkos

[BrooklynBomber]

Has hopkins been known to rehydrate 10%+ of his bodyweight? In all of his fights on HBO with the day of fight weigh in, he's never been one to rehydrade crazy amounts of weight. This is non-debatable.
How about some links.


Everyone who has ever trained with bernard hopkins has always stated he works like a machine and stays in shape year round. Again, this is common knowledge.

I highly doubt a 6foot1 boxer would be in a great shape year around if he was malnourishing himself. What does not get into your head is that you are much likelier to be in a great shape when you are in a normal weight range for your height then when you are draining, what also does not get into your head is that Hopkins normal weight is somewhere around 180sh.


If it's a 27" waist or a 29" doesn't make much of a difference to me, HBO reported numerous times 27" including the Tarver fight, if they were incorrect and it's 29" that doesn't change the fact he stays in shape year round and has the reputation as one of the hardest, cleanest living boxers in the sport.

Which also does not go against my argument that hopkins success comes from his hard work in gym, size advantage(at least in early and mid career) and his experience. Somehow you are not realizing that I am not bashing Hopkins' as a fighter, he is a great one, but as a person, because he is a small minded jerk.
You don't fight at this elite level at 46 years of age blowing up in weight between fights.


Yes, but he is fighting light heavyweights now, which are much closer to the range of 180+ pounds then middle weight, right

Amount of losses can't define a weak division. If the vast majority of the fighters in that division suck, of course there are going to be guys with good records.

I am sorry to tell you, but it does, lack of losses in top 10 shows two things -- 1) fighters in there are much better then the rest of the division 2) they do not like fighting each other. It may show that the rest of the division sucks, but not actually the top 10.

Again, this is another non-debatable issue as far as I'm concerned. If you're honestly going to sit here and tell me the heavyweight division is not weak right now, then I know exactly what I'm dealing with - a complete fucking moron. There isn't a boxing historian alive that will tell you the heavyweight division is good right now. It's terrible.

First of all, there is a huge spectrum of quality between terrible and good. you obviously try to spin the issue, but frankly, you suck at it, so I will grace you with some deeper understanding. What you have been overlooking is the length of time the Klitschko brothers been in the top 10 -- for easy pickings, because you really are not good at it, I will give you the last 10 years. If you judge the top 15 at this second right on, its not too impressive, because outside of Haye and Adamek everyone was either beaten up by Klitschkos and retired or just were beaten up. If you actually took your time, which I know you won't, and looked at all the top 10 contenders and champs Klitschkos beat, that would be a really good top 10.
For Example Wlad beat guys like:
Mcline
Peter
Byrd
Brewster
Thompson
Chagaev
Ibragimov
Brock
Chambers
Mercer

that is a really good top 10 contenders as far as I am concerned. Not a murderers row, but when you actually think about it no one champion ever fought in as good of a division as his whole resume would suggest, because champions usually fight over long period of time and contenders come and go.
Thats actually another argument, because most of the contenders really went downhill after Klitschko was done with themDoes that make the klitschko brothers terrible? Absolutely not. What it simply means is they are dominating a weak division. Maybe the flipside is it's unfortunate they are fighting in a time in such a weak division because they don't get to showcase their talent against better opposition.

For the record I'm not agreeing with Hopkins that Haye beats both Klitschko's. I don't think that's the case but I understand where he's coming from and why he, and thousands of other people, aren't impressed with the Klit brothers.

Read the bolded