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^^^^^^^^^^^
great post!
great post!
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by far. Especially if we ignore the age at when he beat opponents. His win over Pascal is amazing, but mostly because he made history with it against a legit champ.
Trinidad is imo his marquee win.Comment
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of course it is. Tito was going through divisions like pacquiao is now. i don't know why Tito was in such a rush to move it to fight Roy. Roy would have murked his ass in a round or 2. i really wish he'd stay at jr to see an oscar rematch, maybe a forrest fight, maybe mosley too. gotta say it might've been king gassin him up for that fight.Comment
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It was definitely Pascal
Trinidad was NOT BHOP's best win. Trinidad was BHOP's most significant win because Hopkins had avoided all other champions in his division for nearly a decade.
Trinidad was a WW. His goal was to face the true #1 P4P fighter in the world, Roy Jones. To get to Roy, Trinidad fought up through the ranks to make his case for a shot at the #1 spot. Hopkins beat him but Trinidad struggled against Vargas and had to get dirty. Trinidad was no jrMW let alone a MW.
Tarver was an opportunist. He's a guy who made a career run at the tail end of his career. Roy Jones was already at HW when Tarver started making noise. Roy Jones ******ly lost 26lbs of muscle in 6 weeks to make the weight at 175lbs and still beat Tarver. He should have retired as he had nothing else left to prove.
Tarver goaded him into a rematch and made history. But Tarver knows like all real fans know that Jones had lost a step. Jones has lost quite a few steps. Proof was that he lost to men who would have had absolutely no chance 2 or 3 years prior. Jones has been getting knocked out left and right because he refuses to admit that he didn't have it anymore after his match with Ruiz.
Yes Tarver was the first to defeat Jones, but he will go down in history as about as good as Buster Douglas or Oliver McCall. He never went on to be great and rode those wins over an old Jones as his ENTIRE legacy.
Pasacal ... now he's a young hungry champion. He beat the #1 ltHW king Chad Dawson. He also got a win over BHOP. Hopkins defeating him not only showed that the man still has skills, but he's aged well, preserved his body and uses ring generalship and experience to outfox and outhustle much younger men.
For years Hopkins was a bum IMO. He defended one belt in one division for the majority of his career. He avoided all other champions and his loss with Jones in 1993 was the best he could say he faced. Trinidad changed that, but even after that Hopkins let the momentum his career picked up fade away.
The true moment when Hopkins stepped up his career and made a power move for a great legacy was when he fought Jermain Taylor. Win or lose the man finally stepped up to some real MW competition. Then he went on to beat Pavlik and Tarver.
Everything else was nice but Hopkins found the willingness to be great when he fought Taylor, not Trinidad or DLH.
Hopkins best win was over a prime ltHW Pascal when Pascal was coming off a huge win over Dawson.
The man is getting better as he ages not because he is improving as a fighter, but because he's finally become willing to fight big challenges and other champions.Comment
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Highest stakes. Biggest magnitude, but I was more impressed w wins versus Glenn Johnson, Winky Wright, ODLH, Tarver Pavlik, Pascal.
Trinidad had one fight at middle.Comment
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Beating a guy who wasn't really a MW to begin with. Good thing Hopkins has stopped picking on smaller guys and taking on people his size now.Comment
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