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It's Bernard Hopkins. Besides his record/resume, you then take into account his consistency, to never get dominated or knocked out at any point of his career. Whether he was a still Green fighter Vs Jones in the 90's, or a seasoned Prime Fighter in his 30's, or a Cagy Past-Prime Fighter in his Early to Mid 40's.
If you got flaws, he exposes them and owns you. If you're solid, best case scenario, you get dragged into a close, dirty battle and nobody is sure where the judges stand, including his opponent.Comment
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But you're not calling it like it is, that's the problem.
He beat plenty of Natural Middleweights who were pretty good. None of em' were great, because he was the Greatest of em' all and the one defending a World Title Belt for the longest. While other Title holders were losing their belts, he kept holding on to his, until finally a deal was struck, and a Middleweight Tournament was made, between all the Belt-Holders. Which he won.
If we're gonna play the (he got famous by beating Welterweights shtick), then Hagler got famous by beating Duran, Hearns and losing to a Welterweight in Leonard. Of course I don't hold that against Hagler or Hopkins.Comment
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hagler's competition is much stiffer than Bhop.. i think you would agree with that..
it's just sad when you fought on your division for a decade fighting so-so competition and was outshadowed by other division.
as i have said, he started at 175.. then stay at 160 till jones were nowhere to be found..Comment
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If he made 160 all those years, then that means he must've been a Natural Middleweight, and 175 was too much at that time. Why keep fighting at a weight that you probably walk around at? It was his debut fight, he probably wasn't even experienced in the whole Dieting/controlling your weight for the weigh-in scale thing. And after a year off, figured that he is feeling faster and lighter on his feet at 160. If he was a natural 175 pounder, he would've outgrown Middleweight long time ago and be a full-fledged Heavyweight like Thomas Adamek by now.
Weak criticism on your part.
Nothing is sad about his career, he has had a great run at Middleweight at the end of the day, no matter what Revisionist History some Forum member may come up with. And if that wasn't enough, he is piling on to his resume by still winning at age 46.Comment
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what he has done surely was phenomenal at his age. he maybe on some kind of **** they are accusing some fighters are having..
seriously, he had a great reign at the middleweight division, i just found it very sad that it was not a great decade of middleweight champions. all are good champions but nobody was HOF worthy..Comment
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The only top 10 bernard should be in is dirtiest fighter of all time. It amazes me what short memories people have. His fight with Joe was one of the most shameful performances I've ever seen by a boxer. I'm surprised Joe was able to keep his cool with all the unsuccessful dirty tactics hopkins used. Constant holding, leading with his head, faking low blows, faking punches to the back of the head, throwing his own low blows...these are hopkins' legacy and you can see them all the JC fight along with many other of his fights. Agree about Roy though, he's easily the greatest of the three, he just stuck around too long. JC's main problem was that he was born Welsh and not Yank, otherwise he'd get a lot more credit and would've gotten the big fights a lot sooner.Comment
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HOF is a status, not a statistical fact. Stallone got into the Hall of Fame recently. We don't know how many could've been great, had Hopkins not beaten them, and took them out of equation.
The only time we had multiple great fighters, within one division was when the wealth was spread around, so to speak. When Morales-Barrera were having trilogies at Featherweight. That creates two Hall of Fame fighters within the same division. And a lot of it is based on Aesthetics. They had three exciting fights, and that made them even more HOF worthy to the Old-timers who lust for blood and are usually in charge of who gets into the HOF and who doesn't.Comment
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Not just that he was born Welsh, but that he fought there too much as well. Last time I checked, the U.S. isn't some small country for local fighters, it covers half the continent. You wanna be an All-Time Great, it's your duty to go after the Great fighters in the U.S., not the other way around.
The B-Level Americans like Lacy and Manfredo sure went to Wales alright. They had no choice if they wanted a payday. But that doesn't mean that the A-Level American guys have to follow suit, for a homegrown, protected WBO Title Holder, who fought mismatched mandatory's that Frank Warren paid for, to prop him up. It was on him to come here and enhance his legacy.
And then there is his Boxing style. Fighting like a ***** punching his way out of spiderwebs. The Yanks don't like that, and will booo their own if they're not aesthetically pleasing to watch.
At the end, he probably made the right choice, because had he comes sooner, and fought more than twice, he'd probably would've retired with a 44-4 type record.
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