Prime Bernard Hopkins in today's MW-SMW Landscape.How will he do?

[Cardinal Buck]

Ward would beat him. Hopkins would be favored against anyone else, but I need to see more of Golovkin before I form an opinion of him.

[Ryn0]

keep in mind hopkins was 40 years old when he fought Taylor and not still in his prime.

people always forget that.

Prime Hopkins was probably between 1998-2003, reaching his absolute peak around 2001 against Trinidad.

True, but (not referring to you) saying Martinez v Hopkins would be a mismatch is just silly.

Martinez is highly athletic and highly skilled. If there is a type of fighter Hopkins has struggled against it is athletic fighters. Guys like Roy Jones, Calzaghe, Taylor, Dawson, Pascal. He might have beaten Martinez but I struggle to think it would be a whitewash.

Hopkins might not be the same physically at 40 but stylistically he was still very similiar (though younger Hopkins was much more aggressive in his style)

[elfag]

noobs forget how active hopkins was in the 90s. He dropped those two close decisions to taylor because of low punch output which was part of his strategy as a ****ing 40 year old to maintain stamina. Only ward would give him some real trouble, that would be a good scrap, hopkins from echols 2 vs ward. Martinez would loose the way he keeps his hands low he will get tagged too much. hes got fast hands but he gets hit a pretty lot

[WolfGirl]

True, but (not referring to you) saying Martinez v Hopkins would be a mismatch is just silly.

Martinez is highly athletic and highly skilled. If there is a type of fighter Hopkins has struggled against it is athletic fighters. Guys like Roy Jones, Calzaghe, Taylor, Dawson, Pascal. He might have beaten Martinez but I struggle to think it would be a whitewash.

Hopkins might not be the same physically at 40 but stylistically he was still very similiar (though younger Hopkins was much more aggressive in his style)

He beat Pascal when he was like 46 years old. He never struggled with Calzaghe's athleticism, he struggled with Joe's work rated because at that age he just don't have the stamina to keep up with Joe anymore and he still barely lost that fight (some people had it a draw or a Hopkins win)

The only 'athletic' guy he struggled with was Roy and that was a very young Bernard.
I posted this a while back on another site regarding Roy's win over Bernard

Sorry for long post: But this is my thoughts on Roy vs Bernard




From the surface, it's a easy question to answer. Of course Roy deserves all the credit and it's a huge win. Young Roy beat Young Bernard.

But, if you dig a little deeper I feel that Roy does deserve credit but not to the extend that some have given him. If you watch the Roy Jones of Hopkins days and compare it to the Roy Jones who was dominating a couple years later. There is virtually no difference. Roy always had his amazing reflexes and his ability to set traps,counters. His blinding speed and his sheer athleticism. Roy was a freak of nature and a great great fighter.

Bernard on the other hand against Roy during the early 90's only had his youth, his toughness, and his athleticism. Hopkins became a far more progressed version of himself during his prime MW days later on. He became a wonderful defensive wizard who neutralized your best assets, he still had his power and his speed during his prime MW days but also added a far more elevated level of defensive abilities as compare to the young Bernard Roy fought. A lot of the counters/slip works he was getting caught with in that match, the Hopkins of Trinidad days would never even have gotten close to getting caught with.
In short, Roy didn't really improve that much as a boxer since Hopkins I, Hopkins improved leaps and bounds. I think those facts are undeniable. That being said Roy Jones Jr deserve a LOT OF credit for that win. Just not AS MUCH as some fans like to point out.


Also, if Roy and Bernard had met at 168 in the early 2000's I'm not totally sure Roy would have emerged victories. It's quite obvious by now that Bernard is a lot more capable of jumping up in weight as compare to Roy going down.
It's too bad there is no Prime Hopkins today in the division's 160-168. I think he will clean house today.

[elfag]

True, but (not referring to you) saying Martinez v Hopkins would be a mismatch is just silly.

Martinez is highly athletic and highly skilled. If there is a type of fighter Hopkins has struggled against it is athletic fighters. Guys like Roy Jones, Calzaghe, Taylor, Dawson, Pascal. He might have beaten Martinez but I struggle to think it would be a whitewash.

Hopkins might not be the same physically at 40 but stylistically he was still very similiar (though younger Hopkins was much more aggressive in his style)

he'd beat martinez, martinez gets hit relatively a lot, vs Roy Jones who was almost untouchable. Though hopkins won 4 rounds and he fought the right fight, roy was just too hard to land on. Only an older hopkins would possibly loose to martinez for not having a high enough punch output.

[Ryn0]

he'd beat martinez, martinez gets hit relatively a lot, vs Roy Jones who was almost untouchable. Though hopkins won 4 rounds and he fought the right fight, roy was just too hard to land on. Only an older hopkins would possibly loose to martinez for not having a high enough punch output.

Wolfgirl, Calzaghe's workrate isn't an athletic tribute? And Remember that Joe barely won that fight but few people are actually able to win against B-hop let alone look good. And he did struggle against the more athletic Taylor. My point being superior athletes to Hopkins give him trouble, they might not win but they give him a harder time than guys that rely on power etc.

As Hopkins has gotten older his athleticism has declined but not his boxing ability, but there are still a lot of guys out there that aren't as athletic as a 40+ Hopkins surprisingly. So while a younger Hopkins has fewer boxers that are more athletic than he is (because he's younger) the better athletes than Hopkins are one that he struggles with.

And el***, I was merely saying Hopkins-Martinez wouldn't be a whitewash, I think Hopkins would win (I voted that Hopkins beats everyone from 160-168) but someone in this thread said Hopkins-Martinez would be a mismatch. I disagree, I think it would be a competitive fight. Martinez throws a lot of punches, isn't one dimensional like Pavlik, is a southpaw and has great boxing ability and variety in his punches and to top it off is extremely quick.

[MJ223]

Wolfgirl, Calzaghe's workrate isn't an athletic tribute? And Remember that Joe barely won that fight but few people are actually able to win against B-hop let alone look good. And he did struggle against the more athletic Taylor. My point being superior athletes to Hopkins give him trouble, they might not win but they give him a harder time than guys that rely on power etc.

As Hopkins has gotten older his athleticism has declined but not his boxing ability, but there are still a lot of guys out there that aren't as athletic as a 40+ Hopkins surprisingly. So while a younger Hopkins has fewer boxers that are more athletic than he is (because he's younger) the better athletes than Hopkins are one that he struggles with.

And el***, I was merely saying Hopkins-Martinez wouldn't be a whitewash, I think Hopkins would win (I voted that Hopkins beats everyone from 160-168) but someone in this thread said Hopkins-Martinez would be a mismatch. I disagree, I think it would be a competitive fight. Martinez throws a lot of punches, isn't one dimensional like Pavlik, is a southpaw and has great boxing ability and variety in his punches and to top it off is extremely quick.

Title of the thread did say prime..... You brought up fights where he clearly wasn't prime.... I would probably give you the Jones fight.... But Martinez is no Jones

[TBear]

Hopkins definitely beats all the 160 pounders right now and probably all the 168 pounders as well.

[Mr. Philadel]

only guy that gives him problems is Ward but I believe a prime hopkins did everything ward could do but better.

this^^^^^^^^^^

B.Hop would be killing the MW division....Ward is the ONLY dude at '68 who would give B.Hop problems imo

[Capaedia]

I think Ward's size and youth take it, but everyone else loses.

If Hopkins' prime was at SMW though, I think he would beat Ward, but it wasn't.

Ward would probably beat him

Martinez would give him some trouble, as would Golovkin

You what?