At age 34 Bernard Hopkins had a record of 35-2-1 1 NC

[Larry the boss]

Da bruvas would have be like " ya is haters yo, knaw im sayin, yeah yeah, ya cant beat him , my man be winning , ya is taking L's knaw im sayin. P4p baby. Ya jelous mayng.

I guess racism is cool on here now BostonGuy TBear

[Larry the boss]

Da bruvas would have be like " ya is haters yo, knaw im sayin, yeah yeah, ya cant beat him , my man be winning , ya is taking L's knaw im sayin. P4p baby. Ya jelous mayng.

I guess racism is cool on here now BostonGuy TBear

[Mr.Fantastic]

I guess racism is cool on here now BostonGuy TBear

If you hate racism then why do you support Floyd then? Remember when he said horrible things about Pac/Asians?

[-Kev-]

"Bernard, save us!"

Hopkins had no formal amateur career, or Olympic boxing credentials.

Golovkin went 345-5 as an amateur.

Come on stop comparing GGG to Hagler or Hopkins. Let him have his own career. And GGG is not going to fight anyone of the level of Joe Calzaghe or Kelly Pavlik 10 years from now at 43-44 years old like Hopkins did. Or Kovalev level opponent at 50 years old.

Hopkins late surge in his career was forgiven because of the end result, Ring champ at 160, 2 time Ring champion at 175, and racked up names well beyond that 35-2 record. What you are asking for critics to do is to forgive and forget Golovkin's late surge because of what another man did before him. You are essentially saying "Hey, Hopkins at 34 didn't do anything big yet and you all love him now...why not love GGG." Because GGG hasn't gotten to the point where Hopkins go to, to let the fans know that when he was 35-2 he was just getting warmed up, beating Trinidad shortly after, and starting his second gear onwards with De La Hoya, Tarver, Winky, Pavlik, Pascal.

Make this thread again when GGG retires with a stellar record and feats like Hopkins had, and if critics don't give credit, you'll make a good point. Right now you are trying to gain sympathy for a guy with a less than stellar resume and has maybe 3 prime years left at most.

[Real King Kong]

KO magazine!

With the fighter poster, stats and record in the middle of every issue.

Really miss that old mag.

Hell yea...i used to put those on my wall.

[ИATAS]

What?

He was pressured to move up, especially after RJJ and Toney had moved up.
Also, most people didn't give a damn about Hopkins till his Middleweight run because of his resume and his loss to RJJ. He was getting **** on constantly.

It's only till the decline of RJJ have people really looked at Hopkins and started given him credit for his longevity and what he did at MW.
Just look at the Pavlik fight, most (if not all) were picking him to get sparked out and this was constant throughout his run.

People started giving him props after his flawless performance and utter domination of Trinidad. The Pavlik thing was many years later and it was because Hopkins showed his 43 years of age against Calzaghe, so naturally people started to wonder if his age had finally caught up to him. But make no mistake, beating Trinidad, who was viewed as #1 or #2 p4p and obviously a massive star is what gave Hopkins the recognition, and then of course knocking out Oscar a little later pushed him on to the next level of being a big time boxing star.

But yes, you're right about him being pressured to move up in weight. To his credit, his patience paid off big time. Most of us are hoping Golovkin's patience will pay off as well, obviously Canelo could be his Trinidad.

[ИATAS]

"Bernard, save us!"

Hopkins had no formal amateur career, or Olympic boxing credentials.

That's not true. He didn't lace up the gloves for the first time in prison. But in prison it was a legit amateur program and certainly molded him into the fighter he became.

I think it's obvious there are many similarities between the two's middleweight careers. Both struggled for a long time to get big fights. Both had terrible management/promotional issues that led to legal disputes. Both couldn't unify the belts due to politics (for Bernard, the other title holders were Don King fighters and he wouldn't let them fight Bernard (until Bernard had sign to King to fight Trinidad, who King didn't even want Tito to fight in the first place)). Likewise, Golovkin has had big trouble getting unifications, only Lemieux has been willing so far, whereas guys like Canelo, Saunders have ran away, and going beyond that Peter Quillin, Anthony Mundine, Felix Sturm and Daniel Geale. So both fighters were forced to fight top ten guys, mandatories, while trying to secure the bigger fights and racking up title defenses in the process. Very, very similar.

Obviously Bernard got his "Canelo" in Trinidad, got a huge money fight in Oscar and went on to achieve crazy things after the age of 40 after "losing" to Jermain Taylor twice. No one is saying Bernard hasn't achieved way more, no one. People are simply pointing out the similarities of their middleweight reigns which as I shown had a ton of similarities. They both struggled but remained patient, which ultimately paid off for Hopkins and hopefully it will for Gennady as well.

[GOT BEEF?]

I guess racism is cool on here now BostonGuy TBear

I guess racism is cool on here now BostonGuy TBear

Says the guy who only roots for black fighters and thinks all others are inferior.

[Tony Trick-Pony]

Hell yea...i used to put those on my wall.

Me, too. I know I had Barrera pinned up back in his unbeaten days. Ricardo Lopez, too, I believe. I really miss going to the magazine rack the grocery store and finding issues of The Ring, KO, Boxing '96/'97/etc., Boxing Illustrated and tons of others. I hate how it all dropped off.

[Real King Kong]

Me, too. I know I had Barrera pinned up back in his unbeaten days. Ricardo Lopez, too, I believe. I really miss going to the magazine rack the grocery store and finding issues of The Ring, KO, Boxing '96/'97/etc., Boxing Illustrated and tons of others. I hate how it all dropped off.

Yea times have changed...i still pick up the ring once in a while, usually top 100 or year end awards issues.