Is my dad right about Hopkins being severely overrated?

[Motorcity Cobra]

That Hopkins take wasn't the only mistake your dad made.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

I just started watching boxing not too long ago. (about 2 years), but my dad has been watching it religiously his entire life. I asked him the other day about what he thought about bernard hopkins and he said he's one of the most overrated boxers of all time and a coward to boot. I asked him why he thought that and he said "he's overrated because he's been beating up on smaller men his entire career. 160lb isn't his natural weight. He knew he couldn't hang with men his own size, so he took the cowards way out and had been starving himself for years so he could beat up on smaller fighters masquerading as a middleweight."

He said he can't respect any fighter that does that. He also said that he gets far too much credit for beating Trinidad and De la Hoya when it was clear that Hopkins was the bigger man. He then went on to say that it's a shame because Hopkins ended up ruining a lot of great smaller fighters that had bright futures who he shouldn't have even been fighting to begin with.

Is my dad right?

Completely WRONG!
A coward??😂😂😂
The guy fought big, strong and powerful light heavyweights such as Shumenov and Kovalev when he was nearly 50 YEARS OLD!!

[Roadblock]

What rating we talking about we all have one, from what I can see after a fighters career is over all you have left is opinion.

Bhop was a great fighter that beat a lot of big men also, I dont know why people cant except great comes in many ways not just theirs.

My opinion off course !

[JJRod]

Yea, you wrote this using an alt and your point is weak.
I think BHop's late career is overrated because his style became really cheap; punch and stall, punch and stall. When he fought guys that didn't let him do that, he lost.

Prime BHop deserves every bit of credit he got though. For a guy who got such a late start, he was a very intelligent fighter.

I still hate the fact I got excited about the Winky fight only to see this exact thing.

[GrandmasterWang]

Hopkins was one of the best to do it in a brutal sport.

He was going for MW history and had titles to defend.

Oldest world champion so far. Legend.

He weighed lighter than Oscar.

If he was a coward he wouldn't have fought Kovalev etc and other bigger, younger, longer guys.

[Roadblock]

Hopkins was one of the best to do it in a brutal sport.

He was going for MW history and had titles to defend.

Oldest world champion so far. Legend.

He weighed lighter than Oscar.

If he was a coward he wouldn't have fought Kovalev etc and other bigger, younger, longer guys.

He didnt weigh lighter than Oscar on fight night, I dont know why guys judge fighters at their weigh-in dehydrated state when they are nowhere near that when they actually fight.

Imagine a Court and you said he was lighter than Oscar, and I said objection, during the fight Bernard was 176lbs and Oscar 165, what do you think the judge is going to rule ?

Bhop had both Oscar and Tito beaten at the weights, a much bigger man it just depended on how he made the weight, Hurd loses 30lbs and its a great advantage, but if you botch it up like Oscar -Manny youre dead man walking.

Weight is a science and so taken for granted by fans, the relationships between getting through camp to make the 30hr dry weight, and then to fight weight , the meshing of all that will paint more of an accurate picture to judge a performance by, it must be taken into account because it will effect the result of the fight more than anything else will, referencing a dehydrated weight where they just look at each other makes no sense to me at all.

[GhostofDempsey]

I always felt he was overrated. Not that he was a bad fighter, he could fight but he chose to hide out at 160 to pad his record against no-hopers and avoid the dangerous opponents in their prime at 168/175 like Jones, Toney, Calzaghe, etc. he could well have moved to 168 or above sooner, but it was too risky. He was also a dirty fighter and his best wins came against blown up welters and Tarver.

[GrandmasterWang]

He didnt weigh lighter than Oscar on fight night, I dont know why guys judge fighters at their weigh-in dehydrated state when they are nowhere near that when they actually fight.

Imagine a Court and you said he was lighter than Oscar, and I said objection, during the fight Bernard was 176lbs and Oscar 165, what do you think the judge is going to rule ?

Bhop had both Oscar and Tito beaten at the weights, a much bigger man it just depended on how he made the weight, Hurd loses 30lbs and its a great advantage, but if you botch it up like Oscar -Manny youre dead man walking.

Weight is a science and so taken for granted by fans, the relationships between getting through camp to make the 30hr dry weight, and then to fight weight , the meshing of all that will paint more of an accurate picture to judge a performance by, it must be taken into account because it will effect the result of the fight more than anything else will, referencing a dehydrated weight where they just look at each other makes no sense to me at all.

I'm talking about the weigh in that mattered, the official one.

All I was saying was that Hopkins was a professional and made every weight cut he had to. I wasn't saying that he was smaller than Oscar, Hopkins is certainly the bigger guy but his discipline showed throughout his career.

For example Floyd Mayweather Jr is bigger than Marquez, but failed to make the official weight and showed his lack of professionalism.

Hopkins suffered and weighed lighter than Oscar then put the suffering on him.

[boliodogs]

Your dad is way wrong. If Hopkins was fighting below his natural weight it would hurt him, not help him. He would be weak and weight drained and it would hurt his power, stamina and punch resistance. Why do you think they call it a boxer's natural weight? It means his BEST fighting weight and fighting below that weight is not natural or helpful. This is the old weight bully BS when somebody wants to trash a successful fighter and can't think of any good reason. Hopkins is an all time great who has accomplished amazing things and set records that may never be broken. You should be ashamed to call him a coward. When Hopkins fought Oscar he weighed in at 156 pounds to Oscar's 158 pounds so how was he the much bigger man? As for Hopkins never fighting someone his own size that's just more hateful BS. Hopkins was a natural middleweight and he fought middleweights who were his size. At age 41 Hopkins beat the hell out of the light heavyweight champion Tarver who was a much bigger man.

[TonyGe]

I didn't like his style at all but he got the job done and at an advanced age. I give him respect for his determination and drive. Is he overrated. Depends who your rating him above. With his style he would have given any past champion all they could handle.