Better resume. Bernard Hopkins or Roy Jones Jr?

[HitmanTommy]

Not even close?

You've got to be joking.

Roy continually moved up and fought across 4 weight classes, barely losing rounds in 10 years of dominance.

Bernard's biggest wins were against naturally smaller fighter's who moved up.

Roy also beat Bernard when it mattered, and Bernard turned down the rematch in 2002, to challenge out all the JMW champs instead.

Bernard's longevity was amazing, but Roy has the better wins.

You do have a point about his best wins being against naturally smaller fighters.

I think he gets too much credit for those wins. Good wins nonetheless as they were against great fighters, but not nearly as impressive as some people constantly make them out to be.

I personally look at wins vs Tito, Oscar and Winky with an asterisk mark beside them.

[robertzimmerman]

Roy is the better fighter, but pure resume, hopkins has much more depth and significant wins.

Hopkins has better resume, Roy the better fighter

How does Hopkins have a better resume?

[robertzimmerman]

You do have a point about his best wins being against naturally smaller fighters.

I think he gets too much credit for those wins. Good wins nonetheless as they were against great fighters, but not nearly as impressive as some people constantly make them out to be.

I personally look at wins vs Tito, Oscar and Winky with an asterisk mark beside them.

Great post.

They have great name value, but most of them weren't that great.

I do give Bernard a lot of credit for the Tito win, and of course, you have to respect his great longevity. But Oscar looked awful against Sturm and he never won that fight, and Winky was a JMW who fought Bernard at 170 pounds.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

How does Hopkins have a better resume?

Roy has 1 legit “big fight” win vs toney

You can throw in Hopkins fight as well but that was nothing more than an undercard showcase fight for Roy.

Hopkins beating tarver, pavlik, Tito, Holmes, winky, glen johnson is much more impressive than beating Montel, Clinton woods, John Ruiz.


One just has to look at how many major fights Hopkins headlined vs Roy’s big headline fights.

[robertzimmerman]

Roy has 1 legit “big fight” win vs toney

You can throw in Hopkins fight as well but that was nothing more than an undercard showcase fight for Roy.

Hopkins beating tarver, pavlik, Tito, Holmes, winky, glen johnson is much more impressive than beating Montel, Clinton woods, John Ruiz.

One just has to look at how many major fights Hopkins headlined vs Roy’s big headline fights.

Absolute nonsense.

How on earth was beating Winky at 170 POUNDS, better than Roy knocking out Montell Griffin in a single round with a lead uppercut?

Griffin was a LHW, which was Roy's THIRD weight class, whereas Winky was a JMW.

Think about it.

A former JMW/MW knocking out a good LHW with absolute ease, trumps beating a JMW at LHW.

How the hell was beating Keith Holmes etc better than a former MW easily dominating a top 10 HW?

It's a ridiculous thing to say.

Bernard dominated a weak division, until he had nowhere to go. He also swerved the rematch with Roy to target all of the JMW champs.

The only thing Bernard has over Roy is his great longevity which obviously deserves huge respect.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Absolute nonsense.

How on earth was beating Winky at 170 POUNDS, better than Roy knocking out Montell Griffin in a single round with a lead uppercut?

Griffin was a LHW, which was Roy's THIRD weight class, whereas Winky was a JMW.

Think about it.

A former JMW/MW knocking out a good LHW with absolute ease, trumps beating a JMW at LHW.

How the hell was beating Keith Holmes etc better than a former MW easily dominating a top 10 HW?

It's a ridiculous thing to say.

Bernard dominated a weak division, until he had nowhere to go. He also swerved the rematch with Roy to target all of the JMW champs.

The only thing Bernard has over Roy is his great longevity which obviously deserves huge respect.

Like Roy dominated tough divisions?

Quick give me his best mw defense, or his best super mw defense, or his best light heavy defense or his best heavy defense.


Such a great champion with a deep resume, list the best title defenses


You just a Hopkins hater and totally overrating Roy’s resume.

So go ahead, list Roy’s

Best MW DEF—

Best SMW DEFENSE—

Best light heavy defense-

Best heavy defense-

[HitmanTommy]

Like Roy dominated tough divisions?

Quick give me his best mw defense, or his best super mw defense, or his best light heavy defense or his best heavy defense.


Such a great champion with a deep resume, list the best title defenses


You just a Hopkins hater and totally overrating Roy’s resume.

So go ahead, list Roy’s

Best MW DEF—

Best SMW DEFENSE—

Best light heavy defense-

Best heavy defense-

To be fair, we can't fault Roy for no heavy defenses.

Come on now...

[robertzimmerman]

Sugar Adam Ali,

Like Roy dominated tough divisions?

Roy fought the best fighters who were available.

He didn't hold onto a belt for 6 years like Bernard did at MW.

Bernard was happy to be the big fish in the small pond.

He's on record stating that he made incredible sacrifices in order to remain at MW, as it was easier than fighting bigger opponents.

He's on record stating that he could have fought at SMW and LHW years before he did.

He's on record stating that he liked to drag people up to weight divisions that they weren't used to in order to gain an advantage.

Although I've got huge respect for him for fighting guys like Tarver, Dawson and Kovalev in his 40's, the truth is: he'd never have fought those types of guys in the 90's.

He only moved up when he'd got nowhere else to go, and he'd got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

He swerved a 2002 rematch with Roy by demanding $10m or no fight, despite his biggest purse being $2.5m for Tito. He then spent a year out of the ring before challenging out all of the JMW champs live on HBO.

The only thing he has on Roy is longevity, which he deserves an enormous amount of respect for.

Quick give me his best mw defense, or his best super mw defense, or his best light heavy defense or his best heavy defense.

Such a great champion with a deep resume, list the best title defenses

You just a Hopkins hater and totally overrating Roy’s resume.

It's you that's got an issue with Roy, as he missed out on certain opponents. But Bernard missed out on more, as again, he missed SMW and LHW earlier in his career to instead dominate a weak MW division.

It's laughable that you rate the Winky win over the Griffin one. It's just ridiculous. Bernard had size advantages over the majority of his opponents.

Roy's best wins:

At MW:

Castro
Tate
Hopkins (with an injured hand)

At SMW:

Toney
Malinga
Sosa
Lucas

At LHW:

Griffin
Hill
Reggie
Hall
Harding
Woods
Tarver

At HW:

Ruiz

Take into account that he was smaller than Bernard, and he beat most of the above guys with absolute ease, despite the fact that most of them were bigger than he was.

Here's Bernard's:

At MW:

Tito
Oscar
Johnson
Holmes
Joppy
Mercado
Jackson
Brown
Echols
Eastman

At SMW:

Skipped the division.

At LHW:

Tarver
Pavlik
Wright
Pascal
Cloud
Shumanov
Murat

At MW, he obviously has the numbers over Roy, as he fought there for 12 years. His best wins there are Tito and Oscar. I give him huge credit for Tito as he looked really good at the weight, but I don't give him much credit for the Oscar win, as Oscar looked awful against Sturm, and there's no way that he beat him. Sturm was clearly robbed. So although he obviously had more success at the weight than Roy, his biggest wins were against peak WW's.

At LHW, his win over Tarver was sensational, especially for his age. But I think that Tarver could have been drained due to the weight loss from his role in 'Rocky Balboa' and that's also the opinion of Mackie Shilstone, the man who helped Hopkins prepare for Tarver.

The performance over Pavlik was also very special. Bernard looked amazing that night, and I give him huge credit. However, it was at a 170 C-W, whereas Pavlik was a MW. So that takes the shine off it.

His win over Wright wasn't anything special, as that was also contested at a 170 C-W, despite the fact that Wright was a career JMW.

His win over Pascal was great due to his age.

So:

Bernard clearly had a better MW career, as he fought many more times at the weight, but Roy clearly has the better wins at LHW. Again, Bernard's best wins were against guys who were naturally smaller, whereas most of Roy's best wins were over guys who were naturally bigger.

Bernard had the great longevity, but Roy went all the way up to HW and back.

So please tell me how Bernard has a better resume?