What makes Hopkins so great ?
Sorry to upset a few Hopkins lovers but what did Hopkins do that was so great except counterpunch to death and jab and grab?
Does anyone seriously put this up there with Calzaghe's total destruction of Lacy or Rickys mammoth effort stopping Tszyu?
Hopkins did the same thing round after round drew Tarver in countered and then grabbed and occasionly used the upercut .
B-Hop never upped the pace or tried to stop a man clearly frightened and in the process of a mental breakdown !!
Credit Hopkins with his clever use of the ring and mastering range but i didnt see any variety or anything New.
If Calzaghe had been in with Tarver he would have completely out classed him with handspeed, power and his command of distance and timing and stopped him
Hopkins immpressed me he was clever got the job done but left you feeling still room to improve and he was carrying Tarver.
Great fighters define themselves Hopkins just did what he does .
Every single exchange ended with his hugging grabbing and rabbit punching .
Hopkins deserves to be called Great that is for sure but honestly i always feel he could have done so so much more .
Re: What makes Hopkins so great ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Swashbuckling Gordy
Sorry to upset a few Hopkins lovers but what did Hopkins do that was so great except counterpunch to death and jab and grab?
Hopkins did the same thing round after round drew Tarver in countered and then grabbed and occasionly used the upercut .
Thats because that was THE PERFECT FIGHT to fight against Tarver. Tarver would always be loading up trying to land his one super punch, so all Bernard had to do was counter all day long to win. Why maul in super aggresive when he could get caught? He fought the perfect fight to beat Tarver
Quote:
Originally Posted by Swashbuckling Gordy
Credit Hopkins with his clever use of the ring and mastering range but i didnt see any variety or anything New.
Why variety? Why is something new needed? If you completely outclassing an opponent what would be the point in changing absolutely anything you were doing? If it aint broke dont fix it.
Re: What makes Hopkins so great ?
Dont make him great does it ?
Good yeah but not great by a long Chalk !!
Better than Calzaghe against Lacy who nulified everything than man did with handspeed power and a masterfull command of distance ?
Hopkins is a good fighter does things well but he carried the fella make no bones about it.
Tarver is not a massive puncher and he aint no counter puncher he was washed up and brokendown by round 5 and yet Hopkins was still octopus arms .
Apart from Roy Jones who was dehydrated and should never have been in that ring Tarver never banged anyone out .
Cobra you answered yr own question he did enough .
He should have had him out before the 7th .
Honestly Tarever rememined me of McCall in the 2nd Lewis fight .
Re: What makes Hopkins so great ?
Tarver's only one way of winning was to catch Bernard with one lucky big punch. Why open up on the assualt to allow him a chance at this. What was so great about Bernard is he was disclipined enough to stick to the fightplan he knew would win and if he knocked him out then so be it. Bernard won all but one round, thats a great performance.
Re: What makes Hopkins so great ?
Hopkins has his formula and he uses it, it's amazing to just have that 1 plan and it works so well he rarely loses.
Calzaghe is good and all but Jeff Lacy was green, Tarver is an old veteran fighter if Joe Calzaghe ever stepped in the ring with such a veteran he'd have trouble
Re: What makes Hopkins so great ?
He was very smart in the way he fought Tarver and always has been a smart fighter. He has the most defences at middleweight of all time....he has won belts in 2 different weight classes.....and lets not forget he jumped two weight classes to take on Tarver thats a very tall order.
Re: What makes Hopkins so great ?
To put it quite simply...Hopkins is what makes Hopkins so great...I didn't bother to read the majority of the post because it is set up apparently to p!ss Hopkins fans off...which is one thing that no one can do at this moment.
Hopkins is so great because he dominates & dominated everyone that he fought.
Even Taylor.
In the end...Hopkins does what he does best & that is box. Hopkins is one of the most tactically skilled brainchilds in the sport...& he's proved it over & over again. Whether he KO's his man...or just beats him senseless.
I can honestly say that from now till the end of time...he's got every drop of respect I ever had prior to the Taylor fights.
