Who determines who is in their prime?

We keep talking about a "prime" fighter fighting another fighter in his prime, but who determines "prime"...??

Some folks say Hopkins was well past his prime when he fought Jones for the second time. No, Jones was past his prime- Hopkins was right in the middle of his if we want to be honest.

Antonio Tarver's prime came when he was in his mid-30s when he beat Jones.

And I would venture to say the 90s Foreman that beat Moorer was a better and more complete fighter than the 70s Foreman that fought Ali.

And as it appears now, as he got some rest, Nonito Donaire is having a resurgence and is about to hit another gear in his career- He looks better than ever!

So who determines prime?

You can only really assess a fighters prime after their career is over.

Age, number of fights, experience in the ring, level of performance, opposition ect are all factors.

Normally for a fighter their physical prime would be 28-30 years of age.

Heavyweight would be older now.

Hopkins got better with experience and guile later in his career.

You do get freaks of nature like Duran and Dennis Andries who kept of going when ordinary boxers would have been finished.

Hopkins was not in his prime for the second Jones fight, he was Remarkably good for his age and the amount of fights he had, but if he’d had to fight a younger version of himself he would have been toast. Same with Foreman in the 90s. Incredible comeback, he did clever things to adapt to his age and was a physical freak to begin with, but let’s not be silly. Tarver is fair enough I guess, but he didn’t really start fighting top pros or even going proper rounds until he was in his 30s. Donaire fought in the wrong weight classes for years is my opinion on that, he’s not better than ever, just still very good and he didn’t give up size last time out. It was still a freak injury to his opponent to boot, if that didn’t happen and he’d lost you’d probably be calling for him to retire.
It can be tricky to say for sure when a very talented fighter doesn’t fight top guys during the peak of their ability, but a guys physical prime is almost always when they are the best.

Hopkins was well past his best when he fought Roy (as was Roy). Neither had really entered their primes when they fought the first time. For me it is all about the eye test and performance.

Hopkins started to slow down around the Oscar fight but he changed his style and became very defensive focused and conservative during the fight, preferring to build to a high pace as he shut down and frustrated his opponent. Many will disagree, but I think Roy was on the tail end of his prime when Tarver knocked him out- meaning I believe that was still a prime Roy (he looked as fast as ever until that punch.

Great fighters pull off wins past their prime precisely because they are great and can adapt. If 90s Foreman fought like the 70s version he'd have lasted three rounds before begging for an oxygen mask.

The problem with guys like Roy is he couldn't change. So without doubt a young Roy would've murdered the old one, however, it would be fascinating to see how old Hopkins deals with the young one and that goes for old/young - Calzaghe, Barrera, Pac, Floyd, etc, dozens of great fighters change for the better yet are not necessarily better than their physical prime.

My thing is I think we just use the word "prime" too loosely at times to justify a good fighter being beaten by another good fighter on a good night.

How many times was Darchynian "done"? He wasn't done, just got his head knocked off by Donaire.

The Oscar that lost to B-Hop wasn't done, but the Oscar that got retired by Manny was well beyond done.

The Mayweather that fought Berto was done... and we see by the damn exhibitions that he is done. For good. Mayweather may be so in tuned with his body and knows the psychology of the sport that he KNOWS that even if he wanted to continue to have "real fights", he probably would have gotten hurt even if he won most or if not all of them.

Let us not forget: His father, uncles and his best friend, Nate, all have pugilistic dementia or some brain damage. Not so much the youngest uncle, but Roger is suffering now and Floyd Sr. has signs of it and Nate retired form boxing EARLY with brain injury and Floyd has been taking care of him by giving him a job even after his career was over!
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