Quote Originally Posted by Spicoli View Post
When I think textbook you envision guys who can 'do it all', multi geared and well adaptable. With pure is it more 'only' boxer? More of the backfoot defensive minded but superb boxer. Then again even the slickest pure boxer has had a freak ko or two. I think of like a Virgil Hill as pure. He literally won fights on the jab alone and moved around more than lawn furniture during a hurricane. But he also blitzed and demolished Tiozzo and Kinchen. Modern era, a Hopkins authored an entire library. On both ends of a fantastic career, early he blitzed and had great two handed arsenal while at the close..or what should be..he was pure and some cases prevent defense minded. He could stink it out at times and he cared zero what you thought about it. Some guys who call themselves 'great' cannot even adapt over 12 rounds. Hopkins made a life of it.
This, to be completely honest. Bernard wasn't too entertaining of a fighter in the latter part of his career for the casual fan (those who prefer the ko or be ko'd type fighters) but he beat world class fighters, sometimes seemingly effortlessly.
A lot of that is a direct reflection of his mastery of the science of boxing.
That being said, there was a bit of "dirty," tactics sprinkled in there, but nothing so significant that he won the fights based on that alone. Maybe gave him a small edge, though