I must be losing my mind. In life a mans reputation follows him and is duely noted. In the ring it is assumed by fans and people involved, a fighters traits etc etc.

But in the ring you are penalized, deducted points, reprimanded and in some cases disqualified for shady behavior or what is considered illegal....not guile...not cagey and not gritty happenings frankly you DO see in the vast majority of fights...headbutts...holding...whateva. We are painting with a huge brush and I think the generality with which some paint Hopkins as the reemergence of Galento-Agipito Sanchez-Golota combined is borderline loony tunes. Get a grip.

It IS NOT a officials place to hold those incidents as a red card to issue at the 1st sign of a fight going sideways. You take control and start knocking heads and acting like the MFIC wearing the blue, not cop out on the back of a shit move the other guy responds with. You cannot make it up as you go and pick and chose calling a fair fight and instead play double jeopardy. Its not in the hands of the other fighter to himself disregard being 'clean' and suddenly turn Sumo wrangler in frustration, then run around thumping his chest like he's actually proud to have won like that. The stuff WE tolerate.