name the great that made him great...

[Trainer Monkey]

Johnson had been around the block 9 or 10 times as well when he beat Jones
Joppy held the belt for quite awhile himself,taking it in 96 against undefeated Shinji Takehara,his last title defense before Tito was 27-0 Jonathen Reid,Holmes had had 3 title defense when he ran in to Hopkins as well
So first you say he never fought a middleweight
Then it wasnt any good ones,even though Hopkins was the guy who unified the belts and held his for 11 years

I don't question Hopkins wasn't all time great but he isn't top 10 for certain and most of his opponents were average or only decent he never actually beat great Middleweight only great names he beat was Oscar and Tito and they were well above there natural weight.

Id say a guy who bracketed his reign as Middleweight champ with wins against very good undefeateds is pretty damned good
The reason Hopkins never gets credit,isnt about wether or not he beat anything you put in front of him,face it,its his style
Younger,he was a clenching infighter,which doesnt sell well
Old hes picking people apart two punches at a time from the outside
But at the end of the day he IS the master at tactics,he tailor made every fight to every fighter.