Quote Originally Posted by Trainer Monkey
Quote Originally Posted by The Rookie Fan
Well you could say the same thing about Hopkins. His biggest wins were against blown up WWs and JrMW in Trinidad, Oscar and Wright. Then comes this green up and comer with hardly 20 fights and beats him twice. Still he is considered a top 5 MW all time.

You have to take many things into consideration. His long reign is very significant and some people down play or disregard the greatness of a champion who can consistantly defend his title.
People keep repeating that,but its simply not true about Hopkins
Joppy had a title,
Holmes had a title
Eastman was a good fighter
Remember Tarver and Glen Johnson,the guys that beat Roy Jones Jr
Well Hopkins beat all of them
As far as Hagler,while alot of people dont remember alot of the names on his record now,they were very good fighters at the time
Just to be clear, my intention was not to diss Hopkins. I think he was a great champion like Hagler. The fact remains that he only started to be considered P4P great after he beat Trinidad and De la Hoya. This was more a public perception than reality. Very similar to Hagler in that he became more publicly recognized as great after beating Hearns and Duran. I put a lot of stock on long reigns as a champion and a record for defenses as a MW puts Hopkins right up there at the top of all time great MWs.

Hagler is the same for me. Long reigning MW champion with wins over very tough opposition