A question to those who were following boxing for at least 15 years...

[Scott9945]

Without question I knew that Barrera was going to beat Hamed. Without a doubt. My uncle and I watched that fight and leading up to it we had zero doubts that he would win.

I am having a hard time remembering but wasn't Barrera being picked by most boxing analysts?

Some boxing people definitely picked Barrera, but I doubt it was most. I am sure that he was a solid 3-1 underdog going in, so clearly more people were picking Hamed. Unbeaten fighters are almost always overbet.

[StarshipTrooper]

let me get this **** straight, Tito was a 4-1 favorite but everyone who reads this post knew Hopkins was going to win? BS! Almost every boxing fan(me included) though Tito was gonna whip his ass.

Casual fans always overrate punchers. I know better that. I picked Hopkins and I made sure the 'Ricans I worked with at the time ate a TON of crow. Put a one dimensional big puncher in against an equally talented all-around fighter an I'll take the all-around fighter every trip of the train. And if you didn't think Hopkins was at LEAST equal to Tito in talent than you weren't following Hopkins too closely back then.

Poet

[El Jesus]

this one is tough, shortly after this fight was delayed i was deployed to afgahnistan. i didint get to see the fight. i had just joined the military.

ill be honest, i only remembered hopkins for having lost to roy jones and also having been a little old to me at the time, i figured titos youth and power would overcome hopkins press conference antics.

i didint see the fight until about 2004 sadly. when i found out tito was knocked out i was shocked. i couldnt believe it to be honest. at this time though, i wasnt really into middleweight though, i was more into what was going on at lightweight and welter and below. 2001 was a decent time for those divisions, so hopkins title reign meant little to me.

either way i wont lie, i was nothing less than shocked when i found out via phonecall.

[El Jesus]

Some boxing people definitely picked Barrera, but I doubt it was most. I am sure that he was a solid 3-1 underdog going in, so clearly more people were picking Hamed. Unbeaten fighters are almost always overbet.

i had naseem beating barrera because i didint think much of barrera at the time and i also thought he was just a step away from being shot since i constantly saw him going to war. i didint see how barreras chin would stand up to hamed.

yes i was wrong.

[studentofthegam]

You mean dismantling the #2 ranked Middleweight wasn't impressive to you?




In hindsight maybe, but at the time, no one expected Tito to get walked over like he did. Even with the vast size and skill disadvantage.

Tito was vastly more hyped than Hopkins was.

I never thought much of Tito and still dont. Im just telling you what I thought at the time.
Damn I cant be right because you took the same POV of the people that were calling me crazy back then. I expected an ass whoopin and Hopkins delivered. And Joppy was never above par.

[IronDanHamza]

I never thought much of Tito and still dont. Im just telling you what I thought at the time.
Damn I cant be right because you took the same POV of the people that were calling me crazy back then. I expected an ass whoopin and Hopkins delivered. And Joppy was never above par.

Tito was never going to do well with a fighter like Hopkins, especially with the size advantage. That's apparent now, but at the time, we weren't really aware that Hopkins was that good.

Joppy wasn't the best Middleweight in the world but he had held his Top 5 slot for quite a while and no one ever dismantled him like Tito did. Which made it clear Tito was more than a capable Middleweight. That's all.

[Bushbaby]

Tito was favored to win.He was also supposed to unify 160,become undisputed & move up in weight to face Roy Jones for pfp supremacy.B-Hop & about 10% of boxing fans didn't feel that way.

[TintaBoricua]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading all your posts, guys.

I wish I had money to buy ring ****zines and read experts' picks at the time and see what they had to say after huge upsets.

I've been getting a little fix going over to ESPN and reading post-fight articles where upsets occurred. I just remembered that I should check out what analysts had to say after Calzaghe beat Lacy silly.

[La_Vibora]

Yes Tito was definitely the big time favorite at that time, especially after the way he destroyed Joppy. I remember as a Tito fan that I wanted him to avoid B-Hop at all cost, I told people that it would basically be a duplicate of Tyson-Holyfield and that Hopkins wasn't going to allow him to land any big shots. At that time there was talk about him fighting Joppy then going on to fight Roy Jones and then retire. I was hoping that he would stick to that plan as it would have been a win-win scenario for him. If he had by some miracle won, he would have been put up there with Ray Robinson as he fought pretty much all the best fighters of that era at the time, while if he lost as expected then no one would have criticized him as he wasn't suppose to win that fight anyway and would have gotten alot of credit for just taking the fight. Interesting to think how different his legacy would have been.

[IMDAZED]

Tito was never going to do well with a fighter like Hopkins, especially with the size advantage. That's apparent now, but at the time, we weren't really aware that Hopkins was that good.

Joppy wasn't the best Middleweight in the world but he had held his Top 5 slot for quite a while and no one ever dismantled him like Tito did. Which made it clear Tito was more than a capable Middleweight. That's all.

Agreed. Joppy was considered the second best welter at the time and I think that ranking was right. The way Tito dismantled him was shocking. And I was a big Tito fan. I picked Tito to win going into the Hopkins fight. It took me about eight rounds to realize what was going on. Up until then, I was still waiting for Tito to land that one punch to turn it around. By the ninth, I was in awe. Not a fan of Bernard but that is one fight I watch over and over. Such a masterful performance.