Fighting for History: The Legacy of Bernard Hopkins

[OctoberRed]

WITH all due respect to the article writer I think the piece suffered from massive "overgush". bernard Hopkins was just the wrong representative of the sport, to write about like this.

Every single one of the bouts the writer talks about, which, supposedly brought Hopkins into that rarified "STAR" stratosphere, can easily be examined and the great tilts towards Hopkins exposed for what they were, one-sided advantages.

The writer was on the right track when he mentioned the surfeit of Robert Allens' and Marrade Hakkars'. Why did he feel the need to go further..................???

C'mon Edgar, you can't downplay Hopkins but overblow each Klitschko the minute someone tries to say anything bad about them. How should Wladimir Klitschko be judged with all of his one-sided fights? The only real "threat" he beat in the last few years was probably Samuel Peter. He never even had a career defining fight. At least Vitali had fights people will rememeber him for, like Lewis and Sanders.

[The Hammer]

Bernard Hopkins will be remembered as a tricky, dirty fighter with little talent who excelled at cutting his opponents over the eye with sneaky head butts.

[Flawless.]

Hopkins the man who destroyed Puerto Rico and exposed Calzaghe at the prime age of 43, he is a living legend.

[ColWallace]

Hopkins is a bad man in a tough sport, and a legend to boot. I can't stand all you ****ers who keep running him down.

I seem to be in a minority, but I find his fights intense and exciting.

[WESS]

HOP = A TRUE LEGEND and a HOF'er. What the haters realize is no matter what they do or say nothing can change that. I think that just pisses them off on so many levels. One can only lie to themselves but cant lie to everyone else.

I find it very amusing when someone talks down on a 43 year old Grandpa HOP, when the rest of the world knows truth. So thank you haters for looking so silly with your nonsense! HOP will always be remembered as an ATG no matter what anyone thinks.

I'm not even a big fan of HOP, but this is a great article. Sadly bias people will disagree.

[NeXt In Line]

I got tired of defending Hopkins a long time ago. I just let the haters hate.

[Brassangel]

Hopkins the man who destroyed Puerto Rico and exposed Calzaghe at the prime age of 43, he is a living legend.

By exposing a 36 year-old Calzaghe who's primary resource was speed, the first skillset to go in every fighter, and fighting him above his normally comfortable weight, refusing himself to be weighed after rehydrating; "exposed" Calzaghe by losing the middle-to-late rounds badly, and then faking a low blow worth the Academy to catch a breather, else he would have lost the round by 2 points.

Okay, if that helps you sleep at night...just keep thinking he exposed him.

Anyway, after watching the NY presser, I have to say that it's the first time in a long while I've seen BHop stand on the podium next to another fighter, and look genuinely small. He's in trouble.

This article was pretty worthless. BHop is a legend, and that goes without saying. He has no shortage of guts and courage, but there comes a point when that may equate to a shortage of smarts, or hopes for a decent retirement.

I will say to his credit, that people gave him a lot of garbage for reigning as Middleweight Champion for 10+ years without fighting anyone, and yet here he is, fighting the best and putting up good scraps, and now everyone wants him out because he's old. Could you imagine if he would have been 5-6 years younger when he faced Taylor, Wright, Tarver, Calzaghe?

He was a total class act at the presser as well, which is extremely rare. I think that means he's going to be content with retirement after this fight, win or lose.

[FLY TY]

Bernard Hopkins will be remembered as a tricky, dirty fighter with little talent who excelled at cutting his opponents over the eye with sneaky head butts.

Like who??? gtfoh...............

this article illustrates the **** i been saying........hops may not be a beauty to watch, but witnessing him carve his iwn nitch in boxing history is.............

noone, at age 43, has ever taken on so many elite, top notch challengers in their sport, and WON. and when they lose, its debateable..................

win, lose, or draw, hops gets maaaaaaaaddd points for even agreeing to fight kelly pavlik at the age of 44.

[jb3golf]

Give Hopkins some credit........

For those of you who have followed B-Hops career, you know what he has accomplished thusfar is history. At 43 he made Calzaghe (an undeafeted fighter & pound 4 pound stakeholder) look bad. At 43!!! Who here can say they could do the same???? Even if some of his fights are at times boring, it's because he is a defensive fighter who enjoys movement, and yes he is at the age where he just can't throw the number of punches, like say in the Trinidad fight.

Nevertheless B-Hop is cashing in on what he deserves to: his name. After all how many years did he fight in obscurity by choice, and lost out on millions because he did not trust people. I dont blame him. (again look at his life, upbringing and prison mentality) For the few B-Hop fans, he is making history for himself, and I say God bless him. I just hope he does not fight on too long or get seriously hurt. Again, for the B-Hop haters, look at his life and the history of his boxing career, and you will ascertain his climb to the top of "his" mountain. Respectfully......jb3golf

[edgarg]

C'mon Edgar, you can't downplay Hopkins but overblow each Klitschko the minute someone tries to say anything bad about them. How should Wladimir Klitschko be judged with all of his one-sided fights? The only real "threat" he beat in the last few years was probably Samuel Peter. He never even had a career defining fight. At least Vitali had fights people will rememeber him for, like Lewis and Sanders.

OCTOBER RED- your coments are valid, and if that's your opinion, well O.K. But I don't overblow the Klitschko's or indeed anyone else. It might seem so because I reel out the actual facts which are often either obscured, or twisted, so as to either make a provocative article, or a letter indicating the poster's feelings. Facts are nothing else but FACTS. It's not my doing that they are so good, and that the facts I quote are true, and many of the accusations are false. It's just an intellectual exercise with me, which also exercises my memory, which, at my age, is important.

Believe me when I say that I look at both Klitschko's with a critical eye, but the points I'm thinking about, never come up. Wladimir has more defects than his brother in my eyes, but the fights he lost were really not due to any flaw on his part. As for Vitaly, Like Ali, who did almost everything wrong according to every expert, it's hard to criticise a fighter who's only 2 losses were from injury when miles ahead in the fights, and who's record also shows 35 wins-34 by KO. If you didn't see the guy in action you'd say he was perfection. Here's a fact...Bothe of them, if they have decent opponents, put out interesting fights. Although with manny Steward, W is not nearly as exciting as he had been. I think he was better "pre" Steward, although more savvy now, about changing the pace of a fight if he needs to.

As far as Hopkins is concerned, I recognise his qualities, but do not feel that he is anyway near "All-time GREAT" status. Nearly all his fights have been mediocre to watch, and nearly always great disappointmemts to his followers, showing the typical Hopkins performance, slow, dreary, clutching, low blows, rabbit punches, holding-and-hitting, BUTTING (we mustn't forget his main weapon) fouling any way he can get away with, and, if he happens to lose, a disbelieving smile along with raised confident-of-victory arms.

I blame Max Kellerman for inflicting him on us, because he was completely unnoticed, a boxing nonentity until Max, at almost every show, began to say..."any real middleweight champ has to get past Bernard Hopkins". I'd never heard of him until Max began this. I'm sure it brought him to the limelight, although it didn't make his fights any more interesting.

[Max did the same with Zab Judah, although Zab had been making huge waves. I do believe that Max went to sleep every night and dreamt about both Judah and Hopkins.]

Hopkins did the very same in his long-ago fight with Jones, raising his hands and the disbelieving smile at the decision. I scored it 117-111 for Jones, who outdid him in every way. I looked at the fight again last week. The piece de resistance was the comment by the analyst " good acting Bernard but it won't work this time". I'm paraphrasing a little. This is HIS, and ANY smart fighter's method of influencing the judges for the last rd anyway. I always did the very same myself, and I'm sure it worked at least a couple of times where I got a decision I thought I'd lost. Wnen in a tennis or table-tennis tournament, I ALWAYS assumed a (that was my point) expression, when there was any doubt. It's called "gamesmanship" and no sportsman should "travel anywhere without it".

Sorry for the long peroration, must be something like a Hopkins fight-to read.