How could Jermain Taylor beat Hopkins twice??

[VatoMulatto]

It doesn't make any sense when you see how good Hopkins looks nowadays.

Whether you agree with the judges that Taylor won or not. Taylor won and Hopkins failed to impress. Hop looked quite slow and didn't throw all that many punches. But since those losses he has looked spectacular in several fights. My first thought was this version of Hopkins would punish and dominate Taylor....but maybe it was something about Taylor's style of boxing that Hopkins just couldn't figure out.

[Paclan]

he didn't- Hopkins got robbed.

[ИATAS]

it was a style matchup problem and the flaws that were in taylor were not yet known (fading late, etc.). Taylor was also a good fighter and was young and hungry (he lost that hunger after he won the belts imo).

Hopkins started late in both fights, I believe he was giving Taylor too much respect in hindsight (Remember Taylor was considered a big puncher at the time). The first fight I recall hopkins was very cautious for the first 5 rounds.

[$Bullsfam$]

With the jab. And Dawson got a nice jab too which scares me. But they were close fights and I thought Hopkins won the first fight.

[The Gambler1981]

A lot of it had to do with athleticism, really you will not find to many athletes like Taylor even if he lacked some boxing polish. Another thing that version of Taylor had was a strong mindset, people forget that as he waned over the years from all the people questioning him but at that point he had a solid amount of self belief.

B-Hop thrives on breaking guys mentally, against Taylor he frustrated him and discouraged him but he was never fully able to break him.

Hopkins would still struggle against that sort of guy even now, athletic with a strong mindset he could certainly make them look pretty bad still but they would not allow B-Hop to thrive either.

[Motofan]

I thought Hop won both fights. One closer then the other (dont remember at this point.)

[RoidRage]

It doesn't make any sense when you see how good Hopkins looks nowadays.

Whether you agree with the judges that Taylor won or not. Taylor won and Hopkins failed to impress. Hop looked quite slow and didn't throw all that many punches. But since those losses he has looked spectacular in several fights. My first thought was this version of Hopkins would punish and dominate Taylor....but maybe it was something about Taylor's style of boxing that Hopkins just couldn't figure out.

hopkins use to throw 3 4 punches a round...taylor beat him on activity alone. if Pascal had stamnia he could knock hopkins out

[Uncle Sam]

A jab and a little movement.

[Doctor_Tenma]

Having to make 160 finally caught up with him, hence he looked so much better against Tarver. I'd also like to point out that Taylor was hungry at the time, not like he was a bad fighter.

[-PANDA-]

Having to make 160 finally caught up with him, hence he looked so much better against Tarver. I'd also like to point out that Taylor was hungry at the time, not like he was a bad fighter.

u cant be serious

bhop always made 160 comfortably...he walked around at 166 when not in training and he hired mackie shilstone to effectively put on the weight when moving up

he didnt look better against tarver...he fought the exact same fight except tarver never pressed the action like taylor did. the first 6 rounds were an absolute snoozefest

ure right about taylor though...he was hungry, determined and unintimidated by bhop. the latter being the reason panda thinks taylor won at least one of their two fights. bhop was able to play mind games with odlh, trinidad, pavlik, pascal, calzaghe and even rjj...but he never got to taylor