Comments Thread For: Can Golovkin Catch the Hopkins Defense Record at 160?

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

By Cliff Rold - From the purist perspective, it’s still Carlos Monzon.

From 1970-77, Monzon defended the Middleweight crown a record 14 consecutive times. His title wasn’t technically ‘undisputed’ for the entirety of his reign. In his era, there were only two major sanctioning bodies (the WBC and WBA). In 1974, Monzon was stripped of the WBC title that ended up on the waist of Rodrigo Valdes.

Monzon made that a footnote to his reign with wins over Valdes in his last two professional fights. Monzon’s claim to the lineal crown, traceable at that point to the 1963 reign of **** Tiger, was never lost in the ring and confirmed by the Valdes triumphs.

From the purist perspective, the number remains 14.

For almost everyone else, it’s 20.

That’s the number of IBF title defenses Bernard Hopkins made from 1995 to 2005. Hopkins road to 20 was much different than Monzon’s road to 14. There was no clear champion to wrest the title from like Nino Benvenuti. At least according to Ring ****zine, Hopkins wasn’t even regarded as the best Middleweight in the world after stopping Segundo Mercado in their rematch to win his first title. [Click Here To Read More]

[ИATAS]

The good old days of one, even two titles is long gone, hell even the good days of four titles when Hopkins was a middleweight is gone, thanks to the WBA and their idiotic super, regular and peasant belts in a single division. It's nearly impossible to unify these days, but at least the WBC is allowing it again and yes even the WBA.

It's such a mess and really embarrassing for our sport. The good news is no one really pays attention.

[ShoulderRoll]

The WBA is beyond pathetic with their super champion bullcrap. Worst alphabet soup organization by far.

[elfag]

The good old days of one, even two titles is long gone, hell even the good days of four titles when Hopkins was a middleweight is gone, thanks to the WBA and their idiotic super, regular and peasant belts in a single division. It's nearly impossible to unify these days, but at least the WBC is allowing it again and yes even the WBA.

It's such a mess and really embarrassing for our sport. The good news is no one really pays attention.

lineal used to mean something too. now you got guys who win the 'lineal' title at a catchweight and never fight at the actual weight or have any intentions to. ahem cotto

[wmute]

Why call anyone knowing two things about boxing a "purist"? How about calling everyone else "noob"? Seems more reasonable.

[Najuk]

hopefully he stays at 160 till retirement

[GMAN SUPREME]

yes he can he will also be undisputed champion.

[M Bison]

hopefully he stays at 160 till retirement

Yeah that'd be nice, he'd be compared with greats like Carlos Monzón If he did that.

I'd still like to see maybe a catchweight between him and Andre Ward though, don't think Ward does enough for anybodies name to want to go all the way from 160 to 168 just to fight him.

Legacy wise I agree fighting Ward is important to an extent but not necessary, Ward needs to want this fight as much as he claims to and agree terms.
To be a great you need to beat adversity and Ward has NEVER once had any hard battle to fight its pretty much all been plain sailing for him in his home backyard which allows him to fight as dirty as he wants.

[Eastcoast]

I don't give much weight to titles, there's a champion and either you are or you aren't. Like Greb, Golovkin has long been the #1 MW in the world, w/o being the champion. Cotto robbed Golovkin of his chance to claim the championship, then hijacked it right out of the division. It's happened in the past, I think Mickey Walker ran out of the MW division with the champion title never to lose it there.

Golovkin has to wait on Alvarez to beat Cotto. I hope for Golovkin's sake Alvarez takes a couple of 160lbs fights after he's done with Cotto (rematch included). It would help Golovkin's legacy if Alvarez were to establish himself as a legit top MW.

A legit win over Ward validates Golovkin's greatness instantly. Otherwise he needs an established Alvarez, the winner of Quillin/Jacobs and Lee/Saunders, in addition to some wins over the MW prospects who'll have established themselves in another year or two.

[therealpugilist]

The record stands at 14


The only record Hopkins has is being the oldest fighter to win a lineal title amd win major titles


Anyone who considers Hopkins the record holder of title defenses is just trying to inflate his resume or simply DKSAB


Monzon beat Nino Benvenuti who won the Val Barker award in the same Olympics Ali competed, became a hall of famer and the lineage he had can be traced


Hopkins fought Sergundo Mercado twice to win the IBF trinket and has 20 defenses of it.....lineal title defenses he has like 6-7

GGG didn't even beat the champion for his belt....He didn't fight Geale or Sturm they gave him a world title