Bernard Hopkins = All time great

In the past, some of my less knowledgeable friends rag on Hopkins

[Referring to his record 20 title defenses] "He beat up a bunch of bums"

[Prior to 2006] "His biggest wins were against 2 blown up welterweights (Trinidad and De La Hoya)"

Look at the history books. There's a reason why most champions don't even come close to 20 title defenses. It's damn tough. And people need to take into account the circumstances surrounding previous fights. Versus Trinidad, Hopkins was the underdog; so much so, that people were already looking ahead to a potential mega fight between Trinidad and RJJ. Of course, Hopkins ruined those plans by running 12 round clinic on Trinidad and sealing the deal with a TKO in round 12. Sure in retrospect, it makes sense that Hopkins would do well against the smaller Trinidad, but it didn't seem like the case at the time.

Look at what Hopkins has done in the last couple of years.

- Crushed the linear Light-Heavyweight Champion (Tarver)
- Beat a top 10 p4p and a routinely ducked fighter (Wright)
- 2 close "losses" to the heir apparent in the Middleweight division (Taylor). And the first fight should've been a draw

Keep in mind, Hopkins is now 43 years old. Things usually start rapidly going downhill in combat sports at around 40.

Aside from the loss in his first fight pro fight, Hopkins' only loss comes to a prime Roy Jones Jr. Nothing to be ashamed about.

All time great I tell ya