All Time Great Fighters Who Never Lost in Their Prime...

Lots of guys had it pegged here. Some guys were trying to make out that Tito would have dropped any MW in history with the left hook he hit Joppy with. I had Bernard down for a 10th round stoppage and I think Buddy had him down for the 9th.

 

I remember it clearly because it was one of the results which helped me win the prediction league on secondsout. I couldn't believe so many posters I respected were going for Tito, that's when I knew I had the title in the bag.

 

It's all moot anyway because Bernard isn't a great fighter

 

Yep. It amazes me that not only did anyone think Tito would win, but that he was a 3 to 1 or 4 to 1 favourite over Nard.

 

Easy to say now.

 

Nope, lots of us picked Bernard to stop him. Johnnie Whitehead didn't, he had Tito down as this indomitable force.

 

I'm sure you did. But the "anyone who knew boxing" crap is just that, crap.

 

Well, the way I looked at it was as follows, the list of welterweights who have FAILED to become the MAN at 160 is pretty long. Trinidad looked good against 154 and against Joppy, sure. Who did Trinidad beat at 154? He beat a guy who had one working eye, and a guy who was so ridiculously pumped over the PR vs Mexican rivalry that he managed to get dropped twice in the first round. Tito was also made to look like total dogshit by Reid for the first few rounds and was even dropped. Joppy had already lost to JC Green.

 

But to say he was "fucking crap" at middleweight would have been a giant leap of faith going into the Hopkins fight. He had fought once at the weight and looked like a killer.

If you picked Hopkins to win that fight, good for you. Really nice prediction. But that doesn't mean we have to re-write history.

 

Yeah he looked like a killer against Joppy whose biggest wins to date were JC Green {on a cut} and Roberto "Garbage Day!" Duran and Hacine Cherifi.

 

I'm just surprised more people didn't see it coming.

Bernard is an excellent boxer and a fucking big middleweight, and tough as nails.

Not even down to Tito being scrubby, more down to Bernard just being 10 times better, and bigger.

 

He looked far from "fucking crap". I'm not propping up Joppy, but Tito obviously looked quite good in his first fight at middle.

 

In retrospect, I'm sure we'd all agree with that. ::

 

I think it was 50/50 in regards to Tito being overrated and at that point, Bernard being highly underrated.

Still seems amazing that Trinidad was a fucking 4 to 1 favourite or so ::

 

Yeah, I'd say that's fair.

And yeah, especially when you watch the fight. Trinidad doesn't beat Bernard in 100 tries.

 

damn all these guys here who knew hopkins would whip trinidad. rich fellows now, im sure.

 

Was easy to say then as well after seeing how utterly clueless Trinidad looked against Oscar

 

I don't gamble, on boxing or anything, even on QPR.

 

Yep.

 

Did Bernard get his teeth done recently?

 

Wasn't Tito an underdog vs Joppy.

 

No I don't think he was actually, about a 2 to 1 favourite if I recall.

 

Wow he knocked out a shit beltholder he was expected to beat anyway, what a killer ::

 

Clearly in his prime. ::

 

I thought Bernard would box Tito smart and just turn him and that's what he did... I know I wasn't alone in that thinking I wouldn't be surprised if a good 1/3 of folks picked Bernard, it's not that crazy a thing to say

I could see if a bunch of guys were in here saying "DUDE, I TOTALLY CALLED HONEYGHAN/CURRY"

 

Half of them probably weren't even born. They were conceived when Honeyghan went out partying that night. Junk in Lloyds Trunk. Damn right.

 

You'd be surprised. There really were a select few that picked Hopkins.

Same with Barrera Vs Space Monkey, unbelievably.

 

To be fair, wasn't the Naz fight the first time MAB switched styles?

 

Not quite, the Jones fights were a dawn for Barrera, he was never the same brawler after that, was he?? Hamed met him half-way in any case with his preparation grounded in religion and nonsense. Barrera kept things a bit tighter, Hamed mentally wilted. I don't feel anyways that there was anything profound like a change of style. Remember he had that soporific affair with JL Valbuena just two fights prior.

 

I joined secondsout a couple months after that fight, so I don't really know one way or the other as far as messageboards go

But I recall in one of the boxing magazines, The Ring or one of its sub-publications like KO, they had some "ask the experts" thing and something like 9 or 10 out of 25 picked Bernard, so it's not like it was Tyson/Douglas