5 Best Fighters of the last 40 years

Old hopkins needed a miscall of a KD to get a draw with Pascal. A fighter who is good but not much more than that, and was dominated by Dawson. Cotto was able to give a close fight to the top p4p fighter at the time. Old hopkins would not have been competitive with a fighter of that quality.

 

No, no and, well, no.

 

You know not who either Foch or Calzaghe are.

 

well, I picked all of Froch fight right, bar the first Kessler fight, so I know full well who he is. Only reason you rate Calzaghe so high is beacause of your immaturity (you're mesmerized by his undefeated record). Guys struggled agasint bums like Salem and Starie, yet he would whitewash the best fighter he ever fought alm:

 

Starie :dunno:

The guy RAN, RAN for 12 rounds and refused to fight.

Now Calzaghe "struggled" ::

It reminds of when Enzo Calzaghe referred to how Calzone was fighting guys like Rick Thornberry......dropping him twice en route to a 12 round decision....and getting slated for it at the exact same time people like David Reid were being dropped by his very own Australian import in Kevin Kelly and getting none of the criticism.

 

Both were doing shit in that fight. The onus was not only on Starie. And about Reid getting no criticism for getting dropped by Kelley. I wonder in which parralel world you lived at the time to say absurd thing like this

 

Well then he isn't a "live dog" against Calzhage if he probably beats him then, is he? Idiot.

 

Calzaghe
Froch
Lewis
Prince naseem
Johnny Nelson

 

seems like a struck a nerve cocksucker. ::

 

And jones

 

Nah. Just pointing out stupidity.

 

Congrats, you managed to find a minor error in a post that was written in 10 seconds on a boxing forum. Must be the highlight of your miserable life ::

 

The problem here is that you group all of 'old Hopkins' into one when a guy in his age does decline quickly. Imo he had much more in the tank against Pavlik than Pascal, and the Calzaghe fight was before Pavlik

 

I fail to see any difference between these versions of Hopkins. But, even if you're right, then Jermaine Taylor equalized twice the best accomplishment of Calz career, which doesn't really help your case either ::

 

Are we going by the top 5 peaks of the past 40 years? The best body of work since 1977? A combination of the two?

Going by best peaks, I'd go with these:

Roberto Duran in the late 70s at 135. You can go up to 1980 and 147 since he was brilliant against Carlos Palomino and had one of the ATG performances against Sugar Ray Leonard in Montreal.

Sugar Ray Leonard from 1979-82. Very versatile and complete. Speed, power, defense, stamina, finishing ability, etc...Beating undefeated versions of El Radar and The Hitman and a 72-1 Duran in a period of two years is amazing.

Pernell Whitaker in the late 80s to early 90s at 135-140. He was a defensive genius and on offense, he had one of the best jabs ever, terrific bodypunching, nice fluid combos, great timing, good left hand, workrate, etc...He was extremely smart and was brilliant at using angles.

Roy Jones in the mid 90s at 168. He was sensational for a long time, but 168 from 1994-96 was his absolute peak. Outrageous hand and foot speed to go with very good power, ring smarts, combinations....his unorthodox style may have been detrimental later in his career but I would argue that it benefited him for a long time because in addition to his great physical gifts, his unusual style made him even harder to figure out.

I'm not really sure whom to pick the 5th. Floyd Mayweather is obviously up there. He was a simply brilliant boxer, with great ring smarts, and stayed at a high level for a long time. Julio Cesar Chavez, Marvin Hagler and Michael Spinks were all great too and deserve consideration.