The_budweiser Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Looks like 51-year-old Hopkins (55-7-2) may bow out with his last fight this December against Joe Smith Jnr. Whether you like him or hate him he has been involved in some big fights and achieved a lot especially at his age. What are your favourite/worst memory's of Hopkins? ----- Boxing legend Bernard Hopkins (a real legend in an age when the word is over used) will look to exit the sport he helped make great, on December 17th, and, in typical Hopkins style, B-Hop will not face a soft or easy opponent in his swansong. According to the always reliable Michael Woods of NYFights.com, the amazing 51-year-old (Hopkins will turn 52 in January) will face dangerous puncher Joe Smith Jnr just over a week before Christmas Day. Smith, 22-1(18) made a huge name for himself when he blitzed the usually tough and durable Andrzej Fonfara to an upset 1st-round stoppage win in his last fight, back in June in Chicago. That performance, along with Smith’s age – just 27, almost half the age of “The Executioner” – shows how dangerous a choice of final opponent Hopkins, 55-7-2(32) has made. Still, having always kept himself in shape and being one of the smartest, most incredible fighters in history, Hopkins will be expected by most peple to pick up his 56th win in December. Hopkins last boxed in November of 2014, when he faced one of the most feared punchers on the planet in Sergey Kovalev. Hopkins was knocked down early on, and badly hurt in the final round, but his toughness, his guile and his heart got him through to the final bell. Can Hopkins take Smith’s best shots if he has to? Will Smith, in the biggest fight of his life, be overwhelmed himself? Source: boxing247.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gavpowell Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Re: Hopkins in farwell fight Not a bad opponent in the circumstances. I always hated Hopkins and his middleweight career was nothing special, but he's done amazing things since. Worst memory: Th Eastman fight - Hopkins had no intention of really fighting and spent 2 and a half minutes of every round running away. Best memory: Watching Calzaghe and Kovalev completely ignore his hypnotic cheating bullshit and just box his ears off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonRingRules Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Re: Hopkins in farwell fight --- Not bad gavvy, there's hope for you yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_budweiser Posted October 17, 2016 Author Share Posted October 17, 2016 re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) It's official Bernard Hopkins opponent announced A boxing legend will look to add an exclamation point to end his professional career with the same style, speed and slickness that has defined him in the ring for nearly three decades, as 51-year-old, two-division former world champion and Future Hall of Hamer Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) prepares to square off against hard-hitting Light Heavyweight contender Joe Smith, Jr. (21-1, 18 KOs) in a 12-round fight from Los Angeles’ iconic Fabulous Forum. The bout will take place Saturday, December 17 and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing®. Tickets for the fight – named, “The Final One” — will go on sale Monday, October 24th at 10:00 a.m. PT. Page not found - - Boxing News - Ring News24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonRingRules Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) --- Hope Joe is getting decent money for the farce. He was in line for a Stevenson title shot and instead is now fighting a stinker's stinker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creed Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) Hopkins is a proper old school fighter. I have a lot of respect for him, fighting dangerous guys at his age and beating some of them. I thought he might have had an easier farewell fight, but, credit to him for still wanting a challenge in his final fight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pittbox Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) Just hope it's really a farewell, not another way of prolonging his career. I still think he's decent, but he should call it an end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gavpowell Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 Re: Hopkins in farwell fight --- Not bad gavvy, there's hope for you yet. Well we can't all be boxing's answer to the Cumaean Sybil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonRingRules Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) --- Reports are Oscar put a last fight stipulation in the contract. He could of course return under a different promoter, but whatever, he's gonna put on another stinker in hopes of the judges' sympathy vote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davemurphy Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) Was never a huge Hopkins fan, but two good career moments pop into my mind and that's DLH rolling on the canvas after the body shot, and maybe the best uppercuts I ever saw against Joe Lipsey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WelshDevilRob Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) Great opportunity for Joe Smith Jr. On one hand it'd be good to see Bhop go out on a win but on the other it'd be great to see Joe build on his great win over Fonfara. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
repsac Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) Is this the main event? Any word on who else might be on the card? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoztheMadman Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 (edited) Re: Hopkins in farwell fight Not a bad opponent in the circumstances. I always hated Hopkins and his middleweight career was nothing special, but he's done amazing things since. Worst memory: Th Eastman fight - Hopkins had no intention of really fighting and spent 2 and a half minutes of every round running away. Best memory: Watching Calzaghe and Kovalev completely ignore his hypnotic cheating bullshit and just box his ears off. I felt and feel the same. His middleweight career was grossly overrated because he fought guys who were either on the slide or too small for him, mostly. His best victories were against guys who were once welterweights and you know which two guys I'm talking about. But after that, he has achieved quite a lot at his true weight class and for that you gotta give him credit. Worst memory: when he fought Pavlik and then taunted him after the match. That was just unworthy of a guy of his stature, of the reputation he had built before that. Best memory: the Pascal fights, he took on the guy who at that moment was probably the hottest lhw and he overcame two knockdowns in the first fight to arguably win and then won the second fight without a doubt. But in general, I never respected him because he fought so dirty and often got away with it and also because he just was interested in winning and keeping the title and not in being entertaining and taking on all the best guys. As a middleweight, that is. Edited October 22, 2016 by BoztheMadman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pittbox Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 Re: Hopkins in farwell fight But in general, I never respected him because he fought so dirty I personally think that Hopkins' dirtiness is kind of overestimated, but I remember mostly his lhw fights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonRingRules Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 (edited) re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) --- One of his knicknames was Buttkins and he was so proud of it he bragged about butting Winky Wright open Philly style that made him a bloody mess. Look at the kovalev fight where he's waving around like a fist threatening a butt that made Kov fight more cautiously at a greater distance. What, 13 years without a Ko, he's as far removed from his viscious Lipsey ko as a Pitbull without teeth, Edited October 23, 2016 by LondonRingRules Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoztheMadman Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 Re: Hopkins in farwell fight I personally think that Hopkins' dirtiness is kind of overestimated, but I remember mostly his lhw fights. Overestimated? I can't see how it can be. The guy used every dirty trick in the book, lol. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pittbox Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 Re: Hopkins in farwell fight He uses crafty dirty tricks, but I just don't put it on the same level as John Ruiz dirtiness for example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonRingRules Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 (edited) re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) --- Ruiz was a choirboy compared to Buttkins. Ruiz specialty the jab and grab that is more a style choice allowed in modern boxing and the tactically delivered low blow. Buttkins uses every dirty move in the book that any broadcast viewer could see that ultimately matured into crawling around on the canvas to buy time. He actually included crying in the Roy rematch and outright quitting against Dawson after jumping in with a failed flying knee and shucked onto the canvas where he then moaned about a shoulder injury. His 3rd title attempt was the charm in the Mercado rematch where he clamped down on mercado and was hitting him when the ref called to break. He refused so the ref TKOed Mercado in a pure panto move that he even admitted upon reviewing the footage was the wrong call, but mercado didn't have a bigshot promoter backing him and was a dirty foreigner so the dirtier result was never contested. He showed a good clean result against Pavlik, but mostly against contenders like the toothless Ornelas like a junkie he copiously used every trick in his dirty book. Edited October 24, 2016 by LondonRingRules Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoztheMadman Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) --- Ruiz was a choirboy compared to Buttkins. Ruiz specialty the jab and grab that is more a style choice allowed in modern boxing and the tactically delivered low blow. Buttkins uses every dirty move in the book that any broadcast viewer could see that ultimately matured into crawling around on the canvas to buy time. He actually included crying in the Roy rematch and outright quitting against Dawson after jumping in with a failed flying knee and shucked onto the canvas where he then moaned about a shoulder injury. His 3rd title attempt was the charm in the Mercado rematch where he clamped down on mercado and was hitting him when the ref called to break. He refused so the ref TKOed Mercado in a pure panto move that he even admitted upon reviewing the footage was the wrong call, but mercado didn't have a bigshot promoter backing him and was a dirty foreigner so the dirtier result was never contested. He showed a good clean result against Pavlik, but mostly against contenders like the toothless Ornelas like a junkie he copiously used every trick in his dirty book. Yeah and I think it's a disgrace HBO's commentators always ignored that and hugged Bhop's nuts, presenting him as a gentleman and a true champion. Bs! He found his match in Echols tho, that guy could fight dirty with the best of them. ;-) And the worst. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Javier Ortega Nieto Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) Hopkins is one of those boxers who has won the power to do with his career as he wishes, his last fight is well taken because Joe Smith comes to win by KO Fonfara in what has surely been one of the surprises of the season . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeboxing Posted October 29, 2016 Share Posted October 29, 2016 re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) Good fight for B-Hop style-wise . He should get the W here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boxingfan39202 Posted October 29, 2016 Share Posted October 29, 2016 re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) Hope Bhop goes out on a win. What a career. Boxing royalty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarke28 Posted November 5, 2016 Share Posted November 5, 2016 Re: Hopkins in farwell fight I hope Hopkins does retire 51 and still at it in top fights is some achievement but I do fear for him sometimes I hope he goes out with a bang. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WelshDevilRob Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) http://www.ringnews24.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/main-pic.jpg Bernard Hopkins Claims Retirement On Saturday: 5 Of His Defining Fights Reviewed! by Lee Skavydis Bernard Hopkins is set to call it a day after Saturday night when he takes on once beaten Joe Smith Jr at the Forum in Inglewood, California. Smith Jr has a record of 22-1 with 18 KO’s, a record that is not too shabby. The 51 year old multi time champion stated that he aims to “give a performance where people are begging me to stay.” Hopkins has made an incredible 20 defences of the IBF middleweight title, including against names such as Oscar De La Hoya, William Joppy and Felix Trinidad. Read more: Bernard Hopkins Claims Retirement On Saturday: 5 Of His Defining Fights Reviewed! - - Boxing News - Ring News24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cableaddict Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 re: Hopkins in farewell fight (Spoilers) I hate that Naz won't be in the corner. Doesn't seem right, somehow.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now