In the past years, a 43-year-old Bernard Hopkins dominated a 26-year-old middleweight champ in Kelly Pavlik. Also, a 37-year-old Shane Mosley destroyed a 30-year-old Antonio Margarito.
Are Bernard Hopkins and Shane Mosley that great, or is the competition just that bad?
Pavlik vs. Hopkins Revisited
Kelly Pavlik, though limited, is not as limited as his one-sided loss to Bernard Hopkins would suggest. The fact that Pavlik fought Hopkins at 10 pounds above his best weight should definitely be factored into Hopkins’ victory.
For those who say the weight had nothing to do with it, maybe Hopkins should have gone down 10 pounds back to middleweight to face Pavlik at his strongest weight and really prove something.
This game Hopkins is playing is really getting tired, and I’m surprised that more people don’t see through the sham. Bernard Hopkins biggest wins are against smaller guys than him fighting at Hopkins’ weight for only the first or second time in their career.
When Hopkins fought accomplished fighters his own size, he either struggled or lost. When Hopkins fought a green Jermain Taylor twice, he lost. When he fought Roy Jones, he lost.
He tried to play the “you come up in weight to fight me” game again with Joe Calzaghe and it backfired, as Calzaghe had been at 168 pounds so long it was naturally time for him to move up in weight anyway. Hopkins lost that fight too.
Hopkins did beat Antonio “One Hit Wonder” Tarver, but I am not sure how much credit Hopkins should get for that, in light of Tarver’s whole career being based on catching a faded Roy Jones at the right time.
So Hopkins beats the 160 pound champ, Pavlik, at 170 pounds and some ridiculously want to call him the next Ray Robinson or Archie Moore for this. This is the same thing that Hopkins did with 154 pounder Winky Wright.
When Wright was the 154-pound champ and Hopkins was at 160 pounds, Hopkins wanted no part of Wright. However, after Hopkins fled to the 175-pound division and got settled there, he called out Wright for a fight but only under the condition that they fight at 170 pounds.
Wright accepted the challenge and looked out of shape at the higher weight, as he lost a 12-round decision to Hopkins.
Verdict: The young champs don’t suck, Hopkins just knows how to pick fights to his advantage. Let’s see Hopkins dominate Chad Dawson, a true light heavyweight. However, in true Hopkins fashion, Hopkins has opted to fight the extremely faded Roy Jones Jr that was knocked out in one round in his very last fight. In spite of this, Jones may still be capable of winning giving Hopkins' overrated status.
Mosley vs. Margarito Revealed
“Sugar” Shane Mosley had a lot riding on his fight with Antonio Margarito as far as legacy, since he had been on the downslide in his last couple of fights and time was running out.
Up until his fight with Margarito, Mosley’s last truly significant win was his first win over Oscar de la Hoya back in 2000, eight years ago. In Mosley’s losses to Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright, he failed to show the resourcefulness of the other “Sugars,” Ray Leonard and Ray Robinson.
So in January 2009, after many setbacks, Mosley destroyed the young and highly touted Antonio Margarito in one of the most destructive and dominant wins over a champion in a long time.
Much of the hype surrounding Mosley’s victory over Margarito is generated because of the man-eating aura that Margarito has…or had.
As most know by now, foreign substances were found in both of Margarito’s hand wraps before his fight with Mosley and he was subsequently forced to rewrap his hands without the foreign substances while under the watchful eye of Nazeem Richardson, Mosley’s trainer, and the commission.
Margarito went on to give a very lackluster performance from the very first round and did not seem confident throwing his hands. Margarito has little defense but the little defense he has is generated by his offense.
However, as Margarito seemed very hesitant about throwing his hands during the entire fight, Mosley virtually had nothing to worry about and just proceeded to beat on Margarito round after round until he finally cracked.
Why did Margarito fight so timidly after his hands were rewrapped? Could it be that Margarito’s hands are always wrapped with foreign substances and in them lay his confidence?
Is this why it seemed that Margarito was able to bust up and bloody Miguel Cotto with the very few head shots that he was able to land in a very short time once he landed them?
Although Mosley did a good job against Margarito, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Mosley just struggled against Ricardo Mayorga (of all people) in his last fight before facing Margarito.
Mayorga’s chin has been shot for years and it took Mosley until the very last round to drop Mayorga.
Furthermore, before getting stopped, the crude Mayorga was even outboxing Mosley according to one judge and the Associated Press. I find this very unimpressive. Mosley also lost a close fight to Miguel Cotto.
Verdict: Margarito always sucked but was probably cheating to get by. Mosley has lost to Miguel Cotto and will probably lose to Paul Williams or even Andre Berto. He should take a page out of Hopkins’ book and fight smaller guys like Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton. Mosley's next matchup against Mayweather is a virtual toss up as Mayweather's true greatness is a mystery due to his matchups with dubious competition.
No comments:
Post a Comment