BoxRec

Expug wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 17:57

keithmoonhangover wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 17:37

witherspoon wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 05:21

I'm going through a stack of Boxing News magazines at the moment from 1985, I've covered the Pedroza fight up to McGuigan's first defence against Bernard Taylor.

The hype is crazy. There are editorial features ranking Barry as a top 5 all time Featherweight and the readers are writing in to gush over the Pedroza fight for months.

It's a real eye-opener seeing how fans and media were so different pre-internet.

I think there is still a biased towards the latest person and that goes for other sports as well. At the moment there is a lot of talk about Usyk being the best ever, when he had close fights with Chisora and Briedis. Usyk is very good, maybe even great, but he ain't the best to ever do it.

When Zidane was active, there was a lot of talk about him being the best footballer ever, but now his name doesn't get mentioned in that conversation.

Very true. I also think that often times we aren’t completely honest with ourselves when it comes to jumping on a hype train. A fighter , or any other athlete for that matter has flaws , weaknesses that we might overlook.
“ The guy is one of the best of all time!”
“ Ya but, he sure gets hit with a lot of right hands”

bennie wrote: ↑14 Jan 2026, 09:06Mike Rossman.

gilgamesh wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 13:16

witherspoon wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 05:15 Jermain Taylor, beat what (I, at least) assumed was a washed up Hopkins, but those wins just kept on getting better every time Hopkins fought again, for at least 5 years.

I never saw JT as sharp or as smart as he was in those fights with Hopkins.

I do think Taylor was aided by the fact that Hopkins had kinda outgrown the Middleweight division, and was depleted of stamina somewhat. Because Hopkins looked a lot better, and rejuvenated when he made the move to Light Heavy which had probably been a long time coming.

It doesn't take away from Taylor's performances. He still did a top notch job against an excellent Professional, but I do think he had that extra advantage in his favor. Along with youth and speed, which is obviously huge in it's own right.

witherspoon wrote: ↑17 Jan 2026, 18:10

gilgamesh wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 13:16

witherspoon wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 05:15 Jermain Taylor, beat what (I, at least) assumed was a washed up Hopkins, but those wins just kept on getting better every time Hopkins fought again, for at least 5 years.

I never saw JT as sharp or as smart as he was in those fights with Hopkins.

I do think Taylor was aided by the fact that Hopkins had kinda outgrown the Middleweight division, and was depleted of stamina somewhat. Because Hopkins looked a lot better, and rejuvenated when he made the move to Light Heavy which had probably been a long time coming.

It doesn't take away from Taylor's performances. He still did a top notch job against an excellent Professional, but I do think he had that extra advantage in his favor. Along with youth and speed, which is obviously huge in it's own right.

To be honest, I think I had Hopkins winning the rematch by a round, but it's been a while since I watched these fights.

No doubt you're right that Hopkins was past the point where he could make 160 comfortably, and his subsequent performances at light heavy bear that out.

But even taking that into account, I thought both fights looked like physically evenly matched contests, if Hopkins had a slight disadvantage in speed he did a great job of negating that with timing and tactics.

Whoever commented that Taylor fought to the level of his opponent had a great point too because Taylor never had to dig that deep again until he moved up to super middle, and he certainly never performed to the same level in any of his defences of the middleweight title.

evrenb wrote: ↑18 Jan 2026, 12:05Joe Frazier.

Caractacus wrote: ↑29 Jan 2026, 13:38 what about Roberto Duran ? after he defeated Sugar Ray Leonard for the welterweight title ?

keithmoonhangover wrote: ↑30 Jan 2026, 05:49 I think Leon Spinks is the ultimate example. Olympic gold, beats Ali, top of the boxing world, losses the rematch, loses every meaningful fights afterwards.

And Battling Siki. Both just partied it away.

gilgamesh wrote: ↑30 Jan 2026, 14:02

keithmoonhangover wrote: ↑30 Jan 2026, 05:49 I think Leon Spinks is the ultimate example. Olympic gold, beats Ali, top of the boxing world, losses the rematch, loses every meaningful fights afterwards.

And Battling Siki. Both just partied it away.

In Leon's case. He just never got any better than he was as an Amateur. The Leon Spinks that won Olympic Gold is the same Leon Spinks that fought his 10th or 20th Professional Prize fight in terms of technique and skills. He may have improved his stamina and conditioning in order to keep up the pace for 15 rounds, but he only fought 1 way. Straight at you. Chucking punches nonstop.

witherspoon wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 05:21

Expug wrote: ↑12 Jan 2026, 19:29 I’d throw Barry Mcguigan in there too.

I'm going through a stack of Boxing News magazines at the moment from 1985, I've covered the Pedroza fight up to McGuigan's first defence against Bernard Taylor.

The hype is crazy. There are editorial features ranking Barry as a top 5 all time Featherweight and the readers are writing in to gush over the Pedroza fight for months.

It's a real eye-opener seeing how fans and media were so different pre-internet.

Caractacus wrote: ↑11 Feb 2026, 19:58 What about Mike Tyson when he won the WBC belt from Trevor Berbick ?
Let's face it, he did not look as impressive when he had one the other belts (WBA)from Bone-Crusher Smith
and (IBF) Tony Tucker.

gilgamesh wrote: ↑29 Jan 2026, 13:48

Caractacus wrote: ↑29 Jan 2026, 13:38 what about Roberto Duran ? after he defeated Sugar Ray Leonard for the welterweight title ?

That was pretty deep into his career though. He may have never been better than he was on THAT night, but he was better than many guys would ever be even on bad nights. Duran was just a great fighter in general, and doesn't really fall into a category like this. This is more like a "Who are the One Hit Wonders of Boxing" kinda thing.