Hopkins vs. Stokes

The story of this fight is a vicious display of body punching and hooks with both hands put on James Stokes whose showboating for the camera opens the clip. (Appropriately the clip ends with showboating from Hopkins.) The younger Hopkins had a stylistic similarity to Duran on the inside which only elevates his later ability to dance, jab, and potshot from distance. Again Hopkins is not 25 as the graphic says; in this fight he is 27.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Bernard
• Hopkins
• James
• Stokes
• boxing
• middleweight
• badass
• Roberto
• Duran

[86pimp3]

People forget how fun Hopkins use to be as a fighter. When you get old and your speed declines you have to get more defensive. So I understand.

[SmelOdies]

Still, he brought his punching accuracy (not power) into old age. There's entertainment value in that, as far as I'm concerned.

[BreuckelensFinest]

Hopkins is still a killer! He is one of the greatest of all time. Ironically a Great Humanitarian too, considering he gives back to his people and tries to help them change their lives in prison and the streets. Beautiful man! He has all of my respect.

[SmelOdies]

Let's not get carried away.

[WZ912]

Hear what the Broadcasters were saying!  James Toney Vs Mike McCallum was the next night. And Hopkins wanted the winner. Hopkins Vs Toney or McCallum WOW! That would've been WILD! To bad. Toney won moved up to Super middleweight, Butchered Barkley to win the I.B.F Title. Toney Vs Hopkins? The one that got a away. Dam!

[SmelOdies]

It almost happened at cruiser in 2003, but Toney gained more weight and fought Holyfield instead because Bernard was tough on the negotiations.

[tuvaluman]

hopkins is the man

[MrDamonLJohnson]

People forget that early in his career Hopkins was known for KO'ing his opponents within 3 rounds, usually the first round. LONG LIVE THE EXECUTIONER!!!!!

[wayupinya1]

I love watching these early fights of Hopkins beating the fuck out of these sorry ass weak fighters. It's obvious this guy bitched out and quit. They should have allowed HOpkins to punch the back of this guy's head while he was down just like the street. It's not like the beaten loser would have lost any brains.

[comedicstuff]

@trufb1031 - Hopkins was a 6-1 underdog against Trinidad and was also a pretty big underdog against Tarver & Pavlik. It was thought that Hopkins might get KO'd in all 3 of those fights and each was a masterful performance by B-Hop. However, De La Hoya was an underdog against Hopkins due to Hopkins stopping Trinidad and De La Hoya looking subpar in his only middleweight fight before facing Hopkins. Yeah, B-Hop was never afraid, he's just a tough negotiator who does things his way.

[makpak]

young hopkins looks like young lennox lewis.

[KiidDynamiteReturns]

This hopkins is class!

[Transformers217]

Calzaghe's power has not diminished. That's impossible for a man. When we get older, we get stronger. We just get slower, and lose alot of the speed that we had in our 20's. Look at Hopkins. He's stronger in his 40's, but he was ALOT faster in his 20's and 30's. You can see the difference in his tribute video. Same goes for Jones and Calzaghe. Calzaghe is not past his prime when he beat Hopkins. But he did managed to beat a great old fighter, but Calzaghe would of lost to an younger Hopkins.

[Transformers217]

I disagree. The younger Hopkins was fascinating. The older Hopkins is still great, but not what he use to be. The only difference, is that the older Hopkins has been having a better career then the older Hopkins. Like Jones, he simply didn't have alot of competition in the middleweight division. He was so great, that he completely cleaned out that division during the 90's. It wasn't until his late 30's, that he really started to shine, and get the respect that he deserved.

[Transformers217]

Hopkins 10 years ago, was a perfect fighter. He's not as great as he use to be. He gets too tired in the later rounds, he clinches alot more, and he lays on the ropes too much. He's an old man, and you can even see that in his fight against Pavlik.

Take it from a big fan like me, a younger B-Hop would of beaten Taylor and Calzaghe. The only way you can beat an older Hopkins now, is too throw more punches then him. You couldn't do that against a younger Hopkins.

[boxingGARDEN]

The Hopkins 10 years younger gets destroyed by the B-Hop now in his 40's

Take it from a hardcore Hopkins fan - Hopkins is at his best now (Tarver,Wright,Pavlik,Calzaghe­,Taylor,De La Hoya)

I mean all these fights were either wins or close descions - thats impressive

Who exactlly did the younger B-Hop beat

Gen Johnson??? pfff

Calzaghe rightfully won the fight not on clean punching but on high output punching/slapping/whatever

Calzaghe deserves his props