It's a fact that Hopkins only came to his own when the really great guys in the division before him as Mike McCallum, James Toney, Roy Jones, Jr. had moved up in weight or grown old and left boxing. I can't say that Bhops is better than any of those three so I would be hard put to situate him near the likes of Robinson, Monzon, Hagler, Griffith, Zale and La Motta.

The middleweight division is the one division where the Top 4 stands well above the rest. Until Roy Jones Jr. and Bernard Hopkins paved their ways through the middleweight division, the Top four middleweights in history were as follows:

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Sugar Ray Robinson

Harry Greb

Carlos Monzon

Marvin Hagler

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These four still stand firmly atop the middleweight division. Each of them would know at least one defeat to one of the others on this short list. However, with the possible exception of Jones and Hopkins, none of them would know defeat to any other middleweight.

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This includes Ray Leonard, who caught Marvin Hagler at the right time. Leonard would never beat a prime Hagler at 160. He would also not beat anyone in the Top four.

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Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins both stand firmly in the Top 10 at 160. Each has a good chance to earn a few victories over members of the Top 4, in a tournament or series of fights.

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This should answer your question as to whether or not Bernard Hopkins belongs in the Top 10. He does. He would lose every time to Robinson and lose the majority to Greb. He would also lose to Monzon and Hagler but, depending on the number of fights, he would be a near even split with either of them.

I wouldn't call him the greatest, but he should be mentioned with the greats. After Roy Jones 1, he went over a decade with out a loss. I don't really think he was protected earlier in his career. He was thrown in with Jones, was the first to take out Trinidad, not only he beat him, but finished him, and then he was the first guy to thoroughly beat De La Hoya. He KO'd DLH, by liver removal punch, this was DLH, before Floyd fought him. He continued to take extremely tough fights up until the last few years.

Yes, definitely top 10.

I rate him very highly,but not up there with Robinson, Monzon and Hagler.

B-hop holds every conceivable physical advantage over Marvin Hagler.

Carlos Monson matches up a little better as far as physical attributes, but i pick Hop in a head to head based on Hop's success against larger fighters, and the fact that Monzon fought almost exclusively in the safety of his own backyard

IMO, Hopkins is the #1 midleweight of all times

BHops was undisputed middleweight champion but as undisputed he didn't last long.



BHops was the IBF champion for years but i feel like he stayed protected with the IBF, much like he is doing now in middleweight after loosing the WBC to a guy that Stevenson destroyed.



Does BHops rank with long-lasting undisputed middleweight champions like Harry Greb, Sugar Ray Robinson, Stanley Ketchel, Mickey Walker, Carlos Monzon, Marvin Hagler & Bob Fitzsimmons?



Even men like Marcel Cerdan, who wasn't undisputed for long but had beaten several ATG middleweights like Tony Zale, + 111 wins 4 losses is impressive [plane crash cut his career short].