Jeff Pryor takes a look at the ten most memorable fights and biggest wins in the remarkable career of Bernard Hopkins.

These fights are starting to seem like Deja vu. Bernard Hopkins steps into the ring, as an underdog, past his prime, against a champion or pound for pound player, this time Jean Pascal... and attempts to defy expectations one more time. It's something that Floyd Mayweather, Sergio Martinez, Juan Manuel Marquez, not even Manny Pacquiao can hold a candle too.

Bernard Hopkins is a special individual indeed.

You may recall nearly a decade ago, that's right, just about ten years ago... when the HBO crew was intimating that Hopkins' prime had passed and as he stepped into the ring with the dynamic Puerto Rican phenom Felix Trinidad he was in great danger of being just another flattened opponent in the tidal wave of fury that Trinidad seemed to crash onto the beach head of his opposition.

At that point the 36 year old Hopkins was already twelve years into his career. Fourteen title defenses were tagged to his name and he'd garnered a hard earned respectability from being the man who just wouldn't go away. In the eyes of many fans, and as Hopkins himself would argue, in the eyes of the boxing establishment, Trinidad was the guy who would make the loud mouthed, hard bargaining "Executioner" finally go away.

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by Jeff Pryor

In a sport where there is no longterm mandatory schedule, where we don't get to see Pacquiao vs. Mayweather, where the best may never fight the best, and where often times a win or a loss comes down to the opinions of three spectators, (and rarely a Sergio Martinez left hand or a Marquez laser combination), very often the fans are left to interpret the facts themselves to figure out who is good, who is bad and who is living on borrowed time in the sport of boxing.

Celestino Caballero's recent upset loss to unranked hard luck Jason Litzau, is only the latest in a long line of highly touted fighters turning out to be pugilistic smoke and mirrors. Caballero had been listed on many pound for pound lists and facing Litzau "The American Boy", was supposed to be a "man vs. boy" proposition for the Panamanian pugilist. Instead Caballero looked amaturish at times, unable to cope with someone his own height, and seemingly lacking fundamental balance and technique, without his customary size advantage to cover his deficiencies. The type of fighter that sits amongst the sports elite wouldn't step into the ring until later that night when Juan Manual Marquez put on his stirring performance against Michael Katsidis.

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Michael Nelson takes a look at how 160lb Champion Sergio Martinez stacks up head to head against Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, James Kirkland, Felix Sturm & Sergiy Dzinziruk.

The reaction to a fighter coming off a knockout over someone perceived to be impossible to knockout is always intriguing. We're so accustomed to seeing twelve round decisions, it's a shock to the system. So when Sergio Martinez rendered Paul Williams completely unconscious, he trounced our expectations so thoroughly that we were forced to reconsider how good this guy actually is, and how much he can achieve in the sport.

But since Martinez has nearly as many decisions as he does knockouts on his resume, can it simply be a case of a careless fighter running into a perfect punch? We already knew from his unofficial KO over Kermit Cintron that Sergio's power was respectable enough. Tinkering with his estimated ceiling too much may be lazy and reactionary.

If nothing else though, he reconfirmed that he has a complete skillset that is difficult to defeat. How difficult? Let's take a look.

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Michael Nelson takes a look at how Juan Manuel Lopez stacks up head to head against a few of the world's best featherweights.

After a fantastic bout with Rafael Marquez, the intrigue in how Juan Manuel Lopez would do against other elite featherweights exploded. Nothing much was learned last Saturday - his strengths and weaknesses both resonated loudly during the eight round slugfest. What was made violently clear is that we need to see more of him against the best of his peers - ones with a bit less ring wear than the Mexican icon he defeated.

Lopez may have iffy whiskers, but he's clearly a difficult man to knock out. He made that known a year ago when he stayed upright on wobbly legs for nearly three minutes during the hellacious final round against Roger Mtagwa. And he reaffirmed his steely resiliency by surviving some scary moments against Marquez. It's relatively easy for good punchers to hurt him, but taking him from hurt to unconscious is another feat altogether.

That resiliency will (hopefully) be put to the test in the near future, as prime punchers who present stylistic challenges are standing in the path of his ascent towards stardom. Let's take a look at how he matches up with some of his featherweight adversaries.

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With the Manny Pacquiao vs Antonio Margarito extravaganza just around the corner, we decided to do something a little different at The Boxing Bulletin and invited a few of the sport's leading bloggers to share their views on the controversial fight in a round table style discussion.

Our group of bloggers includes:  Scott Christ (Bad Left Hook), Carlos Acevedo (The Cruelest Sport), Tim Starks (The Queensbury Rules), Andrew Harrison (Safe Side of the Ropes), and our own Corey Erdman and Anthony Wilson.

Let's get to it...

How did you feel about the fight when the match-up was originally signed. Has your stance changed at all with November 13 quickly approaching? If so, why?

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Patrick Connor takes a look at the ideas recently voiced by Oscar de la Hoya regarding what the Golden Boy Promotions president feels is the best business model for the future of the sport.  For more from Patrick, check out his blog: Violent Meditation

Few sports exhibit the same cutthroat business model of boxing. Perhaps the solitary nature of the sport compounds the ruthlessness, but in fact most other sports seem to emphasize, at least on the surface, creating and maintaining a level field of play - salary caps, conduct policies, universal governing organizations, etc.

Boxing has always operated under the guidance of its own Golden Rule: he who has the gold greases the palms of those who make the rules.

However, Golden Boy Promotions' president Oscar de la Hoya is apparently looking to reform that idea.

In a September 27 interview with Broadcasting & Cable, de la Hoya ruffled quite a few feathers by claiming the sport would be much better off with Golden Boy Promotions as the sole promoter and distributor of boxing, directly referencing and praising the business model of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and what it has done for mixed martial arts.

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Patrick Connor takes a look at the career of Wladimir Klitschko and examines why not all fans have taken to the current heavyweight champion.  For more from Patrick, check out his blog: Violent Meditation

Any fighter hoping to earn mention among heavyweight greats from yesteryear is met with critical eyes, and must endure likely unfair comparisons to former champions and contenders.

Many of the most famous fighters in boxing cut their teeth in the heavyweight division. And until the wave of popularity currently driving mixed martial arts rolled into town, the Heavyweight Champion of the World (especially when there was only one) was the consensus "baddest man on the planet."

Lennox Lewis, for example, was plagued by such comparisons throughout his respectable career. It didn't help that he had the personality of a wet shoe, and settled into a more cautious and safety-first style before retiring in February 2004. Aside from that though, he was unlucky enough to succeed more exciting and famous American champs Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, among a number of other belt-holders generally glossed over by boxing historians.

Whether or not the big men of yore were actually better fighters worthy of the nostalgic invincibility is of course fairly subjective, though the overall toughness of the division in particular eras isn't quite as difficult to determine.

Current unified heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko finds himself in the unfortunate position of dominating what is potentially the worst heavyweight division ever.

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Jason Karp reflects upon his experiences watching Jean Pascal claim the light-heavyweight crown from Chad Dawson last Saturday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

It was a little past seven when I made my way into the Bell Centre. The first of the opening bout's contestants was only beginning his march towards the ring as I took my seat in the first row of the arena's lower bowl, so I knew I had not missed any action. But that was of little importance. Indeed, the scheduled under card promised to be a dull affair, even by boxing's standards, with a roster comprised of the walking dead lined up for a selection of Quebecois prospects to feast on. Even had the fight card harboured potential for early-evening entertainment, it would have made no difference. That's not what I was here for.

In John Keats's Romantic classic "An Ode to a Grecian Urn," the narrator meditates on a vase upon which is engraved the image of two lovers in playful pursuit. The lovers, arms extended toward each other, inches from contact, are frozen in place for eternity, forever on the brink of realizing the other's touch, but forever falling just short. For Keats, the urn represented a powerful truth: if indulgence is the death of desire, then it's in the moment of anticipation that the fire burns brightest.

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