Mayweather W 37 (24 ko’s) L 0 D 0
Hopkins W 47 (32 ko’s) L 4 D 1
Hopkins defended his middleweight title successfully many times, and re-unifed the division for the first time since Marvin Hagler. He then, recently, moved up a weight class to take on the talented light heavyweight champion Tarver, and won.
His first championship fight was against Roy Jones Jr., often considered one of the top fighters of his generation, and fought him to a 12th round decision, which he lost.
He fought through the "middle weight unification tournament" and then beat Trinidad in a knockout. He knocked out Oscar de la Hoya in their big matchup. The first loss for both of these fighters.
He defended his title 20 times. He went undefeated from 1993 to 2005.
What was your boy doing in that time frame? According to the article sighted below
"From 1996 to early 1998, Mayweather fought against relatively easy opponents and won most of the fights by knockout or TKO. The most notable of these fights was a unanimous decision victory over former IBO lightweight champion Tony Pep on June 14, 1998."
Maybe Hopkins is past his prime, the retirement question was not rhetorical. But I'm not convinced that Mayweather is yet his equal.
RING agrees with you, by the way: they rank Mayweather #1 pound-for-pound, and Hopkins #7.
I just tend to favor boxers in the heavier classes, and the middleweight class has had a lot of great champions. Here's a fun site that matches up Hagler with all of them, including Bob Fitzsimmons, Jake LaMotta, and Sugar Ray Robinson.
In a similar article below one commentater suggests that Hopkins would have beat all of them except perhaps Sugar Ray Robinson, who he would be evenly matched with.
Bernard Hopkins, greatest middleweight ever?
BernardHopkins story on wikipedia
This article makes the case for Carlos Morzon as the greatest middleweight of all time, but has a lot to say about Hopkins.
Will people really put Mayweather in the all-time-greats in his weight class?
We'll know more after tonight, that's for sure.