Who is the greater fighter? Hopkins or Calzaghe?

[skier47]

Originally Posted by cuchulain

As a Calzaghe fan, I have no doubts that Hopkins is the greater boxer of the two.

And that shouldn't even be up for debate.

Well if that's the case why did Hopkins duck a prime Calzaghe? Also, why did Hopkins lose to Joe when they fought in Hopkins backyard? Joe not only outfought Hopkins he humiliated him forcing him to cry and beg for rest periods from the ref. The guy ran from Joe when they were in their respective primes for a career high payday and international recognition and was beaten and humiliated by Joe when they were both older, but still awesome fighters. Simple logic and a unbiased look at the facts show Joe Calzaghe the better boxer of the two. I don't care how many fighters Hopkins beats nowadays. None of them are Joe Calzaghe with his unique skillset. Pascal, for instance looked to me that he could hardly box. Barely threw any jabs, wild looping punches like something out of a John Wayne movie. Joe would pick that guy apart just like he did Lacy although Lacy had better fundamentals than Pascal.

[bailey]

Calzaghe.

Remember Hopkins doesnt have any wins as good on his resume as Eubank and undefeated Kessler and Calzaghe also has the win over Hopkins

[zenek2]

Originally Posted by Gained

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Calzaghe took Hopkins back to the pen, made lil Baby B his bitch

calzaghe moved up a division to beat the lineal champ.

p.s why is it that whenever there is a fight concerning hopkins calzaghe is constantly brought up? will you people ever get over it?

Has anyone ever treated Hopkins like a bitch in the ring like Calzaghe did, simulating anal rape?

I didn't think so - Hopkins would never allow someone to do that to him even in jest - he's too proud - Calzaghe was stronger than him. deal with it. no matter what over compensating bhop and his fans do post calzaghe,he simply was unable to do any better than kabary salem did against him.calzaghe beat him at his own game oh his own soil in his division.

you can clearly see on that movie hopkins saw that calzaghe is going to hit him again in the head so he just bend over and said to himself "fuck it, just do what u must joe".

[KillSomething]

hopkins greater, calzaghe better.

[Exposed]

Originally Posted by Gained

-you were there on the press row wrere you? hopkins did no better against calzaghe than kabary salem did i listened to it on bbc radio five live and they all had calzaghe a winner,when i watched it i could'nt see what the fuss was about quite frankly

- calzaghes corner did not think they lost it,however with such an uncomfortable fight on american soil you could see why there would be a few nerves..

-veit was a mandatory you goon,and why would he rematch hopkins? he lost deal with it,there was no rematch clause.

-hopkins fought no one during his mw reign except 2 former ww's and howard eastman your posting suggests you are incredibly embittered for some reason! did you see ward vs bika

-the reid fight was no gift,it was a good domestic scrap. its no worse than recieving a gift draw against segunda mercado (a fight in which he was floored twice) in his 29th pro fight

-the roy jones comment leaves me speechless what fights were you watching? a 37 year old el slappo made roy jones look a jam sandwich.

- lets quote nigel benn:


benn is convinced Joe Calzaghe would have bashed up all the super middleweights in the 90s golden era.

Former WBC champion Benn led the British assault on the world’s 12-stone division along with Chris Eubank, Steve Collins and Michael Watson.

But Benn says Calzaghe, who bids to unify the IBF and WBO titles when he fights American Jeff Lacy in the early hours of Sunday morning, would have more than held his own.

Benn, now living in Majorca, said: “I’d have loved to have fought Joe.

“I reckon he’d have given all of us a good going over. He is as good as we were, but the shame is he’s had no one really to test himself against.

“It will be different this weekend because I rate Lacy.

“He has fast hands and packs a heavy punch but his chin has yet to be tested — Joe will do that.

“Lacy reckons Joe’s a slapper in the ring but I can tell you that Joe’s slaps hurt.

“Joe craves respect but you only get that by beating the best. Don’t get me wrong, I rate Joe highly, he’s without doubt the best but I wish he’d been busier.

“The occasional fighter has had a good go at Joe and it’s in these bouts Joe has shown his outstanding boxing ability and finished them off with the killer instinct of a top, top performer.

“It’ll be good to see Joe in with a real livewire and I believe it will be a real ******* of a fight — one of the best for years.”

Calzaghe was due to fight Lacy last year but it was postponed when he damaged a hand.

Hand and elbow injuries have dogged 32-year-old Calzaghe’s career, restricting him to six bouts in the past three years.


Some say those injuries have helped prolong unbeaten Calzaghe’s career but Benn would have liked to have seen him in action a lot more.

Benn, 42, added: “In my time, Joe would hardly have had time to draw breath.

“If it was not me, Eubank would have been at the top of the queue and then Collins, backed up by Watson.

“If he didn’t fancy any of us Brits, then the Yanks would have been willing to give him a pay day, fighters like Iran Barkley.

“When Joe beats Lacy, people will say they always knew he could fight like that — only it should have been more often. One of them will go down, that’s for sure.

“I am predicting a real hammer and tongs fight, toe to toe because Joe wants respect and Lacy ain’t gonna give it to him for free.”




LETS QUOTE SUGAR RAY LEONARD:

For the American, ringside in a 30,018 crowd, Calzaghe has done enough to join him in the pantheon of greats.

"Joe has got great punching power and has all the attributes you need," said Leonard.
"He would have held his own against all the greats I fought, like Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns. And he would hold his own with the others like Bernard Hopkins.
"He has the talent and heart and will be the undisputed champion."

MANNY STEWARD,NAZ RICHARDSON ETC ALL CONCEDE TO CALZAGHES GREATNESS. BUT LETS LISTEN TO EXPOSED INSTEAD

Spoken like a true nuthugger

BBC News Sports (Ben Dirs) scored the fight for Hopkins, posted directly the on BBC News site. Who did you listen to on the radio? Confused with Setanta? (One scored a fight a draw, the other Calzaghe).

- Quoting random fighter opinions is meaningless. I do find it funny you want to mention Manny Steward and Nazim Richardson. Manny holds Hopkins in much higher regard than Calzaghe. And Richardson, Hopkins trainer, explained (and proved) how Hopkins improved under him than from Hopkins time with Freddie Roach. If your dumbass wants to reference Nazim Richardson's praise for Calzaghe, then recognize also the fact he was confident Hopkins would beat him in a rematch

- Roy Jones fight made you speechless? What, the fact that Calzaghe hit the canvas and couldn't hurt Jones? Meanwhile Tarver, Johnson, Green, etc.. (and the list keeps growing ) all demolished Jones inside the distance without much effort.

- You obviously don't know boxing if you dare criticize Hopkins resume of oppnents. Hopkins fought top ten middleweights and light heavyweights his whole career, the first and only man to stop Glen Johnson while Calzaghe struggled with the likes of Reid lol: (who should have won that fight).

[Joe.Boxer]

Originally Posted by Exposed

Let's break it down:

- Calzaghe did not "comfortably" win against Hopkins. He was knocked down and hurt, while never once hurting Hopkins. Hopkins landed the crisper, cleaner punches. Calzaghe threw nothing but powerless flurries. The majority of press row scoring (including the BBC ) had Hopkins winning.

- Calzaghe's corner thought they lost the fight before the scores were announced. You could even see it in thier faces.

- Calzaghe refused to give Hopkins a rematch even in his own backyard. Golden Boy even offered a VERY lucrative amount for a Calzaghe-Hopkins match in Wales, not long into his "retirement". Calzaghe refused, acknowledging full well he would be risking his "0" in a second fight with Hopkins. Ironically, he had no probably giving bums like Veit a rematch.

- Calzaghe fought no one of note during his minor WBO reign, refusing to fight for any of the major world title belts. The only exceptions were Lacy, who turned out to be a bum, and Kessler, who was later embarrased by Ward. (Hey, according to Brit logic, Ward's legacy skyrocketed with his win )

- Was given a gift decision against Reid, a no namer who went on to be nothing special. Refused to give rematch. Interesting pattern how he refuses to give fighters rematches that give him trouble, yet fights a bum like Veit twice .

- Out of all the people who beat a faded Roy Jones, Calzaghe struggled the most.

The only people who regard Calzaghe as "great" are his blind fans. Not even the British press rates Calzaghe very high. This is especially amusingly clear on this very forum.

An exceptionally bad post which is either trolling or written by a retard.

Biased to the rim, full of blatant revisionism, obvious fallacies, and of course extremely poor judgement. Just a pile of shite really, not unlike britsillyfanny's posts.

[cuchulain]

Originally Posted by skier47

Well if that's the case why did Hopkins duck a prime Calzaghe? Also, why did Hopkins lose to Joe when they fought in Hopkins backyard? Joe not only outfought Hopkins he humiliated him forcing him to cry and beg for rest periods from the ref. The guy ran from Joe when they were in their respective primes for a career high payday and international recognition and was beaten and humiliated by Joe when they were both older, but still awesome fighters. Simple logic and a unbiased look at the facts show Joe Calzaghe the better boxer of the two. I don't care how many fighters Hopkins beats nowadays. None of them are Joe Calzaghe with his unique skillset. Pascal, for instance looked to me that he could hardly box. Barely threw any jabs, wild looping punches like something out of a John Wayne movie. Joe would pick that guy apart just like he did Lacy although Lacy had better fundamentals than Pascal.

I would agree that head to head, Joe would always be more than a match for Bernard at 168 or 175.

In fact, I have made a couple of lengthy posts detailing how Bernard ducked Joe in 2002 (because he was greedy, not scared) and I have also definitively shown that Joe clearly beat Bernard by a good margin when they finally did fight.


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By greater, I mean Bernard's total resume was better. Now as of the date of their bout, I would rank them close to equal, maybe even rank Joe slightly ahead.

But given Bernard's age and what he has done since, I have to accord him a significant amount of 'greatness' for what he actually did accomplish.

Perhaps Joe could have done better if thye fights had been there. He ducked nobody that I know of. And he beat everyone he faced. First time.

I rank him highly, and that ranking goes up with Bernard's recent achievement when folks said he was well past it when he faced Joe.


I rank Marciano as five or six alltime in my HW ratings. And Vitali scrapes the bottom of my top 20.

But head to head, I see Vitali as almost certainly prevailing in this hypothetical.

h2h is different from overall greatness.

Therefore, I rank Bernard higher in terms of overall greatness.

[Monstar]

...is this a serious question?

[Exposed]

Originally Posted by Joe.Boxer

An exceptionally bad post which is either trolling or written by a retard.

Biased to the rim, full of blatant revisionism, obvious fallacies, and of course extremely poor judgement. Just a pile of shite really, not unlike britsillyfanny's posts.

Let me guess...you're British.

No wonder my post struck a nerve, a post you had no answer for other than that silly dribble.

[happylora]

If Calzaghe had spent as long as Hop fighting at the highest level he might well have won my vote, but too many wasted years.

[Lance_Uppercut]

There mere fact that Ottke was making virtually the EXACT same run on title defenses, but with two higher regarded belts, then Joe kinda makes BOTH Ottke's and Joe's strings of defenses come into question.

Kinda sucks for Joe, since that's kinda his bread and butter of accvomplishments. That and beating two old Americans that even most Joe C Fanboys don't think highly of.

[trampie]

Calzaghe beats Hopkins head to head at any stage of their careers, Hopkins agreed to fight Calzaghe back in the day but asked for double the money the next day after finding out how good Calzaghe was.

[Lance_Uppercut]

Originally Posted by trampie

Calzaghe beats Hopkins head to head at any stage of their careers, Hopkins agreed to fight Calzaghe back in the day but asked for double the money the next day after finding out how good Calzaghe was.

Oh man..only kids say stuiff this dumb. You are badically suggesting, Hopkins signed to fight NO KNOWING AT ALL how good Joe C really was? Then all of a sudden FOUND OUT and then asked for double.

Wow...hopefully you seeing how that really sounds, you will realize it's just bullshit.

[bailey]

Originally Posted by Lance_Uppercut

There mere fact that Ottke was making virtually the EXACT same run on title defenses, but with two higher regarded belts, then Joe kinda makes BOTH Ottke's and Joe's strings of defenses come into question.

Kinda sucks for Joe, since that's kinda his bread and butter of accvomplishments. That and beating two old Americans that even most Joe C Fanboys don't think highly of.

That wasnt all of Calzaghes career twat .
I know how stupid you are so wont waste too much time on a pussy like you, but Hopkins doesnt have any better wins than Eubank and undefeated Kessler, not to mention Calzaghe has a win over Hopkins also.
America has to accept that Calzaghe beat Hopkins, Jones and Americas 2 best SMWs of the decade. That also goes for people like you that America wanted to put land between

[PFG]

Tbh, it's laughable this is even at debate. Calzaghe has fought very little in the way of quality opposition.
I'm not much of a fan of Hopkins, but he cemented himself a legacy much greater than Calzaghe's.