Why did Hopkins not move up sooner?

Alot of this had to do with Hopkins refusal to work with promoters. It wasnt until he used his IBF belt as leverage that he could get a fair deal with King because King thought Trinidad could beat him.

 

I'm spamming the thread, and for that I apologise. But I was sick of all the same old stories of Hopkins being the white knight of boxing, and Calzaghe just being a shameful ducker who lived off his bogus belt in the arse end of Britain.
It is clearly not the full story, as the (primary source) links I posted seem to show.

(also to show that Bodhi is an idiot and that Ottke was just an arsehole.)

 

To be fair Calzaghe did claim to be scared of flying for years as his reason not to flight the big fights in the US but flew out to the West Indies after 1 of his fights to celebrate His phobia also evaporated when he got to fight a 39yo Jones and 43yo Hopkins

 

Calzahge is 100% more to blame for his bogus title defenses than Hopkins. There is no disputing that. Hopkins was at least redefining history not making title defenses against mid western corn farmers.

 

I know all these stories, but I've posted links where he confirms he wants to fight Hopkins, Joppy, Johnson and Jones back in the early 2000s, so there's obviously more to the stories than Calzaghe just being a shameless ducker.

 

The truly terrible ones were either mandatorys, or late replacements. He didn't want to lose his belt, as it was his money maker, and there wasn't much he could do about more respectable fighters pulling out. His competition was absolutely **** poor though, I don't dispute that, but that's not why I'm posting all the links. It's to show that it wasn't just one way traffic.

 

There's usually always more reasons to fights happening than just 'ducking'. But Calzaghe was pretty reluctant, pulling out of 3 dates with Glen Johnson and he actually wanted according to his dad to pull out of the Lacy fight. If that happened Calzaghe would be a remembered as an utter joke. His comp from 2002-2006, Mitchell aside, was terrible while there were lots of decent 168lber who wanted a shot at him

 

He had 2mandos in 10years, not really much of an excuse that 1. Then he was supposed to face the winner of Echols-Brewer yet faced Brewer who got starched in 2 rounds

 

I dont blame Joe as much as ******, he must of had a spell on Joe to keep him doing what he was doing.
Frank W A R R E N that is

 

Aye fair play with that one. You have me stumped. But as I said, I'm not defending Calzaghe, I'm just trying to negate some of the pish that is talked on here, on a regular occasion - and it's usually some trendy **** just taking the opportunity to suck the balls of Hopkins that little bit more by bashing Calzaghe.

 

I've just watched that Brewer Echols fight, it's really entertaining
Bit of a dodgy stoppage too actually, Brewer was hurt, but Echols was given the benefit of the doubt in the 2nd round when he was down 3 times.

 

Back injury with Johnson, first time, other times Johnson priced himself out. The Lacy fight, it was an injury delay too, but I too have read about the confidence issues Calzaghe had and that sort of ****.

 

I think plenty of boxers think 'why fight hard fights, when I can make the same money fighting easy fights? The public won't know any different'. Then they think 'Well I would like to fight the big glorious fights but wait....I'm doing it unless I get paid 3-5 times my usual rate, plus I'm not fighting that risky fight if I have a chance to make an extra 50% in another 50-50' - and that's why fights don't happen. Fighters who haven't lost may also be a bit more cautious, fearing losing, not wanting to feel that first loss.

 

Oh, yeah because he fought only wws. And he took the shortend against DLH for two reasons, he knew what would follow - Golden Boy Promotions - and he had no quarrel with DLH. But he had with Jones, that was personal. And you f*cking know it too. The only reason you are argueing here is to let your man look better, f*ck that, be fair. Both were idiots for not making that fight happen then.

Jones knew that the Germans couldn´t get up with 12 millions due to their TV deal as Hopkins knew that DM couldn´t come down to 168. Neither one wanted to risk his reputation against an unknown but dangerous fighter for rather meager money. Understandable. I can excuse Hopkins more because he didn´t fight at the same weightclass as DM. Jones did and Jones was the number one challenger to DM´s title. So, while I fault both, DM and Jones for not making this fight happen, Jones is more to blame. Avoiding the champ isn´t something you should do.

That´s my opinion, you don´t like it? Not my problem.

DM was stripped because he didn´t defend his belt what 10 days, 12 days after he won it. And the WBC lost Jones´case in courtroom. No debating this, mate.

I think a bit after the Tito loss. That was also when he started having trouble making weight. I think coming down so low against DLH speeded that all up a bit.

True. That would be all harder if the best would have to fight each other to get belts though.