They said Calzaghe landed two hundred and something punches. Which is absolutely absurd if you watch the fight. You’re not out working anyone when you’re shadow slapping the air for twelve rounds. You can’t give a fighter points for simply moving.
Nonsense. Hopkins did the same thing against Jones in the second fight. Was he losing that fight as well?
I think Ward did what Calzaghe did, and head to head Roy Jones was the best super middle. Calzaghe has an argument, but my point was calling him the ‘king’ indicates that guy has no objectivity when it comes to talking about Calzaghe.
In the post match interview Calzaghe himself is surprised that compubox had him landing that many ‘punches’, he is bloodied and emphasising how difficult the fight was for him. His Dad knew he lost, no doubt about that.
What I don’t understand is why people are commenting on this fight when they haven’t rewatched it since it happened. That’s the point of this thread, I went back and looked at it again. It wasn’t what I remembered, which is understandable since it was over ten years ago and we all have biases when watching a fight with active fighters. Still plenty of talk about Calzaghe outworking Hopkins, yet still no analysis of rounds where this allegedly happened. Unless you’re watching closely you think Calzaghe is landing those flurries (due to crowd cheering, compubox and commentators calling punches as landing that miss - classic HBO/Lampley).
I'll bite. I scored rounds 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, and 12 for Calzaghe. Final score for me was 114-113 for Bernard, but I still thought the verdict was fair and reasonable. What amazed me (and impressed me) most about Calzaghe that night is he out-Hopkins'd Hopkins. More often than not, Hopkins usually outhustled foes in the later rounds at this stage in his career - even in the two controversial losses with Taylor - Hopkins was still outworking and outhustling Jermain during most of the late rounds. But Calzaghe was the one actually outworking Hopkins down the stretch. It's a vastly underrated fight IMO, where two skilled technicians played a game of tactical chess with multiple adjustments and counter-adjustments from each boxer.
Thanks for the response. I’ll probably do this one round at a time. Gives everyone a chance and no excuse not to look at at least one round. Round Five - Clean punches landed Hopkins 4-2. Calzaghe’s two landed punches weren’t as clean either, Calzaghe glances a straight left in the second minute when Hopkins is against the ropes, and then a slapping right at the end when Hopkins is bent over. I’ll give time stamps for punches when/if there are any responses.
it is arguably though, isnt it, Kessler is the other option, theres no other good opponent in his career to compare to kessler and 43 year old hopkins. Reid, Lacy and Bika come closest, but are an awful long way behind.
Too painful for me to re-watch. Sloppy shooting from Joe & Playing Possum from Hop. I scored it for Joe because he was the friggin energizer bunny, kept throwing & throwing...at one point it looked like he was trying to hit some bongos or percussion the shots were so comical looking. I will take your word for it though, as I just can't re-watch it.
I am happy to score it either way, either a draw, or a marginal win for 43 year old hopkins or for calzaghe, which shows I am not being biased. but if I had to plump for one, it would be cowardzaghe because hopkins lost his workrate due to gassing out at 43 that he would have easily handled in his prime. I am glad that Joe decided to cheat to not get knocked out, as a ko loss in round 2 to a 43 year old who had lost his KO power, would have meant that his entire career was relatively worthless. His chin and skills would have been exposed as less than world class. On other hand if had ended in round 2 as it would have without joe cheating, then Hopkins wouldnt of course have gassed out to allow joe to claw it back. But Joe would be more respected for at least trying to face someone good without cheating.
This. I remember one thing, Hop goading him to come at him around 11th round (after a flurry from Joe)...it was like he knew he couldn't outwork him, so he had to goad him in, hopefully to clinch him up!
Watched it the the treadmill the other day with music in my ears as opposed to the commentary. I had Joe by a couple.
A fight where you land almost no meaningful punches cannot not be your best win, regardless of who you are facing. Calzaghe had a great career and was a great fighter. He looked like absolute trash vs Hopkins.