Bernard Hopkins 2001 vs. Joe Calzaghe prime, who wins this fight?

You're gunna hate me Popkins! I was going to say that in your post above (post 13), if you change the word 'B-Hop' to Mayweather, and the word 'Calzaghe' to Pacquiao, does the statement still stand?

 

Nah, it's just because I like B-Hop and very much respect his performances at aged 40+.

 

Hopkins - tko 10

 

Not for me, no. I view Pacquiao as a vastly superior fighter to Calzaghe, and thus the gulf between Pacquiao and Mayweather is not as big as it is between Hopkins and Calzaghe. I think Freddie Roach would provide Pacquiao with the right gameplan, and I believe Pacquiao has the physical and mental tools to pull it off. I do not believe Calzaghe has the boxing fundamentals to compete with a prime version of Bernard Hopkins. Pacquiao is a physical phenomenon, and Calzaghe is an artisan. That's just my take on it though.

 

:good Forgive me for my rare (i hope) moment of trolling madness

 

:deal

 

As for this fight, Calzaghe really pissed away his prime and should of been jumping in the deep end at this stage of his career. A 2001 Joe probably best combines his physical and technical abilities, I really think a 2006-2008 had deteriated significantly

Hopkins too a far different fighter, far more speed, and still had more ferocity in his heart and could work hard for 12rounds

The way I see it though is, Calzaghe would always struggle with Hopkins superior skill as we saw in their fight. But Hopkins in turn would always have a fewproblems with the hand and footspeed of Joe, which is why he was a negative counter puncher who spoiled as opposed to the Sugar Ray Leonardesque performance against Pavlik months late.

I thought Hopkins won their fight on rounds, but I don't think anyone truely deserved to win that night. I think Hopkins wins a bit more convincingly here but it maybe equally close

 

It does indeed seem logical to deduce that Calzaghe was prime around 2001, but if you actually watch his fights the evidence doesn't really bear this out, as far as I can see. The Calzaghe of the late 90s/early 00s struggled horribly with the mediocre Robin Reid, so I doubt that guy could've outthought and outfought a prime Kessler. Calzaghe learned a lot with experience, for me the 2006-7 version was a much smarter, much more adaptable, stronger and more seasoned fighter. Neither version possesses the skills to trouble a peak Hopkins though. JMO.

 

When we're saying mediocre are we meaning not great? Because Robin Reid wasn't great but he was contender level.

 

He was top 10 in an insanely **** division. Don't forget - Reid got UD'd in his next fight by Silvio Branco, and before he even fought Joe he had already been UD'd by the fossilized remains of Sugarboy Malinga. To get an SD over him in between those two fights is nothing to shout about as I see it.

 

Yeah it's nothing special, like i said he's not great, still contender level though, I still think he'd win and lose in most eras, even in today's which is good. I just thought mediocre was a bit much personally.

 

Their actual fight was so ugly I can't bring myself to try and analyse this one. Too painful to think about.