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

I have B-Hop's career set, and I can confidently say that his prime was approximately 1996-2002, with his absolute peak years from 1997-2001. The three best performances of his career were Trinidad (01), Echols II (00) and G Johnson (97). I believe that anyone who has seen all of Bernard's world title fights would agree completely with this.

By 2003-4, B-Hop was slowing down and his power was on the wane, the evidence in his rather tentative and toothless performance against De La Hoya. By 2005, it was patently obvious he had declined quite significantly, as he couldn't fight flat-out for 12 rounds against Taylor either time, having to conserve energy and fight in bursts, and losing on the cards because Taylor was active and busy throughout. Since then, Hopkins has won against fighters who let him fight at his own pace (Pascal, Tarver, Pavlik) and has not got the decision against fighters who force the pace (Taylor, Calzaghe). This is due to his very natural and very obvious 40+ stamina issues.

The Hopkins of 96-02 had no stamina issues, had much better punching power, was faster and more mobile around the ring, more poised (ie no staggering forward clutching for his opponent to smother him), had better reflexes and reactions, and was just an all-round superior fighter in pretty much every way. I don't see anything from Bernard now that makes me think he is a much better ring general or technician than he was when he was 'executing' Trinidad and the underrated Keith Holmes back in 00-01. Hopkins was 35-36 by then, and had been a world champion for 5-6 years, he was already a boxing virtuoso.

 

Oops, someone left the door open and an imbecile has slipped in to the Classic. :rofl

 

A nearly retired Joe Calzaghe 75% prime at best beat a 95% prime Hopkins in Hopkins own backyard, read it and weep.

 

OK that's a fair opinion but IMO I think Calzage would handle that version much easier than the more savvy older version. Speed and strength would be a factor and I think Calzage's pace would be too much for that Hopkins.

 

I read it and laughed, no weeping occurred at any stage.

 

:huh Even though that version of Hopkins was faster of hand and foot, and had much better stamina and energy/activity levels?

Your opinion is illogical.

 

Well neither fighter were in their prime at the time they both fought but considering that Joe was closer to his and the fight was pretty much up in the air, I'd wager to say Hopkins would win more decisively than he did.

Joe is a great fighter but he's not Bernard Hopkins nor could be beat him.

 

Such use of sound logic and reasoning will get you run off this website at this rate.

(see "Trampie" comments above)

 

Hopkins used to beat up on lightweights and welterweights, Calzaghe used to beat up on fully fledged career super middleweights who were multiple belts holders and undefeated fighters, that is why Calzaghe went into that fight with Hopkins, {away from home mind you and making his debut at Light Heavyweight unlike Hopkins} with Calzaghe being the big odds on to win favourite with the bookmakers, they thought having weighed things up that Calzaghe was going to beat Hopkins because Calzaghe had beaten bigger better fighters than what Hopkins had beaten in their careers, not in a p4p sense but Hopkins had beaten little small men like DLH and Trinidad, Calzaghe had beaten bigger stronger fighters in Kessler {the Viking Warrior}, Lacy {the new Mike Tyson}, Eubank {Simply the Best} etc.

Calzaghe would always have beaten any version of Hopkins, if Hopkins could not beat Calzaghe on the night they fought with everything in Hopkins favour then Hopkins would never ever have beaten Calzaghe {home advantage, home officials, a weight JC had never fought at, JC close to retirement etc} , I watched a tv interview by a local tv station in one of Calzaghe's family houses, they asked Calzaghe's sister what she thought of the fight, she said in so many words that she knew nothing about boxing and only cared that Calzaghe was ok, she said that she had spoken to Joe by phone straight after the fight, the tv reporter wanted to know what Calzaghe said to his sister about the fight, she said that Calzaghe was disappointed, the tv man couldnt believe this and put it to Joe's sister that he had won, she said yes but he had said that he was very disappointed with his performance.

Now that was not boxing bull**** that was a private conversation between a lady who had no interest in boxing and her brother , as somebody that had watched Calzaghe in the amateurs it was one of Calzaghes worst ever performances even taking into consideration the high caliber opponent and Hopkins style.
Calzaghe was already retired in his head, all his career he had been a great trainer but he had started to cut corners for this fight, his hands were already shot and were getting worse and worse with each fight, Hopkins the older man was far closer to being prime than Calzaghe was {truth be said its not even debatable in fact Hopkins is close to his best to this very day}.

Bookmakers are not always right but they are right most of the time their livelyhood depends on it, they could lose millions and millions if they badly price up a fight and they thought there was little chance that Hopkins would win at the time they fought and considering everything was in Hopkins favour when they fought, Calzaghe would have also beaten Hopkins at an earlier stage of their careers as well.

 

The first sentence tells me all I need to know about this post and this poster. :rofl

(nobody tell him that Evans Ashira was a lightmiddleweight or that Peter Manfredo Jr spent the majority of his career at lightmiddle and middle, or that Bernard Hopkins's mw reign included opponents such as Glen Johnson who went on to have success at 175 and 6ft 2in world champ Keith Holmes, conqueror of Richie Woodhall)

 

again, you're making too much sense for calzaghe fans to understand.

 

Calzaghes best wins **** all over Hopkins best wins.
Calzaghe beat Hopkins, Kessler and Lacy.
What are Hopkins best wins most say [reading these forums] Felix Trinidad {career welterwight}. DLH {started out as a super featherweight, progressed to lightweight}, or Pavlik [middleweight].

There is no comparison, Calzaghe's resume is far stronger than Hopkins at the top end, Hopkins does not have the great wins on his card that Calzaghe does.

Hopkins has a padded record, Hopkins often failed to win especially in elite company like against Roy Jones and Joe Calzaghe.

 

Is this ESB or Comedy Central? :huh

 

What are Hopkins greatest ever wins then ?, the great Tarver or the great Pascal perhaps .

I wait with interest to see your list of Hopkins greatest wins, so I can compare it to Calzaghe beating Hopkins, Kessler and Lacy.

 

Log off, log off.......log off, log off

You know i will chase you round the boards for an answer ''Kittikasem'', what are the great Bernard Hopkins three greatest ever wins ?

Hmm....kmac logs out just after kittikasem, strange very strange ?