Bernard Hopkins ...

If I was ref, I wouldn't settle for any nonsense from Mary

When I see his old ass wading in with the head he gets a warning, followed by points

 

The only thing that actually worries me about this fight is the ref and the judges, although the latter not so much as JC should make this irrelevant!

 

Hopkins gets away with his tactics because psychologically he is one step ahead of the ref, not because the ref is bought off.

 

Even if he does fight dirty all he can do is make Joe & himself look bad, he'll still lose.

 

In what way?

 

Good question.

I think the Mikkel Kessler fight shows a good way of beating Calzaghe, ie when he tries throwing in volume just keep a cool head and throw one or two well-timed right hands, because when he gets all slappy he's vulnerable to a right-hand straight down the pipe.

He had Calzaghe hurt 3 or 4 times in that fight from doing that, except Calzaghe had the experience to change up and apply different tactics. Thats what great champions do, and Joe Calzaghe is a great champion. Once Calzaghe started boxing, using his own jab beating Kessler to it, moving in and out of range he took control of the fight. Kessler was too inexperienced to adapt and thus got outpointed.

Hopkins does not lack experience. Joe will go in there thinking "This guy is old, I can throw 1000+ punches in a fight Hopkins wont be able to match that" and so he'll try overwhelming Hopkins. However, Hopkins can do the same as Kessler and land those counters, and unlike Kessler Hopkins is vastly experienced and will be able to adapt later in the fight. He's the smartest technician of the last 15-20 years I think.

Also, like the thread starter pointed out, Calzaghe has problems against dirty, rough-house fighters. They smother him and lower his punch output. Hopkins is a MASTER at this game and that may well suit his advantage.

I still favour Calzaghe, and rightly so, but people who are writing off Hopkins aren't looking at this fight properly. Hopkins, even 10 years past his prime, is a real challenge for Joe.

 

Also, if there was so much as a spot of blood on Joe I would be tempted to take points off Hopkins

One must assume it was a headbutt in these cases

 

Grossly overrated? :rofl Everything else up to that point was good, then you ruined it :-(