Boxing knowledge is dangerous...

There are a few reasonably regarded posters, trainers who are picking Hopkins. Why? Because they have boxing knowledge.

They can see that Hopkins is an expert boxer, with textbook defence and offence. They also know that a lot of Calzaghe's moves are not textbook. So with their knowledge in mind they end up picking Hopkins to expoit the quirks in Calzaghe's style.

Having a decent level of boxing knowledge is pretty useless however when you ignore all else. Many wild chimpazees whom have never seen a boxing match will tell you a 42+ year old will not win against an exceptional fighter.

And whilst A beat B so C beats B is never perfect, it is pretty safe to assume Calzaghe will beat the man who was more or less equally matched with Taylor.

The persons whos boxing knowledge will cost them the most though is Bernard Hopkins. He has studied Calzaghe, spotted a few potential weaknessess and told himself he can exploit Calzaghe. Even Bernard Hopkins has ignored the simple child-like logic that could have saved him from the worst night of his career. Still though, he'll take a nice pay-check and will be able to enjoy his retirement.

Anyway. If everyone on this board had zero boxing knowledge they would all pick Calzaghe, based on the age difference and they would all be right. This fight will demonstrate that boxing knowledge applied out of context and where it is irrelevant is useless.

The only reason Joe Calzaghe is not considered the best fighter of all time is boxing knowledge. Simple logic tells us he is. I sincerely hope you all realise this on Sunday.

 

There are also the people that would pick Hopkins based on their location.