Why would you Brits insist on inserting Calz and steal the glory out of Ex's superb performance? This is Bernard's victory so give him the respect. F'n 'freeloaders.'
I am not a Brit. Pac is too one dimensional and will be exposed by Oscar. Brutal KO waiting to happen. Joe has shown over and over he can adjust and find a way to win. A mark of a true ATG great. After all he did school the same Hopkins everyone is enamored with.
The bottom line is this. ANY fighter who can continue to fight at an exceptional level when above 40 years of age is a GREAT fighter. Father time IS CALLING loudly. And right now Hopkins is the Micheal Jordan of boxing. BUT this doesnt detract for a minute that Joe wasnt able to handle an aged Hopkins and won a VERY disputable decision. How on earth people can use Hopkins win over Pavlik as a basis for maths in regards to Joe is beyond me. Its ****ing abysmal and just goes to show how shallow most of the posters on ESB are. Prior to Pavlik being beaten he was hailed as the second coming on here. Now that Hopkins does the unthinkable the told you so brigade are in full force. The facts remain PRIME RJJ and Hopkins DESTROY Joe Calzaghe end of story end of thread. For Joe to disillusion himself and his fans that a win over 2 aged fighters has some form of credibility is just garbage. He has NOTHING to win from those fights and everything to loose. When both RJJ and Hopkins were establishing themselves as ATG`s Joe was busy defending the WBO against guys we`d never heard of. It really goes to prove how short the memory of posters on ESB are.
Niether Pac nor JC are the p4p1 and I am a brit. I agree with Scur a prime RJJ beats both hopkins and JC hands down i mean jones proved that a middleweight. Oh yeah and you have mint sauce when you are having a sunday roast . On the subect of p4p I believe marquez is number 1 he goes from losing a disputable decision to pac and responds by ripping away the legitimate 135 title from cassamayor who until marquez had not been koed by anyone.
What an odd, and frankly ****, analysis of the fight. Hopkins wasn't lethargic, he was made to tire by being forced to fight at a pace he wasn't comfortable with for 3 minutes of every round. If he hadn't faked the low blow and taken the full 5 minutes he may well have quit or been stopped such was his exhaustion. The reason JC won was because he was able to do what Pavlik couldn't - take Hopkins out of his comfort zone, double up on the jab and move away from the counter right hand. It was a close fight on the cards, but mainly due to the knockdown. Even those who feel Hopkins edged it only gave it to him by a point - 6 rounds each - and that involved some very dubious interpretations of how to score a fight.
The reason Hopkins was not more active and ready to quit and gassed by the 9th is because of CALZAGHE. Hopkins could not handle Calzaghe in April. The rematch will be even more onesided for Joe. Most people are saying the Pavlik fight was Hopkins best performance so I do not think age is relevant.
No, he wasn't lucky. He out-threw and out-landed Hopkins in virutally every round and forced Hopkins to fight at his pace, which is no mean feat. The most generous (to B-Hop) interpretation of the fight has it 6 rounds each with B-Hop winning by virtue of the knockdown. To score the fight that way you still have to award B-Hop at least 2 rounds by virtue of him not actually landing more than a couple of punches compared to Calzaghe landing regularly, albeit not with any great force.
Personally I thought hopkins performance against tarver at lightheavyweight was more impressive. Because he had been beaten tiwce of taylor and people where writing him off. Don't get me wrong this performance was brilliant but i believe the tarver one had more relivence.
Yeah, i kind of agree. He was moving up after two defeats and people were saying he was done. He then floored and comprehensively beat the man at 175lbs. Whilst last night's performance was excellent, Pavlik hadn't looked as convincing last time he fought above 160lbs and was the man moving up in weight for the fight.
Hopkins win over Pavlik wasn't all that impressive. Alright, it was flashy and looked impressive, especially for a 43yr old, but Pavlik obviously didn't carry his speed, power, or stamina through the weights well. And if like me you never rated Pavlik very highly to begin with then you can see where i'm coming from. For me the win is just slightly more credible than Jones Jr win or Tito.
10lbs was the diffrence. 10 measley lbs. Hopkins once fought at 156 for the Oscar fight. His been as high as 182 inbetween fights. Im pretty sure Pavlik walks around close to that or more. The weight wasnt the issue here. The kid just simply wasnt that good. Theres a big diffrence being able to slug and being able to box. Pavlik is a good slugger. But his far from being a good boxer let alone great boxer. The kid doesnt even possess a jab.