"Calzaghe only slapped against Hopkins"

Kessler got hit with a freakish punch to the solar plexus against Calzaghe - it had nothing to do with strength.

 

Huh??? Um, Hopkins could have very easily "come out swinging" more as he did against Pavlik. Calzaghe didn't show any type of power enabling him to hurt Hopkins.

Hopkins wasn't going to land a combo? Really? How did Calzaghe get floored in the first round then.

That should've been a sign to Hopkins...Either (1) Calzaghe could be hurt by Hopkins power, or (2) Calzaghe had faulty footwork that would enable Hopkins to take advantage of it.

Hopkins showed no killer instinct, and no desire to "mix it up". That's how he fought his last few fights to a great degree.

People overestimate Calzaghe's ability to hurt or dominate Hopkins. There was no dominance. It was a close fight, who many people scored within a point or 2, with most crediting the more crucial punches to being landed by Hopkins.

 

I had Hopkins beating Pavlik as well.

Hopkins did cheat. He was dirty against Calzaghe. That still doesn't make Calzaghe capable of knocking Hopkins out. It just makes Hopkins an ass for behaving that way

 

He was definetly overwhelming Hopkins around the time Hopkins took a knee. If you have that fight on dvd you should have watched it enough times by now to know Hopkins lost that by a close but fair margin. Do not tell me that he would of been at an unfair advantage had he continued after that so called 'low blow' he knew he was being hurt by those punches in round in 10 or 11 and that is why he took a knee. Don't bother saying he was not hurt. There was no need to take a knee otherwise. If he was such a great old school fighter he would of just got on with that. I do think he is a great BTW but he knows that he was hurt and you would not see Jake LaMotta or Marvin Hagler doing that.

 

Hopkins only landed four punches in the first round and that was just a falsh knock down. Calzaghe was not badly hurt in the first round.

 

It was a perfectly landed right hand, and Calzaghe was floored.

As I said, it showed that Hopkins had the power to floor Calzaghe with one punch. Didn't it???

That should've been a signal for Hopkins to wake up, and he didn't. He should've come out as the aggressor in the second round...

 

yep this is something only hopkins can answer. If Calzaghes shot were not hurting hop he would have thrown more punches. Calzaghe was clearly doing something to stop hopkins from throwing.

 

IMO, Hopkins won the fight.

I am a little surprised that Clazaghe won't offer Hopkins a rematch. Hopkins offered him a fight when he did not have to and Calzaghe became a Superstar. Now, Calzaghe won't return the favour. That is not very fair.

 

Everyone talking about hoe Joe has no power and just slaps....doesn't that make his victories more impressive. This guy managed to beat Hopkins and Kessler with no power...something has got to be making up for it.

I think Joe and Hopkins are both crafty and excellent defenders, so when they faught each other it was more tactical than exciting.

 

You said he was blatantly hurt. Tell me what time in what round you saw him being blatantly hurt by punches and I'll check it out. If it was so blatant, give me the time. As I said, I've watched the fight numerous times and paid very close attention, and I cannot see any point where Hopkins looked even remotely troubled. Time please.

 

Man some of you guys just don't seem to know the first thing about boxing.

There are more reasons not to throw extra punches other than, your opponent has enough power to hurt you. Bernard is not just going to increase his punch output unless he thinks they can land, and as Bernard really only throws when he feels his opponent can be caught off guard... then he will not throw if his opponent can see it coming, unless he is setting something up.

Calzaghe could not throw his usual output in the fight, because HOPKINS did not let him get in position to do this. Throughout the first 1/3-1/2 of the fight, Hopkins was able to limit Calzaghe's output effectively, though as the fight wore on, Calzaghe was able to get set better ... and therefore started throwing more punches.

If you are claiming Calzaghe hurt Hopkins and would have stopped him, then get out your DVD of the fight, and tell us WHEN in the fight he hurt him. Give us a time so we can see the punch. I believe Hopkins was fairly tired by the late stages of the fight, but I never saw him do something a hurt fighter does. Hopkins clinches not because he's hurt, but for tactical reasons. He'll throw a lead right, and using the same momentum to close the distance he'll clinch to keep his opponent from countering, and it also throws him off his game big time.

You CANNOT say that Hopkins 'faked a low blow', because he WAS HIT LOW. If he faked how much it bothered him, and that annoys Calzaghe or his fans - well guess what? Calzaghe shouldn't have hit him low!!

NOBODY here can say whether or not the low blows ACTUALLY bothered Hopkins, ALL we have to go on in a case like that is what HOPKINS said. Hopkins acted like it bothered him, so HE got time to recover.

All the Calzaghe fans are assuming that Hopkins was about to be knocked out and wanted a break, all the Hopkins fans are assuming he was just tired. Well ****, you have no idea. Hell, there are other reasons too. The momentum of the fight had shifted to Calzaghe's favor, he was beginning to get into a rhythm. Maybe Hopkins just wanted a chance in the middle of a round to interrupt this rhythm? You never know. And we WILL never know.

Bottom line for me is... according to the rules the fight was judged by, Calzaghe won the fight. One can say "Hopkins scored the only real effective punches", and I would agree. That being said... while some punches cause an obvious reaction in the guy being hit, some don't. I think if Calzaghe hadn't out landed Hopkins by such a wide margin, then there would be a good argument that Hopkins landed many more EFFECTIVE blows.. and therefore should win the fight. But Calzaghe DID outland him by a lot, even if some of those punches were just weak flurries of arm punches a la Sugar Ray Leonard, and you can't ignore all those punches completely.

 

And whoever said "Nobody ever said anything about Hopkins winning until he beat Kelly Pavlik."

Not true. Plenty of people have been saying they believed Hopkins should have won on the basis of him clearly landing the harder shots, while Calzaghe rarely landed meaningful punches.

 

most guys in the MW-LHW division lack the power to stop Hopkins, let alone the hand speed to land cleanly on that defensive master.

you make it sound like it's such a horrible thing that Calzaghe couldn't hurt Hopkins.. really? how many guys have been dropped BHop and how many were able to legitimatly hurt Hopkins? think about it.

 

If Hopkins had been respectful im sure Joe would have considered it ..But that White Boy comment must have got under his skin and I can't balme Joe if he doesn't want to give him one based on that ..

 

Calzaghe is the undisputed king of "shoeshine" in the ring. I have never seen more bogus flurries and slappy-happy combinations from any other fighter.