Did Hopkins Gas against Calzaghe

Yes. It is why he faked the low blow fouls. He needed long breaks to go the distance against Calzaghe. This does not bode well for Hopkins against Pavlik.

 

How could he have been gassed? The ref gave him a 5 minute break after a non existent low blow! Hopkins got the fight when he wanted it and where he wanted it. Maybe he should not have bottled in in 2003!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxing/3030004.stm

 

No, Calzaghe just beat the fight out of him

 

tarver was a huge name back than why didnt he fight him? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxing/3454259.stm

 

Any pro-boxer will be able to tell you that one (of the many) reasons why there is a huge advantage to having hometown advantage, is that you tend to tense up your muscles to fight off the stares, comments, new and unfamiliar impressions etc. right before the fight. Therefore, unless you have experienced this several times and have gotten used to it, many fighters find that they feel tired by round 3 or 4.

This is why Kessler was tired... as well as the pace which was extremely high. Could he have won if it was he who had the hometown advantage? Maybe.

As for Hopkins, well he had hometown advantage so it was more part old and part Calzaghe. Could Hopkins have won if he was not old? Maybe.

 

I'd say so, however it was Calzaghe's constant attack the made Hopkins uncomfortable and seemingly weary. Whether or not he was landing effective punches, Joe was still making Hopkins fight at a pace he couldn't handle. Joe's aggression was the downfall of Hopkins, whether or not it was effective agression was irrelevant, it still made Hopkisn uncomfortable. Once he was able to neutralise the right hand of Hopkins (although it did still land occasionally), he was able to maul and outwork him on the inside. Usually Hopkins is a great inside fighter, but only when it is on his terms, against Calzaghe it was not on his terms. Due to him being forced to fight the constantly with few breaks, his occasional flurries weren't enough to overcome pure workrate. Yes, his compact flurries on the inside may have been the more effective punches of the two fighters, they were just to few and far between.

Hopkins was unable to keep the fight at a distance and at a pace he could handle, effectively the pressure got to him and he was forced into a defensive fight. He couldn't match Joe offensively, so he decided to try and render him ineffective, something he was largely succesfull at. However he was unable to mount a sufficent attack of his own and subsequently was mauled, outworked and pressured into defeat. His constant were the acts of a desperate man, a man who was made uncomfortable by his opponent. During the last 1/3 of the fight, Hopkins looked tired and seemingly confused. By then Calzaghe wasn't worried what he was eating in return (due to Hopkins' low output) and was then able to fight his own fight. He also new that by setting himself and trying to outbox Hopkins he would leave himself open, so he instead resorted to 'slapping' with his punches. This effectively allowed him to keep a higher workrate and overwhelm B-Hop, although he wasn't causing much damage.

Yes 'gassing' may have had something to do with it, but the reason he gassed was because he was forced to fight Calzaghe's fight. Even in the Tarver/Winky fights he had some subtle troubles with stamina, they just weren't made evident due to the opponent. Had he have been allowed to pick his shots on the outside and occasionally flurry on the inside he may have won (like early in the fight), Joe was just able to take Hopkins out of his element and exploit his age.

:good

 

Please tell me : if a boxer punches another boxer in the ****ing head, and that boxer falls on the floor, how the hell is that a "fluke" knockdown?!?!?

Do you even know what the word 'fluke' means?

fluke 1
Noun
an accidental stroke of luck


Do you think Hopkins punched him in the head accidentally? ****ing laughable!!!!


And if you think Hopkins lost every round 2-12, your opinion is so biased that it is worth nothing. Grow the **** up and be objective, it's people like you that give this forum a bad name.

If you think Calzaghe won then fair enough, but even Joe and Enzo themselves and everyone else on the planet who saw the fight know he did NOT win every round 2-12.

atsch

 

Is this guy for real?! This is priceless ****! Kessler was tired because he was tensing up his muscles before the fight to 'fight off the stares'!!!!

This is the most hilarious comment I've ever read!

Please please, keep them coming!!!!! :happy

 

My own opinion on the thread subject is that it was very very obvious Hopkins gassed badly.

To those who say this was because of the pace Calzaghe set - that just doesn't make sense. Hopkins didn't gas to anywhere near the same extent in 24 rounds against a fast, fresh, super-fit young hungry middleweight in 2005 (Taylor), and Hop has always been famed for his conditioning, stamina and resilience.

If you look at Hopkins's last 2 fights before Calzaghe - against Tarver and Wright, these were fought at a far slower pace, so the fact that Hopkins was approaching his mid-40s was not exposed. But the difference in Hopkins's energy levels from the Taylor fights in '05 to the Calzaghe fight in '08 was very clear. At that age, a fighter can age overnight. In the Calzaghe fight, Hopkins looked shattered by the mid rounds. It is just insane to say that a man like Hopkins would be gassed by the mid rounds because of the pace, he never showed this lack of stamina before in his career.

Do you guys honestly think that 1997-2004 Hopkins would have gassed in the same way? Of course he wouldn't have.

To be honest, I find it difficult to understand why this is even a debate - we are talking about a man who was FORTY-****ING-THREE!?!?

FYI gents, there has never been a human being in the history of the planet whose stamina/fitness/workrate/energy levels IMPROVE as they go through their mid-40s, it is the other way around, that's kinda a condition of being a human!

 

Nah,Roach said ''easy on him,you'r killing him'' and Bernard said ''I''ll go easier ta make it look like I gassed out''

 

He was 43 so really the answer is a no brainer, in his prime he would have finished Joe off after dropping him.

 

Calzaghe would beat Hopkins no matter what the age.

 

Nope:-( :nono

 

Yep.

 

Yep.