For all those who say Calzaghe would beat Hopkins no matter when they fought...

Hopkins is farther past his prime than Calzaghe, and Calzaghe still barely beat him and could hardly land any clean shots.

Hopkins wins a clear UD in their primes.

 

we have to remember that hopkins is an all time legend of boxing, no matter how boring he is to watch, calzaghe cant and wont be the best ever but is a future HOF, both are fantastic

 

.........are idiots.

 

Sometimes if a guy adapts better to his age, then I can see some differences.

For instance, both Holyfield and Tyson were past their primes in 1996. Holyfield appeared to be shot in 1996 as opposed to Tyson, who was on a hot streak, but Holyfield in actuality adapted better to getting older. He was smarter and stronger and more disciplined. Tyson did not adapt well. He too often head-hunted, neglected the jab and upper body movemeent. If someone says peak Tyson beats peak heavyweight Holyfield, I can see the case and won't argue.

However with Hopkins and Calzaghe, I think both guys have adapted well to getting older. Hopkins is just too old, however. Calzaghe still has enough left to fight at a fast pace and maintain a very good workrate. Hopkins does not.

 

Pacfan it's really not as simple as that at all.

I hate it when people are totally ignoring the fact that Calzaghe is WAY past his physical prime.

You have to go back to around the Mitchell fight when Calzaghe was at his physical peak (around the same time Hopkins ducked out at the last minute) and when he could actually hurt his opponents and that version of Calzaghe is more than a match for any version of Hopkins.

 

I don't quite think it is as simple as that.

Hopkins is more past his prime but its not really the fact that Calzaghe may be a little slower, less sharp with age that people use to defend Calzaghe in the Hopkins/Calzaghe prime v prime arguement. Joe's brittle hands are a bigger factor than his advancing age. Im not saying a prime Joe would beat prime Bernard but if Joe could actually punch with any aurtority it would help a lot. He probably wouldn't KO Hopkins but he would make Bernard respect his power a hell of a lot more.

It easy to say that a 36 year old Joe only squeaked past a 43 year old Hopkins so if they were both 5/10 years younger then Bernard would school Joe. It's not that simple. Joe basically has to fight like an amatuer now knowing that he can only really tap his opponent with flurries to score points rather than sitting down on punches and actually hurting and wearing down an opponent.

If bernard was 36 and fought the Joe of today then yes. Bernard wins. However a prime Joe v Prime Hopkins is a completely different matter entirely.

 

:rofl

 

Good sensible post that :good

 

Laugh all you like it's a fact. Everyone knows that Hopkins doubled his demands at the last minute after everything was verbally agreed.

Hopkins has never denied this.

 

Well it is true. Hopkins did pull out of the fight during late negotations.

He has unhappy with how much Don King was going to take out of his paycheck.

After beating Trinidad, Hopkins was enslaved to Don King for a couple years.

After he was no longer with King (post 2003), then he got the big fights again, as I guess he was happy that he wouldn't have to fork over such a large part of his paycheck to King.

 

And the other thing that's always ignored is weight-class: Calzaghe woudn't have stood a chance trying to make MW. And at SMW, Hopkins would not have had the physique he has today. It would be a very, very different match-up, prime for prime at 168.

 

I heard something about that. Where was the fight supposed to be. I think "duck" is the wrong word to use though. Hopkins ain't afraid of nobody.