Greater Fighter: Bernard Hopkins or Joe Calzaghe

B-Hop all the way.

 

I'm no fan of Bernard Hopkins, but even I'd say he's a fair way ahead of Joe.

 

We all know that after you scored his fight with Wright.....a draw.

 

Calzaghe. Hopkins is largely a fraud.

 

:shock::shock::shock:

If he's a fraud, then what does that make the slap hitting pancy?

 

I think their fight answered that, but only if you had Hopkins winning handily, as I did. Gives a pretty good indicator of what a prime for prime matchup would've looked like.

 

Handily? Wow. I had it 114-113, the knockdown making the difference. Thought it was pretty close. Can´t say either one won it handily.

The answer is Hopkins, quite clearly.

 

I had Hopkins winning it 7-4-1, IIRC. 116-112, in other words.

Calzaghe would never be nice for Hopkins, though, it must be said.

 

I reckon thats closer to the money than 9 rounds to 3 for Nard.

 

I also had Hopkins winning, its worth noting Hops is the 1 who turned their fight down in their primes not Joe, but Hops may have been in a dodgy contract with King at the time

Calzaghe gets a little underrated around here but so much of Joes career was wasted

97- Eubank - very impressive win, right were on to great things here, lets unify

98 - 2 journeymen

Early 99 - Reid - big win over an ex-WBC champ some thought he lost

00 -fights Sheika who deserved to lose to Johnson and Woodhall who just lost his title. Decent wins but nothing special

01 - 2 bums

02 - Brewer an ex champ just blasted by Echols and a bum

03 - Mitchell - good win, Mitchell just lost to Otke, but it was a premature stoppage, Mitchell was stopped as he was punching. Mitchell also had Joes down the same round

04 - supposed to fight Glen Johnson for the WBC title, pulls out 2 or 3 times with injury, complete joke of a situation, Joe is now a laughing stock, he still manages to fight a couple of bums the same year. Joe was going through a divorce at the time and seemed to have gone off boxing

05 - a rematch against a bum he ko'd in 1 round and yes another bum

06 - finally unifies with Lacy, but get this, wanted to pull out with an injury but his dad made him fight

Bika - not a bad win but Joe looks horrible against him constantly tagged with the right hand

07 - Kessler - finally happens and an excellent win against the clear no2, as ever Joe took forever to sign/fight

08 - Hopkins - for the ring title, this was a big fight to sign, I thought Hops won, both men looked terrible

Roy Jones - big name way past his best, Joe gets put on his bum but largely dominates. In his biography Calzaghe said he'd never face a fighter as clearly shot as Jones was

People say Joe suffered from a poor division, but in the 00s there were the following contenders/champs in his division that he didnt fight: Otke, Vanderpool, Mundine, Green, Glen Johnson, Echols, Beyer, . His promoter, Warren, made half assed attempts at getting him fights with Hopkins/Winky Wright/Otke at the time and delivered the Glen Johnson fight. Warren owed Calzaghe millions and bankrupted 1 of his companies to get out of paying it

Calzaghe did **** his career/legacy away but in some senses is a head to head monster. Most of his best achievements are way past his prime and his longevity is excellent and a testiment to hard training. His concern to protect his zero, a promoter who protected him, some perhaps ducking him and his lack of drive to fight the best contenders let alone other champions is what gives his. He still is a great boxer and his resume does not do him justice. To think he was past prime when he finally started stepping up says allot

Hopkins himself spent a long time in the wilderness from 93-01, but he was fighting the best contenders in his division and looking for big fights. Joe was happy to be a tin pot champ in Wales, being the big fish in a small pond

 

Finally a good post of you. Good work :good

 

Calzaghe doesn't make my top 100.

Hopkins is always floating around the 41-50 mark.

 

Pretty sure they offered him a pittance.

Like 2mill...but he was looking at getting close to 10 for the Hoya bout that they were in negotiations for.

Of course Warren played his part in that...A figure like that is not going to get Nard to cross the pond.

 

Easily Nard. EASILY.