How would this fight go down? Graham was tricky for anyone but Hopkins was a shrewd operator. Graham did have lapses in concentration, but made it hard for famed technician Mike McCallum, and I don;t think B-Hop could do to graham what Jackson did. I'm picking Hopkins by close, disputed decision.
Hopkin's breaks him down, potentially takes him out later on in the fight. Elusiveness doesn't do you much when someone's bullying you around in the clinches, hooking you with their free hand and occasionally hitting you in the balls on the blind side of the referee, all with the finesse of a surgeon.
Graham was even dirtier than Hopkins.He'd probably throw Hopkins over his shoulder or just repeatedly push him onto the canvas\spin him every time 'Nard tries to maul him. I thik Hopkins punchpicking woudl be a more important difference.Graham always has his sloppy periods and tends to lose focus\get pissed off and fight the other guys fight for a while.He's just too disjointed to beat someone like Hopkins, who take his time and pick him off later on once he's figured out Graham's stylistic quirks...as kalambay and McCallum did. Hopkins about 8-4 in a Very dirty awkward fight.
They're completely different kinds of dirty. Hitting the canvas is different from having a vagina torn into your eyebrow from a headbutt like Winky ended up having. Hopkin's came back from being bodyslammed into the canvas to kick the other guys ass, anyway, and that was fighting with one arm after the throw since it was hurt pretty badly.
its gotta be b-hop as good as a fighter that herol was he somehow managed to lose every big fight he was involved in so i would expect b-hop to win
yes and Graham's brand of dirty fighting is well suited to foiling and shutting down attempts at the more usual zivic-esque roughhousing.I wouldn't be surprised if he got disqualified if the fight was in America though. I'm not saying Graham's fouling would bother Hopkins anyway, but i expect the reverse would also be true.
Hopkins by decision, perhaps a close and disputed decision. Hopkins was quite consistent in winning. Maybe the opposition at middleweight wasn't the best in his era but he must have been great to win so many fights against decent fighters in title bouts. Graham went the distance with Kalambay and McCallum (very very close fight) and was only KO'd by Jackson in his prime, so I credit him with being able to go the distance. Graham fought in a tough middleweight era.
It would be nothing at all like the Johnson fight, as Graham was a much higher level fighter than that version of Johnson, and a completely different stylistic matchup. Fighters as quick and elusive (not to mention dirty) as Graham don't allow themself to be tracked down and beaten on without offering any resistance, as Johnson did.
You said he'd break him down like he did Johnson, implying that he'd beat him up in a similar fashion from the start and stop him late in the fight after accumulated punishment. I responded exactly as I meant to. Graham was not the type of fighter to be broken down in that fashion due to his elusiveness, awkwardness, quickness, and own dirtiness. He wouldn't have allowed a fight like that to have taken place, nor would he have just stood there getting beaten on like a ragdoll the way Johnson did. I agree with Mantequilla's take on this fight, it would come down to Hopkins's superior technical skills more than anything, but a stoppage is unlikely given the two fighter's styles.
For the record, I'm going for Hopkins PTS. Just think he's slightly better-equipped than Graham, who at times became unfocused. Though Graham would make it awkward for B-Hop, Hopkins would ultimately do more effective work to win a sloppy and close decision.
I don't think that Graham could have coped with Hopkins. He didn't have that "something special" to upset Bernard.
Hopkins would be forced into being the aggressor. Graham gave McCallum a very close fight, that could have went gone either way. He was a very dis-jointed fighter when it came to co-ordination. It worked for him as a fighter and he had decent successs. I would take Hopkins in a reasonably close fight. 115-113.
Hopkins would have to be at his best, Graham is the exact style that could be foil to Hopkins. It would be a very close fight, Hopkins at his best probably wins out. Graham was an uncrowned great
