Hopkins Robbed.........Calzaghe Overated

Amen. I had it 116-111 or 115-112 for Calzaghe. Although he is older, I think Hopkins lost some " street credibility " . Hopkins faked a low blow to catch a breather, forced clinches like Ruiz, and was not able to intimidate Calzaghe.

We knew Hopkins was older and could not throw many punches coming into this match. Now it appears he lost some of his toughness as well. If this is the case, Hopkins should retire.

There are a few old warriors. There are a few bold warriors. But they are very few old and bold warriors.

 

Lacy and Kessler didn't put him down. I wouldn't say that the shot "hurt" Calzaghe, but he was clearly stunned and was absolutely not doing much of anything --he struck me as a bit dazed for a bit after it and was definitely wary. That was a wide-open window of rare opportunity. Hopkins stunned him once and could have done it again -especially because Joe was wide-eyed. Hopkins was far more aggressive early in his career and I see no reason why he wouldn't do what he needed to do, save for a questionable strategy that was immune to adaptation.

Joe is comfortable when he is boss. Hopkins' big mistake was that he immediately asserted himself as boss but then squandered it when he allowed Calzaghe to get comfortable and take over.

The moment Joe got up, Hopkins could have and should have pounced on him.

Hopkins should have trained to be as aggressive as he was in his 5th fight for 4 rounds which would have gone far to disturb Joe out of his game and potentially stop him... then coast a bit, and then come on strong at the end.

 

.............Good point. I was mystified as to why Hopkins would back away and do absolutely nothing after putting Joe on his can in round 1. It was as if he assumed he'd be able to control the tempo and continue to score with the right no matter how long the fight went. Pretty big assumption.

 

Arrogance you suggest. Perhaps it wasn't just his conservativism/rigidity in applying his grand strategy -even to the extent of allowing a golden opportunity to slip away- perhaps it was arrogance.

Bernard is a formidable man, but arrogance is costly... Maybe he truly did believe that no caucasian could beat him. If so, then he got a come uppance and I'm happy. Even Freddie Roach couldn't quite vouch for Bernard:

"If Bernard was a racist he wouldn't have me in his corner... I think."

 

Who's to say the low blow was completely fake?

Joe's a slap puncher. The first low blow was... you guessed it.. a slap.

Ever been slapped in the balls?

Maybe it wasn't as bad as a full blown shot but he didn't want to continue fighting with even the smallest bit of pain going on, so he waited a few minutes.

 

I wouldn't say that it wasn't a painful shot... but consider the following factors:

1. Firstly, Black Bernard is White Fritzie reincarnated in terms of dirty tricks.
2. Bernard had lost control of the fight.
3. Bernard was tired.
4. The shot was not in the usual area where you'd expect such a rxn.

The funny thing to me is, that after one of the "low" shots, the ref refused to allow Bernard time and what did Bernard do? He grit his teeth and fought Joe and took over for as long as his temper flared. ....And then he reverted back to the strategy that cost him so many rounds.

 

...........I think I would have to chalk it up to arrogance, yes. If he is anything at this point in his career, Hopkins is an opportunist. He had a golden opportunity slip past him after that knockdown, so it must speak to his assumption that he could get away with moe of the same as the fight progressed.

 

I was curious to know who would be the first to post this crap. The shot was nowhere near his balls- unless your balls are sewn just below your belly button. :good

 

Not a bad card actually. :yep

 

:rofl

 

Oh please. Everyone knows it was bull****.

Even been slapped in a region ABOVE the balls with 8 oz gloves and a protective cup?


And what was that deadly slap in the 10 or 11th that made him go down, only Cortez didn't buy the acting job this time? They didn't even show a replay because they were too embarrassed by the lack of sportmansship.



Pretty embarrassingly lame move for a self-proclaimed tough guy.

This actually reminds me of one of Audley Harrison's priceless quotes.... "When i knocked him down early on, it put me off my gameplan".



Maybe you are right, but Hopkins can't throw more than, say, 30 punches a round at his age. And that includes clinching the opponent every 10 seconds to pace himself. If he fights otherwise, he can't keep it up for 12 rounds. So, going for the knockout or pressuring Calzaghe was a very risky, all-in situation.

If you consider that Calzaghe has only suffered 2 flash knockdowns in his entire career while never really being in real trouble, and that Hopkins himself is no big puncher, i think it's a no-brainer. It was for Hopkins, anyway.

You have to realise that at his age, conserving energy is one of the most important things of his gameplan. Going 12 rounds with someone who throws 1000+ punches per fight is impossible for most 40 year olds.
The way he did it now, he barely spent any energy in the first round but won it on the largest possible margin of 10 8. Now i agree that the "dragging him into deep water" thing was stupid, but still. It's easy to judge things in hindsight, but if he had gone for the knockout, gotten no result but received a pummeling the next few rounds to catch wind again, we would've been saying that he should've backed up and taken the round as it was.

 

That's good.

The argument here is that Hopkins may not have had to go 12 rounds and it was worth the risk to jump on him. Now my saying "jump on him" is the wrong phrase, I mean that he should have done a seek and destroy mission -pick the shots and throw them hard. Go for the knockout but do it deliberately -more like Trinidad than Fenech.

I don't think that he had much to worry about in terms of incoming. He knew this and said so! Joe distracts guys with frenetic activity and guys react to what is really 85% nonsense, they react instead of act, lose their focus, and allow Joe to take over. Bernard knew this!

His decision to spread his limited juice thinner over 12 rounds instead of taking (what suddenly became less of a) risk was what turned the tempo against him. And that was what he was supposed to prevent by any means necessary.

If Joe didn't land on his butt, I'd agree that the Hopkins strategy as it was was more tenable. But the moment Joe went down, the "conservative spoiling" strategy became the second best strategy. Hopkins didn't make the adjustment and assumed that it was going 12 anyway. I'm a conservative guy who loves strategy too, but he should have tried to finish him in a controlled manner.

Believe it or not, it wasn't hindsight here. While I understand his, Freddie, and your position then and now, I was disagreeing a minute and a half into the fight. I was screaming so loudly at the TV you can actually see Hopkins mouth "calm down white boy" at the camera.

Hopkins can punch, but his timing and his speed are not what they were. That was a good shot and it stunned Joe. Joe got up and wasn't looking to confident to me -he looked nervous and a bit dazed. Another Hopkins right at the end of round 7 (?) stunned him again. You can see his legs shake and he lost his balance. I don't think for one second that he could couldn't have landed a few more rights in round 1 and hurt Joe like he's never been hurt before.

 

Considering your scorecards in general and the extreme bias you constantly exhibit, I question why I even bothered to respond in the first place.

 

atsch

 

Fair enough.


I would like to add that that first knockdown came very early in the fight, though. Fighters sometimes suffer flash knockdowns early in fights because it surprises them, but easily take the same punches later on when they're used to taking punishement. Hopkins has a shitload of experience and i think he categorised that knockdown as such.

What do you think Hopkins' maximum profit could've been? Score another knockdown? A knockout?