Hopkins trained like Calzaghe and his stamina improved

What a bunch of hogwash to blame training techniques for Hopkins past failures......

As was said earlier, if you're dictating pace and tempo, you're less likely to tire and gas.

Pavlik, even though he was getting thoroughly outboxed, did press Hopkins and forced him to have to dig and fight throught those early and mid rounds.....
.....there was a question in my mind if Hopkins could sustain that.

Ultimately, Hopkins was able to do with Pavlik whatever he wanted to punchingwise.
Unlike past losses to Taylor and Calzaghe, the target was always where Hopkins wanted it to be......and when Hopkins wanted a cardio breather, he'd draw to the inside and tie and muslce Pavlik on the inside.

Defensively, Pavlik did nothing to make Hopkins hesitate that he could make a mistake and expose himself to incoming.

Some of you might remember just how good an old Evander Holyfield looked vs Hasim Rahman......Holyfield pretty much had his way with him, and did'nt look to be have any issues with stamina in that fight......
.....but then Holyfield goes on to fight in sucession Byrd, Toney, and Donald, all faster and more defensively adept fighters that give you much more to worry about than just one thing.......and all of a sudden, Holyfield does'nt look as sharp, and has trouble pulling the trigger against a target thats not there for you to fire at.

The same with Hopkins......if he does'nt have the target right there for him to fire at, just like Evander Holyfield looked vs the likes of Byrd, Toney, and Donald......Hopkins too will, and has proven to look like an old fighter.

....and this is'nt even an opinion, its fact, as we've all seen how shy and unsucessful Hopkins has been to pull the trigger against faster, slicker, and more defensive minded fighters.

When you're an old fighter, you want the target to be right there, and that certainly was Pavlik!

No question about it, the better fighter won. In fact he dominated.
....but people like to get carried away when they see such domination and blame training techniques to be at fault for past failures.

 

spot on.

say what you want about hopkins and calzaghe but those are two guys that come to the ring in 100% mint condition fight after fight and put themselves through serious training camps. no cutting corners with these fighters.

 

:good Controlled the tempo and fought within himself.

 

Exactly!

Its basically the same mumbo jumbo excuse that a fighter uses before a fight......
....DLH does it all the time before everyone of his big fights, "I'm in the best condition of my career, I've hired the best conditioning guru in the world, I've changed my diet, I'm training old school, I"m back to training at high altitude......blah blah blah.....

.....at the end of the day, most of these fighters are in the best physical shape they can be in.....ultimately winning is about who the best is between them.

Lets get this straight, Hopkins on his worst conditioned night he's had as a fighter on his career (which still=being in great condition) dominates the same Pavlik the same way.