Hopkins v Calzaghe: The Resume

Yea its a safe bet. Johnson would crush Hopkins in monumental fashion. Of course this is only fantasy as Hopkins would not want anything to do with Johnson now, come to think of it nobody does. I hope he eventually gets a shot at Diaconu

 

A younger Johnson couldnt stop Clinton Woods though, who is somewhat of a punching bag

 

Crush him in monumental fashion? Johnson looked pretty good in losing to Chad Dawson (and i think pretty highly of Dawson, his future will be very interesting), but old man Hops was competitive with a fairly quality fighter in Joe Calzaghe lol.

I think you're overrating Johnson greatly.

 

It's precisely the opposite, that was when Lacy was so highly regarded as the SMW Tyson and favored heavily to beat Calzaghe by KO. He had something to offer him at that stage, he just got completely outclassed by a truly elite fighter.

True, but that doesn't take away the significance of his victory over him, considering how highly rated Lacy was at the time. Calzaghe very well ruined him as a fighter.

Tarver was in worse shape for that rematch than Hopkins was for Calzaghe, given how weight-drained he was, not to mention overall Tarver was never that good. Hopkins just didn't have the stamina at that stage of his career to deal with Calzaghe's pressure because he was so used to fighting at a set pace, but he'd always been lauded for his stamina prior, even at this age. The fight wasn't pretty, but Calzaghe's style had just as much to do with Hopkins gassing as his age. For the record I'd take a prime Hopkins over Calzaghe, but Tarver is in neither fighter's league, especially in that fight where once again, he had nothing to offer.

The Wright fight was at a catchweight of 170, whereas Wright's natural weight was 154 and he'd been recently fighting at 160. The weight suited Hopkins a lot better, and regardless of what is being said, size does matter. Not that I think Wright would've beaten a P4P version of Hopkins, as he wasn't versatile enough, but he was the bigger man, and neither fighter was in their prime that night, it doesn't just apply to Hopkins.

I gave him credit for the Tito win, it was probably his best at MW, though the fact that a natural WW is your best MW win says a lot about your lack of competition.

I base it simply on the fact that Kessler was a better fighter at the higher weights than Trinidad and would've schooled him had they fought. He'd have beaten Wright as well. Not just for size reasons, but for style reasons. Kessler's career is in a bit of a hole right now so it will probably take some time to convince people of this, but just watch him fight in the meantime, he's as good technically as they come nowadays.

He looked quite soft to me, not a whole lot of that weight was muscle.

Not really, as Tito had only had one fight at MW against the likes of William Joppy. That doesn't inspire much confidence that he could beat any elite MW's. Tito vs Pavlik would be interesting though come to think of it.

Johnson was nothing at the time, and even nowadays isn't as good an overall fighter as Kessler. I'm rating Kessler mainly on ability, you're rating him on title and paper work, that's the difference.

 

Hopkins has the better wins. Neither man has a really good list of W's on their record though. If you combined the records, Kessler is probably the toughest opponent out of all 93 wins. It's probably evened out by the fact that Calzaghe never lost to a fighter of Taylor's calibre, though.

I'd probably rate them about the same. Like I said, Hopkins has the better wins but has losses. Calzaghe never really fought the best out there which hurts him.

Although one think I do fnid funny is how people have differing opinions on both guys statistical record. Hopkins always gets lauded for having so many defences over such a long period, yet with Calzaghe the usual response is "Yeah, but they were against Euro bums". Typical ignorant reply.

But whatever. Both men have had mediocre careers for elite fighters.

 

I think Pavlik wins this one pretty easily. I don't think Trinidad could hurt Pavlik at 160lbs, and the same can't be said in reverse. I imagine Pavlik would outbox a timid Tito, before stopping him in 8.

 

I don't think Tito would've been timid at all. I think Tito proved his power at 160 and could definitely hurt Pavlik, who doesn't have a strong chin in the first place. The same could be said of Tito though, as Pavlik is definitely capable of hurting him. Neither is extremely skilled, so it's either come down to Pavlik's reach advantage oor Tito's brawling ability and hooks to put the other away. I'd probably tale Pavlik at MW to be safe, but it's not an easy call the way I see it.

 

So you aren't going to acknowledge the Thompson fights then? :huh

 

It's quite unbelievable to see how clueless you are unless you are just blinded by your hidden hate for Joe Calzaghe.

It's impossible to debate with someone like you.