Hopkins never did fight at this weight choosing instead to bypass it to move up to 175 when Calzaghe was top dog Now after the loss to Kovalev he feels he was too small and would like to move down. So ladies and gentlemen, Glen Johnson was able to move down succesfully for a brief amount of time (Green, Froch fights) so would Hopkins the man to stop Glencoffee at 160 one up his former foe and actually win a title? thus breaking his own record for the second time becoming the oldest man in history to win a world title or would Carl Froch knock Hopkins out to retire as the top dog of the division? Its either Golovkin/Hopkins for Froch next, as far as Chavez Jr goes its nothing more than a cashout job and does nothing for his legacy . . . Its odd when a 50 year old moving down in weight is a better fight than a 28 year old moving up but it is what it is
Id agree Hopkins in his early 175 career would school Froch . . . . but we dont have a time machine. Right now Froch is on the decline but still has good punching power, enough to knock out most of the top fighters in the division. Hopkins on the other hand isnt completely shot, whilst he was outgunned V Kovalev I believe he can still compete at 175 against Stevenson/Beterbiev. Kovalev just hit far too hard for Hopkins to fight effectively on the inside. Right now id probably pick Froch in a hard fought fight seeing as how he wants to fight in Vegas for an obvious cashout why not go in against the Old man and in a weird way one up Calzaghe? . . . . not that it would mean much with Joe winning about 7 years ago now but its a nice little cherry to end a career
same way joe beat him, apply enough pressure to old lungs that are 40something and no longer can keep up with high intensity. but in slightly different fashion - froch would get hit early in the fight but a lot more than joe was getting tooled by Hopkins early on, but froch wouldn't get floored like joe did, and frochs power would obviously hurt Hopkins much more later on. same way anyone top five could do it to be fair. Cloud could have taken Hopkins if he'd done the preparation needed and fought the right fight.
this is just it, froch was never interested in fighting faded 40somethings (unless he was forced to) in the first place, and with there being less on offer from Hopkins now, he is less likely than ever to follow calzaghe into picking 40somethings to face.
be nice now Hopkins was the percieved number 1 at LHW and Roy Jones was still somewhat relevant despite his losses to Tarver/Johnson although that was just a cashout fight for joe Hopkins is still a far superior fighter than Chavez is even at 50 For Froch this is a big name win to go out on in Vegas For Hopkins its an 8th world title in a 3rd weight division against the top fighter of the division (Not counting Ward due to his appalling inactivity)
I've said they were 40something as facts (jones as you include was weeks shy of 40), nothing more than that. You may choose to add what you want, no problem with that. his skills are far superior to froch, calzaghe etc, I've always said that. But his lungs are not, and that irreversible. I was really not writing anything untoward.
Fair enough, although it was rather insinuative. Ill disagree, Calzaghe would have proved too much for Hopkins hence why he priced himself out earlier in his career and skipped 168 in the first place seeing it as a high risk / low reward fight at that particular time That being said I dont know why this isnt being discussed further seeing as this is likely to be Froch's last fight (that is if Degale cant force a fight with Froch) Alls ive heard is Chavez this, Chavez that. Degale? naaaah id rather fight a blown up middleweight with a large following Personally Ive got no interest in seeing that fight as Chavez is like a lamb to the slaughter with his poor defence. If Martinez whooped his ass at 160 just imagine what Froch would do
it was low reward, being the wbo title, the least important of the four and not one of the big three. If Hopkins genuinely wanted to fight at smw in 2002, I am sure he would opt for a bigger reward fight such as one of the three major smw titles that Calzaghe had never possessed nor shwn the ability to defend consistently later on. but clearly Hopkins wasn't interested in ANY SMW title other than in passing or for a good pay day, so he never fought for ANY SMW title at ANY stage whether with joe or not, let alone Joe's less important one. So we can safely say Hopkins never showed interest in any SMW title enough to actually fight in the division - why? cos he didn't fight there, not against anyone. why can we say he was much more interested in MW and LHW? because he DID fight there, many many times, for multiple titles. This is indicative of real interest. well hes 37 so good luck whatever he chooses. only so many good fights left in him now.
