Hopkins vs. Kessler

Kessler is a much more fluid puncher than Pavlik and he can throw power shots with his upper body alone. Pavlik is too textbook for his own good. Kessler is much faster which is one of the few traits that has proven useful against Hopkins over the years. In terms of footspeed and ring movement you can't compare Pavlik and Kessler, Kessler is light years ahead of him.

It would be a much more competitive fight than Hopkins - Pavlik imo but i would lean towards Hopkins by close decision. Although he isn't getting any younger, his timing is unmatched and he would be able to exploit Kessler defensive flaws frequently enough to mitigate any work rate advantages.

 

Calzaghe's punches aren't near as forceful as Kessler's and they still overwhelmed Hopkins down the stretch.

You're underestimating Kessler. He may not be as quick as Taylor or Calzaghe, but he's definitely quicker than Pavlik and probably quicker than Hopkins. He puts together punches very well and is far from the 1-2 slugger that Pavlik is.

 

I think that he's more well schooled, or if not, smarter, because I've seen him be able to diversify his game a little more than Kelly has. I'm not saying he's a pernell whitaker or willy pep, but he's shown more ability to fight from angles and change his gameplan than pavlik has. Kelly seems to always rely on one strategy, coming forward, volume punching, and using his strength and reach, whereas Kessler can fight in different modes. Against Calzaghe he realized that he couldn't outbox him and at least made adjustments to make it a competitive fight, Pavlik never made any adjustments against Hopkins and got worked.

I just think that they are very similar fighters but Kessler has a little more diversity to his game.

 

Hopkins wins this fight 9-3

 

You cannot take one sequence out of a fight and use it as gospel for style comparisons. Especially not fights with Danilo Haussler or, for that matter, Edison Miranda.

 

Absolutely, and that changes nothing. "Natural" ability (there is obviously no way of knowing how much of a boxer's single attribute is natural, and how much it was honed through training etc) is just as important and effective as any other kind.

People talk as though things like hand speed take away from a fighters value, just because its a partially natural trait. Thats rubbish.

Pavlik has become an excellent fighter in the face of relatively limited natural athleticism, although he has been gifted with an awesome frame for a 160 pounder. This changes nothing, though.

 

You all seen what Hopkins did to the last 1 dimensional fighter he fought... enuff said

 

If Calzaghe took time to load up his punches he would have missed more then he did in the fight. He threw pitter patter punches because that was the only way he could break Hopkins defense. And still it was mostly Hopkins not throwing punches and being active then calzaghe punching.

Kessler's power is overrated. He landed several flush shots on Calzaghe that Calzaghe just shook off. Especially at a weight like 175. Consider that.

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It's not about what you're "supposed to do", it's about what's relevant. A snippet of "median results" from a random fight hardly carries much weight considering what goes into a 12 round fight, especially when that snippet is taken from a 3 round warm-up against a C-level opponent.

Your opinion is your opinion; all I'm saying is that was a strange and potentially very misleading way of presenting the evidence for your argument.