I noticed the little things that told me that Hopkins was dead tired and had nothing left in the tank as early as the 6th round. His movements were sluggish and not pin point precise like they were in his previous fights. He even had his hands low quite a few times, and that's something he never did before. His attempt to get a breather late in the fight with the phantom low blows was just confirmation of what i had been seeing. His whole demeanor in the ring as the fight wore on was not reminiscent of the old Hopkins where every movement was precise and calculated. He was sluggish. And that can only be traced to the fact that father time finally caught up. It's as though the mind was willing but the body wasn't. Heck, even when Cortez broke them up a couple times and he pushed Hopkins, Hopkins was out of balanced. He was that gone. I was not impressed with Calzaghe. All he did was beat a legend at a time when father time finally caught up to him in the ring. Even the Hopkins that fought Tarver, who had the stamina to fight, would've beaten Calzaghe. Thank you Hopkins for all the memories. I know this was your last fight. You have nothing left in the tank.
Doesn't that mean Winky Wright is a bag of **** according to your logic? Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh P.S. Calzaghe is a veteran himself
He looked pretty tired after the 6th I agree, but he didn't wilt like lesser men would have. For all the people predicting a Calzaghe domination or TKO or whatever, I think it's more of a credit to Bernard that he made Calzaghe look like **** too lol.
Hopkins held,came in with his head, but he also stopped Tarver, beat Wright, stopped Tito, etc. Calzaghe is a great fighter.
:blabla :blabla :blabla Careful there mate, you might accidentally pay Calzaghe a compliment one of these days
It pisses me off that father time had to happen in this fight. You saw the start of the fight. The precise movements that is his customary. Every movement was crisp and calculated. He timed Calzaghe perfectly with the counter right. He just ran out of gas so, so early. He knew it. I saw it. I don't think most people. I think you had to be a Hopkins super freak like myself to know how he moves when he's not gased. He lost his crisp, precise, and calculated movements at about the 5th or 6th. It was clear as night and day for me. Calzaghe? Get the fu*k out of here. Even the Hopkins a few years back beats you via UD.
anybody trying to fight a good defensive fight against such a busy fighter as Calzaghe would be tired. i didn't see the fight, but it sounds like hops was content to hold and try and keep the fight close and maybe get lucky on the scorecards. you'd think after the two losses to taylor and it being his last fight, he'd "go for broke" at least over the past few rounds. hopkins is too safety first.
i knew Bernard was done when he got a love tap to his ***** lips and fell like he was hit with a sledge.
The difference between the Winky fight and this was was clear. Hopkins had the stamina in the Winky fight while he didn't in this one. It was a similiar game plan he had to face. A come forward guy with high workrate. Hopkins moved for 12 rounds against Winky and got off 650 punches, a lot of them power shots. His movements were crisp and precise and you could tell the body was willing. In this fight, it was not.
Hopkins did not have the gas to fight a 12 round championship fights and score enough effective rounds to win. It was physically not in him, he did as well as he could have, apart from following up on his KD.
It would not have been smart IMO to have followed up on the KD. Calzaghe was caught out but wasn't hurt. Hopkins needed to pace himself for 12 rounds. A big issue was stamina in this fight.
Just consider this. Early in the fight, Hopkins scored a clear KD (1st) and landed another crisp right that buckled Calzaghe (end of 3rd). His movements were calculated and precise early in the fight. His body was doing what his minded wanted him to do. But as the fight wore on, you could tell that his movements weren't nearly as precise. His movements were sluggish. And for a guy who relied on calculated precision, he had nothing left. That is the only reason he had to fake those low blows because he knew he was gased despite not throwing a lot of punches. If this was the Hopkins that fought Winky/Tarver, where his body was doing what his mind wanted him to do, Hopkins would've been tagging Calzaghe all fight long instead of just early on.
