Everyone is saying how Calzaghe is gonna win by coming out and being really agressive and throwing alot of punches but i think he should employ more of a pot-shotting style and agressively counterpunch the counterpuncher in combinations when the opportunities arise.
Calzaghe has to force Hopkins to gas out early. He has to be really aggressive and push the tempo during the first five or six rounds and pile up a nice good lead upon Hopkins' slow and at times awkward ineffectiveness. Then when Hopkins is pooped out from Calzaghe's unrelenting workrate...just pop Hopkins when need be and avoid getting butted/knocked down by a flash punch.
jab his way to 50-45 Force the old man out of his shell then take him to the cleaners and start unloading some big shots
Box with his right shoulder in front, behind a snappy right jab and force him back anti-clockwise ( also a good way to avoid getting caught with right counters), lead with his right foot and make this guy lose his back foot. Jab-jab-jab and trap him down in the corners and ropes with right hooks out of the jab ( like against Woodhall in the first round). Hopkins has a low left guard and he doesn't have the head feint to escape those shots coming from leftfield, he only can step back so you step in faster ( step on his leading left foot, doesn't matter) and trap him down... Joe has to keep his balance when moving forward or he will stumble and walk into shots. I also wouldn't fire that left hand too often because something tells me that Joe slides out of position easily.
I was really thinking Calzaghe was gonna beat Bernard pretty good, but I'm changing my opinion. I hope I'm wrong b/c I'm sick of B Hop, but Hopkins might really give it good to Joe with those lead and counter straight rights.
Calzaghe's best bet is to steal a page from Vitali's playbook. He should hope to suffer an injury in training camp so that the fight is called off. :smoke
I'm sorry to post again but I just remembered that Taylor was very successful going underneath, banging fast to the body ( Pat Burns telling him not to get flat-footed and don't go head-hunting) and that took a lot of wind from his elder, specially when Hopkins was trying to close him down in the end stretch. If Calzaghe can get closer later in the fight, dig in and shoot some draining bodyshots and hook from the floor - that would definitely take any chance of him coming back into the fight.
The first thing Calzaghe will do - what he always does - is go to the body. He does that in every fight, to test reaction speed, distance and to score the first punch. Then, he will enforce his jab. Then, he will do whatever it takes, but he is not going to be overcautious or counterpunch the counterpuncher or anything like that. He doesn't need to. He will beat Bhops to the punch, though.
In the unlikely event Hopkins loses, you won't hear me make any excuses. I'll say I was wrong and move on. I don't have a vested interest in the outcome one way or another, I just think the Calzaghe fanboys are a funny lot! :good
Well he should just fight as he normally does against good opponents. Calzaghe has the skills to simply outwork old man Hopkins... Calzaghe 119-109 Only way Calzaghe is losing this fight is by injury...
