I love how Calzaghe Nuthuggers are worried about biased judges and refs.....

What about pole jockers? That's the one I'm using from now on.

 

Absolutely. Hopkins UD or possibly MD.

 

I really believe Calzaghe will stop him late by TKO. Judges won't matter.

 

Well at least he has the guts to come to America. Hopkins gets to fight in his home country. something people criticize jc for not doing....so hopkins gets a pass for getting home turf...and jc gets criticized for fighting abroad...sounds like a hater.:-(

 

That doesnt even make sense.

Joe stated at the time of the Manfredo fight that he wanted to come to America and fight a big name on the big stage. Hopkins called him out...he accepted.

How do people somehow make this Hopkins fault?

:-(

 

They know from experience how crooked the referee and judges are in America. Hell, the referee took a point away from Hatton for acidently hitting the ring rope!

 

tell me, do you actually like any fighters?

 

are you just another guy who's only seen joe's fights with manfredo, lacy and kessler?

(providing you've seen more of his fights) tell me, which fights, manfredo aside which was a terrible stoppage, has joe received biased treatment?

 

I firmly suggest that you take a look at Calzaghe's early wins ( 22 wins, 21 KOs, 10 inside one round) and specially against Nick Manners, Tyrone Jackson ( listen to the comments when the fight was stopped in the fourth please), against Scotsman Stephen Wilson ( TKO in 8 for the British SMW Title) and Brazilian Luciano Torres (TKO in 3 against the South American SMW Champion and the last fight before the Eubank's fight) and you will hopefully acknowledge that the refs stopped the fights because Calzaghe put a whole lot of short punches together, most with the inside of his glove, some positioning his right glove on the side of his opponent's head and firing left hands in succession... That is a stand that British referees make - to stop contests when one of the fighters is on the receiving end and not fighting back... Again, against Manfredo...And that is probably one of the reasons why Bernard always wanted the fight on american soil - this is the inverse thinking, Hopkins is the one not to want it on British soil and by exclusion of parts, it has to be in America.

 

I second that and after having watched the fights against Taylor, Tarver and Wright some 10 times. Hopkins was much stronger and crisp with counter-shots against the rangier and dangerous Tarver and threw many more punches in spurts, combinations of scoring/lighter shots on Winky to counteract Wright's own high output. The argument about Hopkins sucking up air is somehow misleading because I have evidence on that ever since the Jones fight in 93... He did finish fresher that Winky and his opponent was the first to say that he didn't fight like a 43 year old man.

The fight was close tho. Wright scored a lot more with left hand counters than people judge and it was even after eight rounds. Just that Hopkins finished strong and Winky faded... What can you say about that? At most, that Wright was tired and looked older.

 

Joe stated that he wanted to fight in America ever since his second WBO title fight in 98 but took ten years to actually do it. Hopkins priced himself out of a fight in 2002 but so did Woodhall at some point, and so many others. Basically Calzaghe fought Veit and McIntyre in Germany and Denmark and Hopkins fought in Paris in 1992 and Mercado in Ecuador, they are even in fighting abroad. I feel Hopkins was not really at the big stage before the Holmes and Trinidad MW series fights in MSG - you can't say that fighting RJJ in D.C. on the undercard of Bowe-Fergunson, or Mercado in Maryland, or Lipsey in the MGM in Vegas and on the undercard of a Tyson fight, JDJ in Louisiana, Glen Johnson in Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio Cali, or Syd Vanderpool in Indiana, were at the big stage... Joe also fought Eubank, Reid, Starie ( on the undercard of Tyson-Francis), Sheika, Woodhall, Brewer, Mitchell under the same levels of pressure. Calzaghe already moved to the big stage when fighting Lacy and Kessler.

 

To Joe, fighting in England is abroad. It might not be far but the crowd is very very different.

 

Well, I got to know that he has really a problem with flying and even for the Pudwill fight in Newcastle, he went with Mandy all the way by train... I don't think he is mentally so far away from England cause he had massive support in Manchester against Lacy... People like Barry McGuigan (ITV Sports commentator) were nervous for him and were giving advice to box safe out of the right jab... Steve Bunce ( The Independent), Kevin Garside ( Daily Mirror) and John Rawling ( The Guardian) and the British Public demanded that Calzaghe had to fight overseas and against either Dariusz "The Tiger" Michalczewski or Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins. Jones' and Tarver's names were mentioned for that defining fight but before they got beaten by Tarver and Hopkins... Michalczewski lost to Gonzales and Tiozzo and is only fighting Ottke now so that the winner gets that Calzaghe fight possibly later... It all comes down to Hopkins and Calzaghe and on american soil, there was no other way out all along.