If Hopkins challenged and fought Calzaghe at 168 in 2002, but in US...

actually JOe c had better skills when he could punch properly other then experience they're isn't much more of a plus from 2008

 

Wouldnt you agree Hopkins power was better earlier on as well...and he was still able to put him on his ass in his FORTIES....

 

Same could be said for Hopkins, who is also as skilled as anyone when it comes to ad******g to certain fighter....and tbh a hopkins from 2002 vs a 2002 Calz would still be pretty much even, should we just say prime vs prime?

 

question ? do you think a younger fresher , faster ,better hands having and defence having joe would also deal much better with B-hop? Joe gave b- hop all he could handle. you have to take both fighters at their best and put them against each other. of course if you take a younger fresher b-hop he deals with the JOE C from 2008 better. but 2002 joe wins.

have you seen Joe c fights pre LACY?

 

Hopkins has never had devastating one punch power, his power has always been predicated on timing and accuracy which he still has. Granted, he was more aggressive and more active earlier in his career, but Joe was faster and had better reflexes earlier in his career so it evens out in my eyes

The thing about Joe is that he would get sloppy against opponents when he got overly aggressive. Every time he has been dropped it was on a counter when he left himself open. But notice that once he gets caught, it suddenly stops happening throughout the rest of the fight. Hopkins hit him with a perfectly timed counter punch in the first, and hit him with another good counter while off balance a few rounds later, but in the last 8 rounds he never landed a meaningful punch and looked befuddled. Calzaghe figured him out and Bernard couldn't make a counter adjustment. Normally Hopkins is the one who looks better in the second half of the fight. Against Calzaghe he looked lost and confused in the second half

 

Ya it says a 43 year old prizefighter had trouble with the pace of the fight, now if he were younger:think

 

hopkins is not being underrated . ima big fan of both Joe c style at any time is all wrong for B-HOp look up my "Why Calzaghe will beat B-hop thread and you'll see my opinion in detail

 

I just think a 2002 Hopkins would have started the fight even better than when they did meet, and it would have been wider by midfight, and Joe would have had to be more aggressive which plays into Hopkins hands...every time he would try to engage Hopkins hopkins would have played d and disengaged, everytime he would have tried to rest, Hopkins would have put it on him, its all a matter of Hopkins having fresher legs THROUGHOUT the fight

 

hopkins was a buriser in the begining of his career he didn't start fighting methodicaly untill the Holmes fight.

 

so he able to counter joe more easily an faster .better reflex more power having JOe C? really please give an in depth analysis of how this happens becasue joe would vastly improve if you move it back to 2002 as well.

 

He would catch him coming in, rough him up in the clinch...Joe would be eating that straight right all night, and he would continue to eat it when he realized he was down on points and got desperate, its simple really

 

no as power is the last thing to leave a fighter. and his punch would be heavyier with th add weight . Even with joes bad hands and unorthadox way of throwing puncheshe manages to buzz fighter because he has heavy hands naturaly. he just can't throw a punch properly anylonger which is IMO the main reason he retired because ther was still bigg money out there.

 

Roy has the best shot.

Kessler, Hopkins, Toney would have a shot if they fought outside of the UK.

 

Speed IS power, so is your ability to react and time a fighter....Im sure these two wouldnt go toe to toe just slugging so the POWER you are talking about is not what I mean

 

Joe would take away Hopkins' right hand the same way he did in their actual fight. Not that hard for a southpaw with Joe's speed and footwork to nullify a right hand that they view as a threat. In the beginning of the fight, Hopkins landed some nice ones. After Joe adjusted, Hopkins was unable to land the right with any type of frequency or meaning