If Hopkins had fought as well as he did last night, he would have beaten Calzaghe

I'd be more inclined to consider this if it weren't for the two Taylor fights. The bottom line is that Hopkins doesn't do well against speed, as he cannot keep the pace to fire back or time his opponents' shots as effectively.

It's difficult to imagine that Calzaghe/Hopkins II would have much steam behind it. If Calzaghe defeats Jones as he should, he needs to fight Chad Dawson or retire. There's no one else worthy of his time.

 

I think it was a case of styles. Pavlik tried to do what Calzaghe did to Hopkins, but he could neither work inside like Calzaghe nor could he even just find Hopkins. That's the value of footwork: you can't carry out a high-volume strategy if your opponent is always just too far away or just too close.

Hopkins was much more visceral before the Calzaghe fight, but Calzaghe replaced his anger with fear and frustration. Again, I think the key message of this fight is the huge talent and weight differential between Calzaghe and Pavlik.

 

no because it was a close fight fought by a prime focused calzaghe against bernards identical twin...you know the one who looks old and puts in the inconsistant perormances,not the real one that schooled kelly that guy would take joes head off...its not about joes ability to adapt to a style nor his ability to totally nulify everything bernard had from round 6 onwards,its not even bout the fact that joe would slap hopkins silly all night long if it werent for the ref intervening between rounds and having to pry the welsh lad off him..joe never fought this guy he fought the older less accomplished hologram bernard calls his twin brother,can we have a fight between this guy and a fully focused joe in wales please?no.

 

Joe is just better then Kelly.

 

Hopkins performed as well as he was allowed to perform against Calzaghe. He was confused because Calzaghe confused him. He stopped doing the things that were working at the start because Calzaghe adjusted to them and they became ineffective. He was unable to adjust sufficiently himself to beat what Calzaghe was doing.

 

the fact that joe had hopkins writhing around on the canvas,faking low shots and begging for timeouts due to his inability to overcome joes swarm only goes to cement how good a past prime and unfocused calzaghe really is,bring on jones.

 

True. One just has to look at Hopkins's cleaness record in the two fights: I think even his most dedicated fans tend to admit that he was very dirty against Calzaghe, especially with the head, but he was admirably sportsmanlike against Pavlik. He didn't need any dirty tactics to dominate Pavlik, which shows you just how insanely good Hopkins is.

 

Joe is just better than Kelly.

Unfortunately some still haven't understood how good Calzaghe is. Hell, Joe himself didn't trust his own abilities until a couple of years ago.

 

I don't think it was there for him to win. The moment Calzaghe started rushing in before Hopkins could time the right hand, the fight seemed to be outside of B-Hop's grasp.

I think Hopkins had a good state of mind for the Calzaghe fight, since he needed to be able to endure a lot of pain to beat Joe, but Calzaghe has a way of breaking his opponents mentally. If you look at every one of Calzaghe's big wins, it tends to be pretty even early on before there's a point where his opponent more or less gives up due to his workrate and speed. It's the same problem that a prime Henry Armstrong presented: you keep on waiting for him to slow down and/or tire, but he never does. It's DEPRESSING to fight Calzaghe.

 

That sounds good, but that isnt what happened..What happened in the fight with Calzaghe is the same thing that happened in his fights with taylor. Calzaghe outworked him down the close..At this age Hopkins isnt going to become a fighter that will just outwork guys, he wasnt that type of fighter in his prime. I think what would be different in a fight with Calzaghe would be that Hopkins would be more aggressive early, and seeing and knowing that he can hurt Joe I think he goes for an early stoppage. I dont know that he can get one, but it would be exciting as hell for a while, then like in the first fight Joe will start to outwork Hopkins once again.

 

the short answer is yes.