I'm worried Hopkins may be getting punchy

Four friggin times he couldn't find his corner during fight with Calzaghe after the bell was rung.
This is not good sign either.

 

I also didn't notice this during the fight, but on the countdown when Roach talked about it I had a big interest. Roach really is a trainer who cares about fighters and he and me seem to be in agreement. Hopkins you've had a wonderful career now its time to hang em up.

Bernard hasn't reached this point yet, and I hope that no one ever does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwTOmegVwwg -----Skip to 1:30

Don't be a dick and make fun of this video.

 

Went to the wrong corner 4 times

READ THIS: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/apr/20/boxing.kevinmitchell



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This was one ugly, disjointed way to hang on to an unbeaten record in the twilight of a remarkable career, but Joe Calzaghe drew on reserves of sheer bloody-mindedness after an atrociously slow start to steal the decision from the aged phenomenon that is Bernard Hopkins.

The 36-year-old Welshman, decked inside two minutes, got up to carry a winning argument to a 43-year-old opponent who already considers himself a legend - thanks to Ted Gimza who saw it 115-112 for Calzaghe, supported by Chuck Giampa who gave it to him 116-111, against the lone verdict for Hopkins, 114-113, delivered by fellow Philadelphian Adalaide Byrd.

However close it was, this morning Joe stands at the top of the mountain, The Ring's acknowledged light-heavyweight champion, owner of a log that reads 45 fights 45 wins, undefeated in 18 years.

Next stop for Joe? almost certainly a farewell appearance at the Millennium Stadium in November against Roy Jones jnr, who will be encouraged to believe he has chances of resurrecting his reputation after witnessing one of Calzaghe's more ordinary performances.

The winner conceded it wasn't pretty and not the best fight of his career, but added: "I know I won. I fought a really hard fight. I had to let the punches go as the fight wore on. He was very defensive. I was only hurt once. It was the hardest fight of my career. I was a bit rusty at the start. I knew this wouldn't look pretty tonight. In training I concentrated on not rushing it, but I am glad to have landed more punches on Hopkins than anyone else has ever managed. He was awkward. He gave me some big shots. It's icing on the cake for my career. I don't know who my next opponent will but - but I am a legend-killer."

He knows it will be Jones, because there is nobody else. And he knows also that he came desperately close to blowing it. Hopkins could not believe either the decision or the margin of the third judge, Chuck Giampa. He stood staring into the crowd for minutes, with Enzo Calzaghe hopping deliriously by his side.

The American had every right to feel aggrieved. No way could Giampa have been watching the same fight as myself and the other 14,213 people at the Thomas and Mack Center, although I think Calzaghe did just enough in the second half of the fight to gain the narrowest of wins.

Hopkins, surely the fittest 43-year-old in boxing, looked terrific at the start, but, after decking Calzaghe with the sweetest of short rights in the first round and piling up the points over the next four rounds, he mixed eccentricity with a dangerously off-hand attitude.

Four times, the American went to a wrong corner at the end of rounds, and had to be led back to his stool by the referee. He was not noticeably hurt - although a swinging left in one of several untidy clinches looked to cause him grief.

Calzaghe, meanwhile, held his nerve, taking the occasional heavy right lead to work his way through his opponent's octopus-like defence. Hopkins, like Floyd Mayweather jnr and a host of well-school American boxers, is a master at rolling away from punches, using the ropes and drawing Calzaghe on to his punishing right. Obviously this didn't impress two of the judges, Gimza and Giampa. A draw would not have been a bad decision. It was that close.

Calzaghe clawed it back from the moment Hopkins decided to ease the pace down about round seven, although the loser didn't see it that way.

Hopkins said: "I wasn't slowing down, I was pacing myself. I wanted to take him into the deep waters. I think I made it look pretty easy. It was an old-school execution. He really wasn't landing his shots. He hit me low and it knocked my privates outside my cup. He hit me low three times. In the end the fans know who really won the fight. I really think I took him to school tonight."

He did - but not for the whole 12 rounds.

Hopkins, who had watched hundreds of hours of tape of Calzaghe, had obviously zeroed in on what he perceived as the southpaw's weakness, that open channel between his gloves.

Calazaghe was cut across the bridge of the nose and it trickled into his mouth in the second. He was warned for a low blow as the action grew scrappier.

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Calzaghe, more positive, made up ground in the third, and enjoyed the better of a brief and frantic exchange near the bell.

Hopkins shook Calzaghe with a second big right hand in the fourth, and they went into another scrambling clinch, prompting Joe Cortez to caution both fighters for persistent holding. Calzaghe came back strongly at the finish and,

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Hopkins was frustrating Calzaghe hugely with his sliding defence, although he took a few decent clips in the second part of the fifth -

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The cat-and-mouse game continued as each fighter waited until the end of a round before opening up.

Enzo Calazghe pleaded with his son to up the pace in the seventh and he did find another gear with a flurry that disoriented Hopkins,

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Calzaghe bossed the eighth, the first time he'd looked properly dominant, as Hopkins slowed. The ninth went his way too as he narrowed the gap.

The tenth was Joe's, as was round 11. Again, in the 11th, Hopkins sought refuge on the floor, alleging a low blow - this time there was none and the Philadelphian was sending out signals of desperation.

Hopkins started the final round like a man who suspected he might be trailing on points, with a mad rush, and finished it backpedalling as if he'd done enough to nick the verdict. He took defeat graciously. And Joe looked ever so relieved.

Proceedings took a nasty turn at the press conference, however, when Hopkins refused to give Calzaghe due acknowledgment for what the winner admitted was a close win.

"I got beat tonight," Hopkins said, "but not by Joe Calzaghe. The people know I won that fight." Struggling to keep the lid on his some times volatile temper, Hopkins hinted strongly that was it for him in the ring, and repeated that he had secured his legacy by his performance. He looked agitated when asked more than once if he'd give Calzaghe any praise at all.

Calzaghe had already said there was no animosity between them, despite pre-fight exchanges. But,when Hopkins declined to pay tribute or even shake his opponent's hand, an obviously peeved Calzaghe, feeling perhaps that his night of triumph was being hijacked by a sore loser, called after him: "I whipped your ass. You got your ass kicked by the white boy."

It was an unfortunate outburst from an obviously frustrated winner, resurrecting the race issue first introduced by Hopkins when they came face to face here last December before the Ricky Hatton-Floyd Mayweather fight.


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Better speaker in boxing today, you just can't prevent the man from telling the naked truth. I wouldn't say Nard is punchy cause he doesn't take punches which is quite different from saying that he can't take a punch - Hopkins takes a hell of a shot and smiles back at ya with his toothless skull stare but he knows how to block those shots and, most important of all, capitalize big on the counter shot - you have to take back what you give or go **** yourself and your big shots, actually go and hammer trees and tires instead...

 

He said that in his first line on the countdown, made me laugh hard. Classic Hopkins.

 

Hopkins answered those claims on the countdown. He just said that when you're in a fight of this magnitude and could be losing sometimes you're just TOO much into it that you're not focusing on other stuff. No big deal there, it's not like he was totally out of the fight, if he was totally out of it and losing one-sidedly then sure those claims are right now, but nope so I'll believe what he said there. Not all people react the same way in different situations.

 

Bernard has a habit of mixing up some words to hilarious effect.

For instance in the Calzaghe/Hopkins countdown: "That's my legacy. Didn't supposed to beat Tarver. Didn't supposed to beat Trindad. Didn't supposed to beat Joe Calzaghe."

 

WHO I AM ROY?!?!! WHO I AM!? WHO I AM?!!!?

 

You See Dddddddis Da Hypocrite About You!!

 

Pavlik sounds drunk in that documentary playing darts with his pals. He always sounds like he's got a cold.

 

Not that Hopkins isn't competitive anymore - but I hope he steps down - no matter what happens in the Pavlik fight. His presence disrupts the fights that should be made - and all these oldtimers hold the newcomers back.

 

Calzaghe ruined that poor old man :-(

 

Yup. Hopkins fights are boring.

I wanna see matchups between

Taylor
Pavlik
Kessler
Bute
Dawson

Time for Tarver, Hopkins, Jones, Johnson and Calzaghe to retire.

 

Please. Calzaghe fought an old, faded and deteriorated version of a great fighter and still barely won. :deal