~ Joe CALZAGHE v. Bernard HOPKINS ~ ANALYSIS and PREDICTION Thread ~

There cannot be a shutdown because of styles, buddy.

 

brooklyn, you know you are one of my favourite posters on ESB...and that I think you're one of the very best, but I cannot put your change of heart to anything but loss of nerve, Sorry, buddy. I looked through your new arguments and they're nothing new, SUBSTANTIALLY. Of course, if you are right and Hopkins wins because Calzaghe cannot overcome the style advantage and it was all plain to see, for those objective enough, I will apologise and say: brooklyn deserves more praise than anyone because he had the guts to turn around at the last moment, even though he knew there'd be a backlash.

Of course you deserve praise if you really think you've spotted something different. I just don't think you have! It comes down to the same thing:

1. Is Calzaghe good enough to fight his own fight or will Hopkins bully him into loosing his nerve and fighting Hopkins' fight?

2. If Calzaghe fights the fight he should be fighting, close to his best, can Hopkins beat him, if Hopkins does everything right and is in the shape of his life?

Seems you are not just saying NO to the first one but you are saying YES to the second question, too! In that case, of course, you are right; Calzaghe will lose.

I am saying NO to the second question and I DON'T KNOW, BUT HOPE HE IS GOOD ENOUGH - to the first.

If you answer YES to the second question, though, you've been overrating Calzaghe for all this time, I'm afraid.

I might have done so too...we'll see.:good

(Don't take what I said the wrong way, buddy!:good I'm just pissed off that you changed track so radically on Joe Calzaghe's entire career, one day before the fight!)

 

I'm not sticking to my guns regardless of what I am learning, McGrain. At least, I don't think I am! I might not be a very good analyst, but nothing I have read from brooklyn has made me change my mind and nothing could...

...I know that sounds crazy and arrogant, but if you think this fight is entirely about styles, of course Calzaghe loses. It's not, however, just about styles. Brooklyn is making a technical argument as to why Hopkins is the favourite. Nothing we haven't seen before.

I think this is Calzaghe's fight to lose - he is good enough to fight a winning gameplan and fresh enough to implement it, WHATEVER Hopkins does, because Hopkins is past it. This is what I think. So, unless brooklyn proves that Calzaghe is not versatile enough to fight a winning gameplan and not strong, fast and fit enough to implement it, I am not going to be convinced by what he says, as much as I respect his opinion. Of course, if Calzaghe is overrated...he's right...

 

Of course you're no Calzaghe hater. It' just that...if he loses, that will have proved that Calzaghe was an overrated stay-at-home fighter who could never have mixed it with the American elites of his day. And it seems you have started to agree with this viewpoint.

The thing is this: if Hopkins' conditioning is that great and if he has this big style advantage, which we can all see, of course he loses! Of course he loses. But then, Kessler and everyone else would have lost too...everyone will have been proven to be just a bunch of Euro-bums!

If A 36 year old man going in against a style that doesn't suit him against one of the most intelligent, cunning and motivated operators in the sport cannot outperform that 43-year old physically enough to beat him and is outhustled despite his great experience in the sport, he was always OVERRATED...and so is Kessler, Mundine, Andrade etc...overrated all of them...

 

Thanks for taking my side, McGrain! :think :think