More mental strength, cunning and resilience, and will to win: Joe or Bernard?

Probably Nard, but at the end of the day it won't matter. Joe has enough of these attributes in addition to the other stuff (that you don't want us taking about).

 

Agreed.

 

Both have a great will to win. Both can force their gameplan onto an opponent. Joe is clearly superior in one category: He would never give a winnable fight away. Hopkins did just that in the first Taylor fight. He showed that he was the better boxer in the later rounds, but lost legitimately because he gave too many rounds away. That was a weak performance mentally. This would never ever happen to Joe, if someone is going to beat him they will have to earn it the hard way.

 

At this point of their careers, it is hard to imagine one given fighter with a more powerful persona than Bernard. Joe Calzaghe's heart is immense but it takes more than that to handle the psychological warfare- mind games that Hopkins is gonna build up and you can easily see it's gonna play in Joe's mind. In theory and in paper, by virtue of greater activity even if you don't do much, you are gonna win most rounds because it'll be simply more than what someone else will do... And to the loser there can only be left the play of martyred hero, of wronged victim or of stunned acceptance. Where does this theory may not fit in? The Great majority of ringside press had Hopkins winning against Taylor in their first meeting, several by four rounds or more and we all know Hopkins only had a late surge in that fight ( landed 78 powerpunches ( any other shot other than a jab) and 76 in the last three rounds) so it's fair to say that while he was doing close to nothing, Bernard was still winning rounds in the press experts' minds - the mind games, the funny faces, the subtle moves to have your opponent off balance, the poses, mimics and shoulder shuffles can win the fight for him...

 

It's a tie if you're talking about a younger Hopkins. But right now at 40+ his will to win isn't the same (watch the Taylor fights) as it once was and I would take Joe. In their primes, I would give them both a 10 out of 10 on the will to win scale. On the mental strength scale, I would give a prime Hopkins a 10 and Calzaghe a 9, because sometimes when his opponents frustrated him he got a little careless.