I don't have any scientific evidence to support this upcoming statement it is merely an observation. BUT, I have seen Bhop fight his last.....oh probably 18 out of 20 fights. Anyone who has seen Bhop trhough the years is aware of his work rate and his style. The thing about the KP fight is that his whole ring attitude is different than it has been. As previous as 2005 versus eastman and a little less so versus Allen what we see is a cautious, measuring Hopkins. He was even very cautious giving up rounds to the welterweight DLH. His output was certainly limited by calzaghe due to calzaghes offensive attempts, but Bhop was fighting in his typical fashion. relying more on defense and less on offense. We see this style extremely exaggerated versus the two fights wtih JT. Hopkins waited on him all night and countered and he wasnt even worked very hard. I remember after especially the first JT fight that Bhop wasnt even breathing hard. In between rounds he wasnt breathign hard and it seemed like he could have doubled his punch output. In some rounds his punch output was laughable and in my opinion inexcusable. He deserved to lose that fight because of his lethargic, defensive boring style, his trademark for the last....dunno 6-7 years? Now I know Pavlik made it easy for him, but other fighters have made it easy on him and Bhop still did not pick up his pace. His normal routine is for boring, practical, defensively masterful fights. I prfer the craziness of a young mike tyson, but I admire his ring skills all the same. Why the change? Dont tell me its a style match up. Hopkins fights generally in one fashion. In the KP fight he threw like a 6 punch combo. i havent seen him attempt that in years. Something changed.
maybe he knew he could still win by fighting like that a few years ago... and now hes slipped enough so that he HAS to win by being more offensive... that and i really do think he was super motivated to win this fight, and it showed with the emotion on his face afterwards.
Too many losses. Hopkins knows the judges don't appreciate old school tactics and he knows he needs to pick up his output if he wants to get decisions. No way in hell should Taylor have beaten him, the same with Calzaghe.
one word....RESPECT....hopkins knows how good he is..he just wants the world to agree......always been one of my favourite boxers, and i genrally favour FIGHTERS not boxers...but hopkins is a phenom for his age....he must live a monastic lifestyle and is a tremendous advert for how boxing can be a positive influence in someones life..... so lets all give the old geezer some RESPECT.......he probably could have beat pavlik in his usual fashion..but he went for it....and how...
Bhop is smart enough and enough of a ring tactitian as well as having an experienced corner to realize that he has been fighting defensively his whole life. bhop was fairly active not ever a huge offensive machine. he has always relied on defense and counter punhcing. I am trying to remember the last time bhope threw a 6 punch combo. In my opionion he was motivated to win the 2nd taylor fight and everyone and their brother criticized him for not beign busy enough, he even said himself he wanst gonna wait til rd 5 to throw some punches, however he did the typical Bhop routine and lost again. Bhop recognizes how he fights. Motivation alone to beat KP? A guy who wont make or break his career? A guy who really no one would have cared had he lost a decision to? easy enough to say hop was over the hill. Lots of people said this was a no lose fight for bhop. Yet he fought more offensive than I have ever seen him.
well, you need to see a young hopkins during the early and mid 90's. he threw combo's. its that he he became more economic with his punches over the years to compensate for his age. it just didnt work vs. taylor and calzaghe. let them both fight a prime hopkins and see what happens
That is what I am saying. People think Bhop had low output b/c of Calzaghe....when Bhop had low output since like as long as we all can remember against any and every fighter. Calzaghe barely beating him on activity ALONE. Calzaghe did not outbox him for one second of any round. Never once did Calzaghe counter him or even land a jab regularly. JT landed more jabs then Calzaghe. Bhop was on some different stuff with Pavlik. Not b/c of Pavlik being a bum but Bhop deciding to open up offense. He even tried to get Pavlik out of there late.
Why was Hopkins so damn tired against Calzaghe and then perform the way he did against Pavlik? He threw so much leather at Pavlik and Hopkins fought like a young man the whole fight. Would he have been less tired against Calzaghe if he punched more? I think the opportunites just were not there against Calzaghe and if he threw lots of leather he would have paid for it and would have been really screwed late in the fight.
It was part of his strategy to throw much punches coming into this fight, more because of the type of fighter Kelly. Therefore, he made it a must to bring his conditioning to another level in order to have more in the tank and throw more. He stated that he would have no choice but to fight more than he was used to. I think he knew he had to do something to keep Kelly at bay and earn his respect, otherwise, he risked loosing by decision or worse by ko.
This is my question. hopkins almost never works hard enough to actually get tired. I was bewildered by his lack of fighting in JT fight one. It was deplorable. Then suddenly, against KP its like Bhop had an eigthball before the fight. There was one point, he threw a 6 punch combo. That may be the first time in the history of watching Bhop that ive ever seen him throw that many punches in a row.
I dont buy this argument. Bhop always says this kind of thing and then fights his normal routine. Look at JT 2. He said over and over how much busier he was gonna be..didnt happen. Look at the DLH fight, he was so well conditioned and still didnt throw anythign remotely like he did against KP.
The difference this time around he actually trained harder and was more focused. I believe he had a similar mind set and focus going into the Tarver fight. He seems to excel when he is the underdog and has the pressure leading into a fight.
Now he did say this postfight. He said that he never peforms unless he has critics. Again though, this certainly isnt a first. I and many otehrs were extra hard on bhop Jt 2. same ole bhop. This might be the ticket though
