The love given to Hopkins and the hate given to Calzaghe

Hopkins is a Yank so the Americans are on his jock.
Calzaghe is a Brit so the Americans feel the need to trash him.

One thing that is telling though. No matter how the Yanks claim Calzaghe had a poor resume,fought Hopkins,Jones past their prime,couldn`t punch but slapped etc etc.........the just can`t stop talking about him and that`s the giveaway. Joe Calzaghe ATG and legend!

 

Yeah I understand that mate, but your facts arn't beneficial to your arguement.

 

Calzaghe made his debut in 1993, and entered the top 10 SMW in 1997, the year he won the WBO SMW title, he wasn't even considered top 10 SMW by the ring in 1996?

Compared to Hopkins, who made his debut in 1988, and entered the top 10 MW in 1992 (or 1991), and then won the title in 1995.

Before Calzaghe became WBO SMW champ, not once was he considered top 10 SMW by the ring.

Hopkins was ranked #9, in 92, #8 in 93, #3 in 94, before he was champ

Calzaghe was ranked #2 1998 - 2001 during when he was WBO SMW champ

Hopkins was ranked #2 in 1995 during when he was IBF MW champ

It took Calzaghe 5 years to reach #1 SMW, when it took Hopkins 1 year to reach #1 MW

It took Calzaghe 9 years to become Ring SMW champion, when it took Hopkins 6 years to become Ring MW champion

Calzaghe enter the P4P top 10 in 2006, 9 years after becoming WBO SMW champ, when Hopkins enters the P4P top 10 in 1998, 3 years after becoming IBF MW champ.

Calzaghe's highest P4P rating has been #3 in 2008, 11 years after becoming WBO SMW champ. Hopkins highest P4P rating has been #1 in 2001, 6 years after becoming IBF MW champ.

Calzaghe has been top 10 P4P 2006 - 2008, thats 2 years. Hopkins been top 10 P4P 1998 - present, thats 11 years.

Hopkins has always been considered better, its just that these Calzaghe fans in 2008 got over excited because of a SD win.

That is partially the reason why Hopkins has been, and always will be given more respect than Calzaghe :deal

 

why do you make hopkins look bad and joe look better ? hopkins is an american story they will make a movie about someday.i dont think they wil make one about joe cal, maybe in england.besides you did not even mention hopkins mw days as ruler for ten yrs plus.you just left all that out.then you sayed his career started when he fought tarver at lhw.but could have retired after the tito fight or even after the roobery in the jermain taylor fight.then when you think it was done then you have his career at lhw.he loss a split by one point in the joe cal fight.man i dont get it.

 

americans tend to do this with their fav boxers, when outclassed like by calzaghe they have the need to trash him to try and degrade his victories

calzaghe has always been better than hopkins

the fact in 2002 hopkins pulled out of a fight with calzaghe says it all, he ducked the magician for many years but in the end got an old fashioned ass whopping by calzaghe like all who dared not to duck him

 

Well when you were comparing their resumes, you were giving me facts about Calzaghe's to make it look better, but the facts wasn't very benefical, for example:

You said Brewer was coming off a good UD win, but failed to mention he had 8 losses going into the fight.

You said Glen Johnson has loads of losses, but failed to mention he was undefeated going into the Hopkins fight.

You said Chris Eubank was coming off 2 wins, but failed to mention they were 2 years apart and past his prime.

You said Kessler won a title straight after Calzaghe, but failed to mention it was a vacant title against Sartison and he had recently been beat to bits by Ward.

If your giving facts about thing, at least give the 'real' facts, and not ones that make your argument look better.

 

I agree the ring would favor the american based fighters, but thats besides the point because the SMW division has been dominated by the European fighters from 1997 - 2008 during Calzaghe's reign, and it took him years to get on top.

Also, u say Calzaghe was a commodity in the UK he used to fight undercard when Junior Witter, Ricky Hatton or even Ritchie Woodhall were on the same card as him. If he was so big in the UK, why did most people here in the UK, think Lacy would beat him. I memba that fight coming on ITV around 3am, and everyone here thought Lacy gonna beat him up.

The ring stop issuing belts at the end of the 80's, early 90's, and then restarted giving the belts early 2000's.

The ring champ before RJJ at LHW, was Micheal Spinks in 1985, in 2001 the belt was given to RJJ
who was the WBC, WBA, IBF, IBO, WBF, IBA, NBA LHW champ, and Erdei won the WBO LHW title in 2004.

Tarver beat RJJ, Glen Johnson beat Tarver, Tarver beat Glen Johnson, Hopkins beat Tarver, Calzaghe beat Hopkins. so the Ring LHW title has travelled as you have to beat the man to be tha man.

The ring is the most reliable source out of the other 4 sanctioning bodies

 

This is a great debate and i think one that hasn't been repetitively done here on ESB at nauseum. I think there's a huge disparity in the majority of their careers and it essentially comes down to their promotions. B-hop has been notoriously known throughout his career as a guy who wouldn't bend or cut corners for promoters, that's why it was sometimes difficult for fighters to get a fight set up with him. That being said, he was never protected or cherrypicked his fights- he took on the best his division had to offer...Calzaghe unfortunately had Warren promoting him for 95% of his career and as everyone can attest to on here, Warren is well known for taking the "easy" route for his fighters so he can profit on their longevity in the sport. I have Hopkins way ahead, and Kessler getting dismantled by a green Ward takes a lot of steam off that win for Calzaghe....But if JC had a different promoter and came much earlier to the states when fighters like Bhop and RJJ were closer to their primes than maybe i'd change my perspective between them....

 

What I admire most about you is your fair and unbiased depiction of both fighters. From what you said, it is really too hard for me to pick between the two because you just gave such a fair and balanced history on both guys.