VOTE! Question about Hopkins and Calzaghe

Well Joe was not a spring chicken himself when they fought. How did Hopkins win the fight? Joe landed 232 punchs to Bhops 132. Plus Joe was the aggressor the whole fight. Joe won end of story. Calzaghe had been calling out Bhop since 2001.

 

Thats a good Analysis. I agree.

 

A prime B-hop owns a prime Calslappy, no doubt. If Hopkins had possessed an extra set of lungs and had the ability to throw more than 2 punches per round, he would have won this bout :smoke . He would have been in better shape, made Slappy miss more, connect more often and taken the ample chances that Joe's unbalanced sprawling style would provide him with.

To be sure a prime JC would have been faster - but that's a moot point given so would B-hop and all the other advantages held by him. Highly likely UD for "The Executioner". :good

 

do you hoestly believe just watching the fight as a whole you could say joe landed 100 more PUNCHES than bernard?
also when do you consider joes prime was if you take it back too far you get back some of his power and he had even more handspeed but back then you didnt get his ring craft or adaptability that you do now from his experience?

 

elaborate?

 

No.

That fight doesn't tell us anything as they are now both way past their physical primes and are different fighters now as they have both adjusted accordingly.

 

Yes.

 

Yea, I believe he beats Calzaghe prime for prime.

 

Well done post:good

 

I think that Hopkins won the fight anyway. (People seemed to give JC rounds for ineffective aggression)
A prime hopkins would not have gotten tired, like the version we saw did. He would have easily beaten Calzaghe, possibly even a stoppage.

 

He most certainly did. I love the argument the Calzaghe fans make about Hopkins being more aggressive and therefore playing into Calzaghe's hands. It sounds very much like wishful thinking to me. Why would a younger Hopkins elect to fight more aggressively? Many people thought 43 year old Hopkins beat Calzaghe and a tiny bit more stamina would have put it beyond doubt. I'm sure 36 year old Hopkins would be able to come up with the right strategy.

A more likely scenario is that a younger Calzaghe would be more reckless and get himself badly hurt more often!

 

So Hopkins gases out against Calz.? Is that really what happened? If so why? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Hopkins came back against Taylor, imposing his will in the later rounds. Then he went up to LHW and systematically defeated Tarver. Then he beat a P4P high ranker who had not lost in ten years in Winky Wright. As far as I know Hopkins was not accused of gassing in any of those fights. So then comes Calzaghe and Hopkins loses only because he's old and his stamina isn't what it used to be? That had nothing to do with Calzaghes style and pressure, but just the combination of a guy being too old and a younger guy (36) with poor skills and a great work rate? I think Calzaghe deserves more credit than this, and perhaps Hopkins wasn't as gassed as many think he was, but instead he was fighting the last half of the fight the only way he knew he could survive without getting beaten up or (gasp!!!) stopped. His fight with Pavlik may shed some additional light on this.

 

Calzaghe likes fighters coming to him. The more agressive the better. Simple.

 

It's hard to go back in time and pick a winner, but Calz. maybe further from his prime than Hopkins, because of his style of fighting. Calz. is still using what got him there in the first place; speed, workrate, stamina (all related), and a clever unpredictable style. The speed seems a bit off, timing too. Hopkins style has evolved very effectively over the years, which is very impressive. He relys of sound fundamentals, every trick in the book, and true guile and it's worked real well to keep him up toward the top, but those two traits typically have a longer shelf life than speed and workrate.