Who do you rate more highly: Joe Calzaghe or Bernard Hopkins?

I will help Joe, Bernard is higher but Joe need help on this one..:yep

 

It's a tough call, I think BHOP has an advantage in that he was exposed to American, and even world, audiences for much longer than Joe and therefore is ingrained much deeper into the psyche of boxing fans.

That being said, all of the fights mentioned above were against men coming up from much smaller weights. The Tarver fight was impressive to me though.

Joe was left with too small a window between his signature win and retirement to leave the deep lasting impression that Bernard Hopkins did.

I personally favour Calzaghe, irrespective of his level of competition (BHOP had his fair share of similar level fighters during his middleweight reign). Namely because I have seen all of his fights and not once did I ever see a flicker of him losing the will not to win.

Now, if my Bernard Hopkins career collection would hurry up and arrive I could make a more even judgement.

Calzaghe - never once took the cynical route trying to defensively outslick his opponent by holding, hitting or faking injury. The man was strictly offensive and determined to out fight his opponent.

 

Hopkins only beat little guys, Calzaghe is better.

 

Calzaghe was the greatest Super Middleweight champion in history, period.

Hopkins is a solid top 15 Middleweight champion, period.

Calzaghe retired undefeated, 46-0-0, 21 of those victories were title defenses.

Hopkins had 20 title defenses as MW champion, later became LHW champion.

Calzaghe also won recognition as the top LHW by beating Hopkins.

Hopkins best victories have come over the likes of Wright, Pavlik, Tarver, De La Hoya, Joppy, Trinidad, and Glen Johnson.

Calzaghe's best victories have come over the likes of Hopkins, Jones, Kessler, Lacy, Eubank, Brewer, Mitchell and Bika.

Both mens defenses, for the majority of their reigns, were against limited opposition.

Its hard to say....

Calzaghe is THE best SMW of all time, while Hopkins is one of the best MW champs of all time. Both faired well above their natural weight classes, gaining recognition as the top guys at 175. But it is Hopkins with the more high profile opponents. BUT, Calzaghe did defeat Hopkins and the man whom Hopkins ducked to rematch Roy Jones, though he was shot.

To me, its a DRAW. Some will argue with it, but, imo, its equal. But I could see where people could give it to Hopkins.

 

Just to check, what is the definition of "rate more highly"?


I agree Hopkins is more of a legend than Joe (see reasons above)


But if you were to pit them against any other fighter (lets leaves prime Jones out of it for arguments sake) in and around their weight class, who do you think would come away with the most wins?

Joe's adaptability and ring generalship would secure him the most wins in my opinion. Hopkins, though a great great fighter, would surely have more losses due to his style of fighting, that centres on making the other person look bad, rather than himself look good.

What do you think?

 

Hopkins is overrated because of that Pavlik fight, when the hype dies down we'll see a much more real poll.

Before Calzaghe-Hopkins everyone was calling Hopkins a coward.

 

bernard has no class. dont rate no racist over pure class

 

Hopkins for sure. No disrespect to Calzaghe but i just hate the way he fights, of course my opinion has nothing to do with how good he is, but i just thought i should put it out there.

 

Huge respect for both, but would say Calzaghe.

 

well you know who ive voted for and most of my reasons are above, the iceing on the cake is JC beat hopkins.

 

B.Hop

 

Calzaghe easily.
Much more skilled and technically gifted fighter.
+ He will always beat hopkins at any age.
Hopkins had a gift at getting a SD.