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

I'd agree with most of this. I voted Hopkins, though - for whatever reasons (which have been argued over to death on here) - Calzaghe's got that horrible period fighting poor opposition between Reid/Eubank and Lacy/Kessler that makes it impossible to rank him higher than Hopkins.

 

In my ATG top 100 P4P, B-Hop by about 80 places on Calzaghe.

 

To the guy that said Hopkins hasn't avenged the Taylor losses, he beat the man who beat the man in Pavlik. Higher weight no less, but Hops was drained at 160 by that point.

 

Overall Calzaghe.

Hopkins longevity is incredible though. But his resume is extremely overrated, many of his fans forget to mention the fact that his best wins are over blown up welters.

 

Its often ignored that against the best two middleweights BHop faced, he lost. He bookedended his top level MW career with defeats.
No-one found a way to take Joe's 0. That shouldn't be ignored. Sure he's criticised for lacking the big matches till late, but no-one figured him out. No-one. No fighter on the planet ever wants to lose, and it is impressive to go your whole career without a defeat. I'm pretty certain Bernard Hopkins would love to have beaten every fighter he ever faced. Including the white boy. But he didn't. The best 2 Middles he faced beat him. And a whtie boy.

 

Hopkins win:

Glenn johnson
Tarver
Pavlik
Trinidad
De La Hoya
Keith holmes
Wink Wright
Joppy

Calzaghes:

Reid
woodhall
Kessler
Mitchell
Brewer
Jones
Hopkins
Eubank

Hopkins wins are far better than Joes. there is probaly only Joppy who was past his prime.

Joe only wins vs peak world champs was Lacy and Kessler hardly great fighters.

the thing is Hopkins dipped his feet at the higher level when it mattered. Joe only fought at a high level for a short period of time.
The less frequent you dip yr feet in the fire the less likely you are going to get burnt.

 

Calzaghe also beat Hopkins... you missed that one from your list.

 

your obviously a Calzaghe fan so youead what u want to read...lol

read again....

its easy to hide behind the Warren boxing organisation ....Eubank did it alot...Hamed also lol

 

I apologise... missed it..

You are a ****** if you think I'm anything but objective.

 

what disappointing about this thread is joe had lost before the question was even asked

 

end of the day...the poll doesnt lie.

considering so many people voted...its fair to say that Hopkins is readily regarded the greater fighter.

He has 75% of the vote

end of..

 

it would be a fair poll if boxing experts completed it, that way joes unpopularity on this site wouldn't come into disrepute

 

I rank Calzaghe higher than Hopkins in my ATG list, because I give credit for wins in the ring, if two boxers belong in the same league 'premier league' in this case, and one boxer has a 'fair' head to head win, I will nearly always rank the victor higher.
Hopkins was 90% prime when he faced Calzaghe {he is unique, fantastic for his age as he proved against Pavlik}, Calzaghe was also 90% prime when they fought, hands shot, but ring craft and workrate still excellent,
no matter at what stage of their careers Hopkins and Calzaghe could have fought, Calzaghe would have won, dont forget when they did fight, the fight was in the US, with a US referee and US judges.{Anybody picturing a fantasy fight between both boxers needs to envisage the fight either on a home and away basis or on a neutral ground, people are always comparing Calzaghe to Hopkins and Roy Jones Jnr, what would have happened if Joe had fought those to boxers 'back in the day', in Wales in front of 70,000 or 80,000 thousand people at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff, there would have been huge roars when Joe got some punches off, silence when the opponent throws some shots, it would be hard for the judges positioned ringside not to be influenced by the roaring, clapping, screaming crowd. Hopkins only ever fought away twice, once a draw in Ecuador, where he was put down twice in different rounds and once when he won after been taken the distance in France, Roy Jones Jnr has never fought a pro fight outside the USA, if Hopkins could not beat Calzaghe at home, he would be looking at a heavy defeat away from home.

 

Calzaghe would beat Hopkins everytime.

 

Originally Posted by rushman

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Calzaghe.

He is better H2H. He would not have lost to someone like Taylor. So he wins.

Bhop is amazing though, his resume is getting close to twice as good as Calzaghe's, and his longevity is something special.

I'm ignoring things like who was more known for dirty fighting, or ducking people or crap like that. If it went down to popularity then BHop will always win, and I'd vote for him just cause he humiliated Tarver.

I am basing my response on this:
Fighter A beats fighter B. Fighter A would also beat the fighters that B beat. Fighter A would have beat the fighters that fighter B lost to.

Fighter A is therefore the greater fighter.

If people are also voting on H2H then they will vote for Calzaghe.
If people are voting for better resume/accomplishments then they will vote for Bhop.
If this is a popularity contest then Bhop will win here, no contest.

I vote for Calzaghe, cause he was - without doubt - a better fighter.

BUMP, this post deserves to be at the top of a page.