Quote Originally Posted by p4pking
Quote Originally Posted by TheCruelBallet
I cant wait for this!

to be honest im amazed ANYONE is picking BHOP in this fight..it just aint rational...Im having £500 on a calzaghe win and will look forward to collecting my winnings! Joe = too fast = too much heart = better foot work = way way better work rate = awesome chin. BHOP will try to spoil and thats his only hope...people talk abouts BHOPS defence..which is sort of a valid point..he's cagey no doubt..fact is joe will not stop punching..when they aint in the clinch BHOP will be getting hit...
I will not be picking Hopkins to win this fight, I think Joe takes it but Hopkins WILL make it an extremely difficult fight one way or another. What I bolded in your post is what many people seem to think, that Joe just throws so many punches compared to Hopkins, that he can't lose... The fact is that if Calzaghe plans to go in there and throw 1000 punches, he'll probably land about 50 of them. Hopkins is a defensive master, has superb ring generalship, movement and footwork. He will not allow Calzaghe to fight at the pace he has done against other fighters. I think even the biggest Calzaghe fan(with a functional brain) should expect Joe's output to drop considerably since Hopkins will need to fight at a slower pace in order to be at all effective. No doubt Joe will be busier than Hopkins, but I still think Hopkins will dictate the pace not vice versa. He has to. Also, as old as Hop is, if Calzaghe comes forward flurrying without measuring Hopkins and jabbing his way in, Hopkins could still KO him with a good right hand down the middle. I believe Hopkins may hit Calzaghe as hard as he's ever been. I dunno, maybe I'm giving Hopkins too much respect for his skills and not enough flack for his output.. What I dislike about this fight is that although I'm a big fan of Hopkins, in order for him to beat top fighters these days, he pretty much needs to turn fights into a snoozefest. I'd love to see Calzaghe turn the tables and make him fight at a higher pace than he'd like, I just think it's more likely to happen the other way.
Agreed im one of the people that thinks Calzaghe wins but it will be a very tough fight. Hopkins knows all the tricks in the book, and he can offset Calzaghes rhythm by clinching and using rough house tactics. Plus he can slow Calzaghe down by using the tactics i just mentioned. I have Calzaghe's career set and what i noticed is that in rough tough fights like with Reid, Bika, Salem, he seems to lose concentration and then he starts to play into his opponent's hands by fighting that kind of fight. Now some people may argue that he fought down to the level of his opposition, and Calzaghe has stated that he can't get himself motivated when he fights lesser opponent's. And some of that is true to an extent, but it is also due to Calzaghe losing his concentration. I think one of the keys for Calzaghe will be his jab, Taylor gave Hopkins hell with his jab. And Calzaghe has a pretty good solid/fast jab like you all see in Kessler fight. I actually think Calzaghe should use his jab pick his spots and outwork Hopkins. But not by throwing 100+ punches a round, say round about 50+ punches. Calzaghe can't get lured into a brawl with Hopkins because like i stated earlier, Hopkins is as tough as they come and he knows all the tricks in the books by clinching using rough house tactics to offset a fighters rhythm.

I see Calzaghe winning an ugly fight UD 115-113, 116-113, 115-113, somewhere around there.