Quote Originally Posted by p4pking View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Bilbo View Post
I agree its absurd to suggest Hopkins didn't take the fight with Calzaghe as serious as the fight with Pavlik.

i think it just came down to Pavlik still being inexperienced and raw relatively speaking whilst Calzaghe is as seasoned and experienced as they come.

I guess you could make an argument that having Naseem Richardson back in his corner and organising a gameplan was a big help to Hopkins but even then at 43 I really don't think a trainer can a win or lose a fight for Bernard.

Calzaghe simply coped better with Hopkins style than Kelly did.

I think it's pretty obvious Hopkins trained harder for this fight because he couldn't live with losing to a white boy ok? That's why he didn't even train for Calzaghe, it was degrading for him to put in that kind of hard work at his age just to fight a Welshman who slaps. Freddie Roach didn't have the right racial sentiment to really get Hopkins fired up either. Nazim wouldn't let him lose to another white boy. Simple as that. If he was in the corner for the Calzaghe fight it would've never happened the first time.


Now that's more like it. I can buy that.