Bernard Hopkins vs Joe Calzaghe I and result of a hypothetical rematch

[p4pking]

It was an extremely close fight, and quite a shit one imo. I don't like Calzaghes as a fighter, the fact that Hopkins simply couldn't fight at his pace forced him to spoil endlessly and when I went to rewatch it a while back I just couldn't be bothered after a while. I don't think there's really even all that much to look for, neither guy was doing anything especially effective it just depends which style you find more aesthetically pleasing in the first place.

Not really, this one was down to who landed vastly more punches

Oh really? Thanks. Imo Calzaghe didn't land a single punch that was on par with what Hopkins did connect with(although so little), which is what makes this fight shit to watch for me.

you are right, hopkins easily landed the best 5 punches of the fight by a long long way

calzaghe won tho because he landed the next best umpteen

Ok? Perfectly valid opinion to hold, I just don't think there were really a "next best umpteen". Calzaghe just flurried at nothing and tried to shoeshine Hopkins for much of the fight imo, and had enough success doing so in many rounds but easily lost others in which Hopkins landed real punches. The fight never really took off partly because the two are so utterly opposite in their approach to boxing. Hopkins has textbook punching form and body control but obviously is extremely conservative in his output and can't fight 12 hard rounds. Calzaghe was the antithesis of this really and operated almost entirely on fitness and athletecism. Sometimes such a clash of styles makes for a great fight, this was not one of those nights and I do put more blame on Hopkins for spoiling, for whatever that's worth.