Non-British perspective: Froch easier to like than was Calzaghe

**TitoFan** · 06-03-2012 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by BIG H

Hopkins reign at MW stunk until Tito. Best wins Vanderpool and Johnson. It's a shocking set of defenses over a 7 year period. After Tito, he fought nobodies again at MW, until DLH, who was a former Lighweight. You can't give Hopkins credit for opponents he lost to in this argument (also not opponents that weren't at MW) The best wins of B-Hops career (imo) are Tito and Pavlik, followed by Tarver and Pascal. He lost to RJJ, Taylor and Calzaghe and therefore those fights are not valid in the argument about his resume.

Similarly JCs opponents stank up to Lacy. Brewer, Reid, Mitchell, Woodhall and Eubank are probably more credible than B-Hop's MW opponents.

I am saying this completely objectively! Neither had realy good wins until later in their careers. It's not their fault that the oppositions was so mediocre. Prime for Prime, p4p, taking everytghing into consideration, they are hard to split. Each beats everybody on each others records up to their defining fights.

Keith Holmes was WBC middleweight champ, and Glen Johnson would go on to become IBF light heavyweight champ. He also beat William Joppy, who had been a good middleweight champ in his own right. B-Hop's win over DLH doesn't rate for me... 'cause DLH had no business at 160 to begin with. His brief stay there was a sham.

But I'm not here really to defend B-Hop's quality of opposition throughout the years, 'cause I'm not a B-Hop fan.... and besides, as with Wlad Klitschko and probably with Calzaghe himself... maybe they're not to be faulted as to the lack of classic opposition that make for epic fights. If they're not available, they're not available... and that's that.

Somehow I was drawn into this side argument, when my main point was and still is.... the "un-fan-friendliness" of Calzaghe's style in his later fights. I do have to make a parenthesis, however, and decry the choice of Peter (WTF?) Manfredo as an opponent at that particular stage of Calzaghe's career. I honestly don't think Hopkins had a "Peter Manfredo" at that stage of his own career. But that's another story.

That Calzaghe had brittle hands and had to adapt his style to that fact? That's all well and good. But it makes for lousy professional fights. Like I stated several times before..... I can watch a slugfest, or I can watch a chess match between two master boxers. But even these "chess matches" contain legitimate boxing punches. Punches landed in true form, by professionals in their craft. Slapping is something you see in "Toughman" competitions, when two guys are dragged out of a bar and paid $50 to slap each other to death.

That's all I'm saying.