Winky ready to ‘retire’ Hopkins!

[ICB]

http://www.fightnews.com/barcus06.htm

[Gandalf]

I dont really know how I feel about this fight. Hopkins is one of my favourite fighters, but I really want him to stay retired. I wouldnt want to pick against him ever and at 170 I would pick him to be too big for Winky. But I dont want him to continue this too long, what is he really aiming for by prolonging his career?! At least the Maskaev fight had a purpose. To win the heavyweight title and then I presume retire, but this Winky fight leads to where, and for how long? Hopkins is old now, no matter how in shape he is, there is no denying his age....I worry that its all going to catch up at some point, maybe not against Winky, but down the line...

[The Boxer]

was i the only one who saw hopkins seated next to don king at the mosely fight.

[Taeth]

I think this is will be a great fight between two guys who know the in's and out's of the sport as well as anyone maybe in the history of the game... Both of them are still top 5 p4p in my books, and they both do so many little things that go unnoticed by the average fan.

[cnote111]

I think this will be the most TACTICAL snoozefest ever....guaranteed contraversial unanimous or split decision or a draw...IMO

I'm praying to be proven wrong....

Hopkins is an opportunist in the ring...and Winky is defensly sound.....= pure tactical boredom

[albsur2006]

Winky is gonna destroy B-Hop in my opinion. B-Hop has never been a worker and Winky has outworked every fighter that he's ever faced. IMO, it's a one sided blowout for Winky. The only people right now that I think have a shot a beating Winky are JT and JoeCal. Winky's defense is basically impenetrable so to beat him you basically have to outwork him, these are the only two boxers that can do it.

[spekterscript]

I think Wright will go into this fight with his newly adopted or Pre-Vasquez offensive style. I think Hopkins will be able to counter Wright and will be too big and physically strong for Wright. If Wright goes in as a counter puncher I expect Hopkins to take the fight to a clinch fest, hold and hit, and use his rough house tactics in order to get Wright to unload. I pick Hopkins by UD. Whoever wins this fight will be further adding to his legacy as both fighters are top 5 pound for pound in my eyes.

[p4pking]

I don't have any problem with this fight, but I do hope Hopkins can call it quits afterwords.. I mean let's face it, he's not going to take serious punishment from Winky Wright moving up 10 lbs in weight..

[albsur2006]

I think Wright will go into this fight with his newly adopted or Pre-Vasquez offensive style. I think Hopkins will be able to counter Wright and will be too big and physically strong for Wright. If Wright goes in as a counter puncher I expect Hopkins to take the fight to a clinch fest, hold and hit, and use his rough house tactics in order to get Wright to unload. I pick Hopkins by UD. Whoever wins this fight will be further adding to his legacy as both fighters are top 5 pound for pound in my eyes.

Winky does not get countered, that's the whole point. JT is an excellent counter puncher and he barely got any clean punches on Winky. A lot of the punches he landed were in between the gloves and partially blocked. B-Hop is bigger but B-Hop doesn't throw enough punches to make a difference. The punches that B-Hop will throw will be blocked and he won't outwork Winky, this will equal to a UD12 for Winky.

[Kev]

Winky is gonna destroy B-Hop in my opinion. B-Hop has never been a worker and Winky has outworked every fighter that he's ever faced. IMO, it's a one sided blowout for Winky. The only people right now that I think have a shot a beating Winky are JT and JoeCal. Winky's defense is basically impenetrable so to beat him you basically have to outwork him, these are the only two boxers that can do it.

Are you serious? Winky has taken more punches in his last three fights than in the whole rest of his career!

He's more flat footed now, easier to hit and not as fast.

I think this should be a really close fight. I'd give Hopkins an edge but I gotta feeling this will be a controversial one on the scorecards with fans of each fighter both claiming the victory.

[spekterscript]

I think Wright will go into this fight with his newly adopted or Pre-Vasquez offensive style. I think Hopkins will be able to counter Wright and will be too big and physically strong for Wright. If Wright goes in as a counter puncher I expect Hopkins to take the fight to a clinch fest, hold and hit, and use his rough house tactics in order to get Wright to unload. I pick Hopkins by UD. Whoever wins this fight will be further adding to his legacy as both fighters are top 5 pound for pound in my eyes.

Winky does not get countered, that's the whole point. JT is an excellent counter puncher and he barely got any clean punches on Winky. A lot of the punches he landed were in between the gloves and partially blocked. B-Hop is bigger but B-Hop doesn't throw enough punches to make a difference. The punches that B-Hop will throw will be blocked and he won't outwork Winky, this will equal to a UD12 for Winky.

Eh, you and I must have seen a completely different Wright vs. Quartey fight because I saw him getting hit cleanly several times by short left hooks counters by Quartey. Those were counter punches by Quartey and Ike has lost a decent amount of hand speed since his prime. Are we going by prime Wright ( Wright vs. Mosley Wright) or by most recent Wright here? Explain the bruising and swelling on Wright's face against Quartey? Explain the fact that according to compubox "Quartey landed 174 of 642 total punches (27%)- 11 more punches landed than Jermain Taylor in his draw with Wright last June. " You're right. JT is a good counter puncher but Quartey is not. Explain those numbers.

[Pugilistic]

even if hopkins does lose to wright he most likely won't retire and i don't think wright would beat bhop. good luck to both of them

[amat]

This is SO tough to predict. Seriously...not so much the weight as much that...Hopkins and Wright are among the smartest fighters in boxing. I don't know how to feel about this. Even when they were both at 160 I had no idea how to feel about this one.

I also wonder what leverage the winner gets in making big matchups? I mean...Wright wins...he beat an old Hopkins. Hopkins wins he beat a blown up Wright. I don't know, I just don't think it does a lot for the winner. And I'm not sure it adds to much to the other's star power either.

[p4pking]

This is SO tough to predict. Seriously...not so much the weight as much that...Hopkins and Wright are among the smartest fighters in boxing. I don't know how to feel about this. Even when they were both at 160 I had no idea how to feel about this one.

I also wonder what leverage the winner gets in making big matchups? I mean...Wright wins...he beat an old Hopkins. Hopkins wins he beat a blown up Wright. I don't know, I just don't think it does a lot for the winner. And I'm not sure it adds to much to the other's star power either.

Yeah but neither of these guys need to gain extra leverage or anything like that... They've both already established themselves fully and have been fighting elite competition for years, including alot of the big names that were out there. I think it's more of a legacy defining type fight. The winner get's huge props from me at least.

[Kev]

This is SO tough to predict. Seriously...not so much the weight as much that...Hopkins and Wright are among the smartest fighters in boxing. I don't know how to feel about this. Even when they were both at 160 I had no idea how to feel about this one.

I also wonder what leverage the winner gets in making big matchups? I mean...Wright wins...he beat an old Hopkins. Hopkins wins he beat a blown up Wright. I don't know, I just don't think it does a lot for the winner. And I'm not sure it adds to much to the other's star power either.

It's a funny irony with Hopkins and Wright. I'd certainly rate both of them in the current top 5 p4p and they are truly world class fighters.

But I rarely get excited about seeing either of them fight. Wright vs Hopkins even were it for the undisputed middleweight title is a fight that barely raises my pulse above flatline.

I think virtually everybody would get more excited about seeing Green fight Miranda or even Pavlik fight Taylor than watching Hopkins and Wright exchange jabs and feints for 12 rounds.

If Wright was fighting Miranda or Hopkins was fighting Dawson I would be interested but Hopkins vs Wright is a hard sell as a PPV event, especially seeing as neither hold any titles.