Hate to say it but..Hopkins might do a number on Calzaghe!!!

[PRIDE OF BOSTON]

My thoughts are that calzaghe will almost SCHOOL hopkins. We will see moments of pure genius from him and he will win on ud by a huge majority, possibly almost every round.

I think that people dont realise just how great calzaghe REALLY IS because they dont realise how good a boxer kessler is either (who joe took a good victory albeit not schooling by any means, but sill a good victory over).

In terms of career fights, pavlik and taylor will do nothing for joes carreer. Joe will batter pavlik because pavlik is too clumsy for him and wont be able to defend against joe's attacks, combos and movement. The win against pavlik will be met by excuses saying 'but pavlik is too young, pavlik is too inexperienced and was moving up in weight.'

A win against taylor would do nothing as hes already been beaten by pavlik twice...and to be frank i think kessler would smash the crap out of taylor.

Only when calzaghe retires and kessler proves how great a boxer he is, will people realise what a true legend calzaghe is who shines above roy jones, hopkins etc. But for now it will not happen.

Of course i might have calzaghe wrong, there ar doubts there as he hasnt yet fought in america, BUT WHAT makes people think that fighting in america suddenly makes a fighter great? Calzaghe has fought and beaten every one of his opponents, hes beaten reid, mitchell, eubank, lacy and kessler so far...EVEN IF he adds hopkins, pavlik, dawson, tarver to the list of victories aswell THEN PEOPLE WILL STILL MAKE EXCUSES AND DISLIKE HIM.

Thats the way i see it...calzaghe to win decisively over hopkins!

This will be met with the excuse 'hopkins is past it'...let me remind everyone that he has said himself he is not past it, he recently beat wright, he also beat tarver at light heavy (demolished tarver).

If calzaghe loses then i will be the first to put my hand up and say that he is not who i thought he was...that he was not the champ i thought. I WILL NEVER MAKE AN EXCUSE!

But i have a feeling come april 19th he will beat bhop easily...AND then go on to batter every single american champ that he faces, wherever, whenever!

But i know that this will still be met with excuses anyway.

That's your oppinion and I respect it. I think as much as you say people underestimate Kessler(people on this site really don't) I think you're doing the same for Hopkins. Name someone who has beat Hopkins decisivly. It's never happened. He finds a way to grind the fight down to almost a hault and thats why many don't like to watch him or find him boring. I think you'll see a Joe Calzaghe who is not used to this type of fighter.

Early on when this fight was made I had some thoughts that Calzaghe may land three for every one of Bhop. But watch any fights where Bhop has been in with someone with large punch outputs. He drudges them down to potshoting.

I also respect the fact that you said if he loses you'll be the first to throw your hands up and say your wrong. I'm the same way.

So for me this fight is a toughy to pick. I can't hold to your views of a whitwash as it has never occured to hopkins nor do I think his style will allow it.

But to be clear I can't pick hopkins for this fight either cuz it has become in my head so close to call I would be doing myself a deservice to pick one of them.

I'm very excited for this fight.

And welcome to the forum!

[LondonBB]

My thoughts are that calzaghe will almost SCHOOL hopkins. We will see moments of pure genius from him and he will win on ud by a huge majority, possibly almost every round.

I think that people dont realise just how great calzaghe REALLY IS because they dont realise how good a boxer kessler is either (who joe took a good victory albeit not schooling by any means, but sill a good victory over).

In terms of career fights, pavlik and taylor will do nothing for joes carreer. Joe will batter pavlik because pavlik is too clumsy for him and wont be able to defend against joe's attacks, combos and movement. The win against pavlik will be met by excuses saying 'but pavlik is too young, pavlik is too inexperienced and was moving up in weight.'

A win against taylor would do nothing as hes already been beaten by pavlik twice...and to be frank i think kessler would smash the crap out of taylor.

Only when calzaghe retires and kessler proves how great a boxer he is, will people realise what a true legend calzaghe is who shines above roy jones, hopkins etc. But for now it will not happen.

Of course i might have calzaghe wrong, there ar doubts there as he hasnt yet fought in america, BUT WHAT makes people think that fighting in america suddenly makes a fighter great? Calzaghe has fought and beaten every one of his opponents, hes beaten reid, mitchell, eubank, lacy and kessler so far...EVEN IF he adds hopkins, pavlik, dawson, tarver to the list of victories aswell THEN PEOPLE WILL STILL MAKE EXCUSES AND DISLIKE HIM.

Thats the way i see it...calzaghe to win decisively over hopkins!

This will be met with the excuse 'hopkins is past it'...let me remind everyone that he has said himself he is not past it, he recently beat wright, he also beat tarver at light heavy (demolished tarver).

If calzaghe loses then i will be the first to put my hand up and say that he is not who i thought he was...that he was not the champ i thought. I WILL NEVER MAKE AN EXCUSE!

But i have a feeling come april 19th he will beat bhop easily...AND then go on to batter every single american champ that he faces, wherever, whenever!

But i know that this will still be met with excuses anyway.

That's your oppinion and I respect it. I think as much as you say people underestimate Kessler(people on this site really don't) I think you're doing the same for Hopkins. Name someone who has beat Hopkins decisivly. It's never happened. He finds a way to grind the fight down to almost a hault and thats why many don't like to watch him or find him boring. I think you'll see a Joe Calzaghe who is not used to this type of fighter.

Early on when this fight was made I had some thoughts that Calzaghe may land three for every one of Bhop. But watch any fights where Bhop has been in with someone with large punch outputs. He drudges them down to potshoting.

I also respect the fact that you said if he loses you'll be the first to throw your hands up and say your wrong. I'm the same way.

So for me this fight is a toughy to pick. I can't hold to your views of a whitwash as it has never occured to hopkins nor do I think his style will allow it.

But to be clear I can't pick hopkins for this fight either cuz it has become in my head so close to call I would be doing myself a deservice to pick one of them.

I'm very excited for this fight.

And welcome to the forum!

Thanx for your post pride of boston.

I know what you are saying bro, and i know that hopkins has 'that' style, lol every opponents worst nightmare because he can almost nullify his opponent. But i think calzaghe is too clever for this.

What im saying i guess is this...that this is the test for calzaghe. The lacy fight got him noticed, the kessler fight proved he is best at supermiddle and is undoubtably a great fighter, but this fight is a legacy fight...probably the first legacy fight out of maybe 3 he will now face as his final tests in the usa on the biggest stage.

So for me it is a v exciting fight, because i have a belief that calzaghe is who he says he is, the best boxer out there BAR NONE. Now, this is based on what ive seen over the last 6 years of him. HOWEVER he could be chatting sh*t lol and thats what is important for me to see, i feel that this fight is the milestone in his career where either:

1. He gets dragged into an ugly fight with bhop (the master at doing that) and either loses by close decission/split/majority etc or he wins in the same way.

2. He proves that he is EXACTLY what he has been saying all along (since he beat eubank) that he is the best fighter out there, bar none. For this to be the case, then he needs to school hopkins.

So, as ive been watching joe for the last 6 years i believe what he says as i believe hes backed it up...BUT if he fails to back it up this time and really PROVE BEYOND ANY DOUBT that he is the best and what he says he is...then i will be the first to say...''Look joe, you are a great fighter and champ BUT not the best im afraid, there are others out there better than you and you dont deserve the p4p number 1, this fight proved that you were protected by warren and also avoided america.''

I will be the first to come out with that statement!

But for now, i take calzaghe on his word because besides any of the 'doubt factors', i think hes telling the truth about himself.

If he totally smashes hopkins silly, schooling...like the lacy fight THEN SURELY PEOPLE CANT START MAKING MORE EXCUSES ABOUT HIM? Surely if he does school hopkins (im not saying it will happen)...but some of the doubters will then actually come out and say 'you know what, i think joe calzaghe is the best actually'...

I personally believe he can decisively beat bhop and school pavlik or tko/ko pavlik...then go on to beat tarver/woods/dawson/johnson whoever is the winner out of that eliminator battle.

Should he do that then i think he has claim to saying he is better than roy jones was and higher on the all time rankings than jones, because quite simply his achievements will have been higher.

For all the 'calslappy' comments i see and everytime i see people saying that he'll get beaten...he always comes through. So to me until i see him get beaten, this whole 'he doesnt throw straight punches' or 'he slaps' mallarky means nothing...because people are basically trying to make out hes not a good boxer...well if calzaghe is not a good boxer yet has beaten eubank, lacy and kessler decisively...then what does that make them?

If he then goes on to school pavlik, beat bhop decisively and batter dawson or tarver...what does this say about those fighters aswell.

If calzaghe does that and beats his forthcoming american opponents, and is still called calslappy or a slapper who is weak, no power etc...then it means that kessler, lacy, eubank, tarver, hopkins, pavlik, dawson etc must be total bums then right? Afterall how could anyone lose to a slapper with no power who only knows to scrap and not fight a clean fight or counter correctly?

If calzaghe wants to prove he is the best then by schooling hopkins (if he can do it, possibly/probably not) then he proves it. Now is his chance...im looking forward to this fight to see just what class of fighter calzaghe is.

From what ive seen of him so far though, i cant have doubt over him and until lost i'll take his word he can do it.

BUT...I RESPECT ALL OPINIONS! There are great opinions on this board and i totally respect if someone disagrees with me...i even admit that i might be wrong...thats the beauty of this sport, this match up is a classic match which will prove a point. Is calzaghe really as good as he makes out to be? Was he avoiding america his carreer as he was scared? All these questions will be answered

[buhlestnoble]

Good points guys. I cant wait for this one (bhop vs jc), cant come soon enough for me.

There are no certainties in the fight game but there are things we can probably mostly agree on

I don’t think we can say for sure that bhop is the best fighter jc has ever faced, only time will tell but IMO bhop brings several things to the ring better than any other opponent jc has ever faced

I think we can all agree that bhop brings to the fight the best footwork (when he was a middleweight) that jc has ever faced aswell as the best defence and the most experience.

I don’t think that will be enough for him to win the fight. The way I see it is that the only way bhop can win is by close decision whereas all other options are possible for a jc win, most likely a wide UD as opposed to a ko/tko.

If jc wins, of course the argument can always be made that hopkins was past it, he is 43 but it all depends on the manner of the victory. If its very close then excuses will be made perhaps justifiably. Anything else though and that just isn’t fair, you only have to look at boxing at the moment and it is littered with great champions fighting well into there 30s at the highest level and theres no doubt that Hopkins is a special fighter even at his age, as shown by the recent wins over winky and tarver as well as his domination of the middleweight division well into his late 30s (I needn’t remind that his biggest win against de la hoya came at the age of 39!). Hes no average 43yr old.

Take the example of the ages of the fighters of the light heavyweight division ring magazine ratings:

Hopkins 43
Erdei 33
Woods 35
Tarver 39
Glenn Johnson 39
Dawson 25
Green 35
Jones 39
Briggs 32
Diaconu 29
Reggie Johnson 41

Add calzaghe to this list, hes 36 in a few days! All but 2 of the top 10 are over 30, many nearer to 40yrs old and they are still beating the crap out of guys 10yrs younger. Put it this way, IMO it will be just as fair to use the excuse ‘jc was past it’ if he looses as the one already on the tips of the tongues of many Hopkins fans and jc doubters. Lets not forget jc has been boxing longer than Hopkins and has been littered with hand problems over recent years!