The Case For Hopkins

[Greig]

Points taken.

Hopkins just always looks so in control that it's hard to see him not win. I just can't remember the last time he looked in trouble - that's how good he is.

[Gandalf]

Points taken.

Hopkins just always looks so in control that it's hard to see him not win. I just can't remember the last time he looked in trouble - that's how good he is.

Ive picked Hopkins to win all of his recent fights. This one is stylistically all wrong for a Hopkins at 43 though. Calzaghes workrate is just so relentless. Hopkins can be outworked as even the limited Taylor showed and that will be the difference. Calzaghe is just too busy. Hopkins will land some peaches but if he doesnt stop Calzaghe I cant see him winning. He just wont land as many as Joe will.

[Memphis]

Calzaghe is going to stop Hopkins

[Gandalf]

Calzaghe is going to stop Hopkins

I think its a serious possibility. Hopkins has been a great fighter with been being the operative word. No doubt about his legacy and all that. But Calzaghe is still doing his best work, I dont think Hopkins has been operating on that level for quite some time and to roll back the clock at 43? Calzaghe is that good and Hopkins really is that old. I think Calzaghe could do a TKO number on old BHop.

[njackets]

Points taken.

Hopkins just always looks so in control that it's hard to see him not win. I just can't remember the last time he looked in trouble - that's how good he is.

Ive picked Hopkins to win all of his recent fights. This one is stylistically all wrong for a Hopkins at 43 though. Calzaghes workrate is just so relentless. Hopkins can be outworked as even the limited Taylor showed and that will be the difference. Calzaghe is just too busy. Hopkins will land some peaches but if he doesnt stop Calzaghe I cant see him winning. He just wont land as many as Joe will.

Thats prety much my take on it,allthough if anybody can come up with a blueprint of how 2 beat Cazaghe its B Hop,Taylor beat Hopkins on his workrate and Joes is higher than Taylors so it sort of makes sense.

[Gandalf]

Points taken.

Hopkins just always looks so in control that it's hard to see him not win. I just can't remember the last time he looked in trouble - that's how good he is.

Ive picked Hopkins to win all of his recent fights. This one is stylistically all wrong for a Hopkins at 43 though. Calzaghes workrate is just so relentless. Hopkins can be outworked as even the limited Taylor showed and that will be the difference. Calzaghe is just too busy. Hopkins will land some peaches but if he doesnt stop Calzaghe I cant see him winning. He just wont land as many as Joe will.

Thats prety much my take on it,allthough if anybody can come up with a blueprint of how 2 beat Cazaghe its B Hop,Taylor beat Hopkins on his workrate and Joes is higher than Taylors so it sort of makes sense.

I see the Taylor fights as the last time Hopkins wasnt in with a handpicked opponent. A long time ago now. Hopkins had issues winning rounds in the first half of both fights and essentially edged the close rounds in the second half of the fights as Taylor tired. Calzaghe has greater skills than any other fighter Hopkins has faced and Hopkins is beyond his best. Its not looking good for Hopkins. Years ago this was a close fight, now its elementary.

[The Fightfan]

I can't really see Joe stopping B-Hop but I can see a total lopsided decision for Joe.

[NUCLEAR BULL]

hopkins is a very good fighter, his right hand is like a rader and he's rough on the inside, bika roughed joe up and got to him ( i re-watched this fight a few weeks back ) joe was spent half way through the 11th round and looked beat up, now hopkins is a much better boxer then bika and much more subtlely dirty...........however bika was 28 in that fight, hopkins is 43, i feel he's goner have a rough night with joes speed and punch output, i hope he wins but it maybe a fight to far

[Gandalf]

hopkins is a very good fighter, his right hand is like a rader and he's rough on the inside, bika roughed joe up and got to him ( i re-watched this fight a few weeks back ) joe was spent half way through the 11th round and looked beat up, now hopkins is a much better boxer then bika and much more subtlely dirty...........however bika was 28 in that fight, hopkins is 43, i feel he's goner have a rough night with joes speed and punch output, i hope he wins but it maybe a fight to far

Joe failed to impress against Bika but he still won convincingly. Hopkins has his hands full just getting through this really. He is just too beyond the sphere in terms of age. No one has ever been at their best at 43 and to beat Calzaghe at that stage in the game? Not a chance in hell!!

Calzaghe always raises his game to a new level for the big fights and this will be his easiest big fight because Hopkins is so inactive and hasn't fought an opponent who wasnt handpicked since Taylor. Taylor was limited and he stretched the young middle aged version of Hopkins twice. Hopkins will get busted up badly with Calzaghe.

Speed, movement, output. These are the keys to the fight and Calzaghe has all 3 of them all locked up. It wont even be close.

[Mar]

... a pretty decent case can be made for both fighters, which is why i think either way we will get a good fight. I really won't look at either fighter any less win or loose.

[CFH]

hopkins is a very good fighter, his right hand is like a rader and he's rough on the inside, bika roughed joe up and got to him ( i re-watched this fight a few weeks back ) joe was spent half way through the 11th round and looked beat up, now hopkins is a much better boxer then bika and much more subtlely dirty...........however bika was 28 in that fight, hopkins is 43, i feel he's goner have a rough night with joes speed and punch output, i hope he wins but it maybe a fight to far

While I agree with pretty much everything you wrote (except the part about hoping Hopkins wins), I think the biggest issue with the Bika fight was that JC didn't respect him as a legitimate threat. He allowed himself to be in a position to be roughed up due to a lack of preparation and a lack of respect for, and understanding of, Bika's ability and style.

[bambamdaddio]

Points taken.

Hopkins just always looks so in control that it's hard to see him not win. I just can't remember the last time he looked in trouble - that's how good he is.

Ok ...but has B.Hop always delivered the goods when the questions have been asked....No, he hasn't, for whatever the reasons or excuses...he has not always delivered,

And though he may well have fought the Taylors, Joneses or De La Hoya's (Please, Oscar at Middle weight) While the other two managed to beat him...

So why does that put a stamp of quality re level of opponents fought....Had he beaten them we would have had all questions answered by B.Hop, but he didn't...

Whenever Joe has had to deliver simply put ...he's delivered, sometimes with broke or damaged hands, and at times not looking too tidy even, but he has always come through...So what if it's been in the U.K lets be honest here with some reality...

He's the Champion...so if they want his Title they should go take it off him...why should he be pushed into the "Go to the U.S.A and prove yourself to the Americans to gain true greatness myth"..

Funny thing is B.Hop is hardly a Globe trotter himself now is he, not the most traveled of fighters when it comes to fighting over sea's...He would never have come to England to take on Joe....

Frank Warren tried to get him over a while back (Whatever the politics) but to no avail, so lets not pretend that this is just a Joe symptom, because it ain't...It's hilighted more with Joe because he's been a Champion for so long now..

When Joe wins on 19th April, that one single fight won't turn him into a great, it's everything that he has done throughout his career that will be the decider of that as time passes...and NOT that one fight..

Also there is, and has been far too much emphasis on Joe not dealing with the away from home factor, but why, he will rellish it, and he for certain will not be overawed, you will see him rise to the challenge....

He will not collapse from it, or crumble, because his mental strength and make up will not allow that, And they are big big insights into why he has always given the correct answers when he has been asked the questions through out his career...

Yes there can be a first time for anything, eg nerves, the occasion, wilting under pressure...but has Joe ever looked like he's about to crack ...no he ain't, and B.Hop in the U.S.A is not the opponent or place that is going to change that....