yeh, here's the link Boxing News -- Fightnews.com : EkpVAyFpZZUQPTsfCI
yeh, here's the link Boxing News -- Fightnews.com : EkpVAyFpZZUQPTsfCI
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!![]()
Last edited by PRIDE OF BOSTON; 03-20-2008 at 08:22 PM.
Hidden Content
"There's nothing special about him." -Sergiy Dzinziruk
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![]()
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!
Last edited by buhlestnoble; 03-21-2008 at 12:01 AM.
Keith Holmes was a Southpaw and a good fighter but you call him shitty ?? yet he battered Richie Woodhall, so going by your logic doesn't that make Calzaghe's win over Woodhall shitty as well then ?? because Woodhall got beat by a shitty Southpaw right ?? John David Jackson was also a solid Southpaw fighter, i think you actually need to do your homework on some of Hopkins's opposition and actually watch those fighters before you start calling anyone *shitty*.
Last edited by ICB; 03-21-2008 at 01:48 AM.
I'm backing Hopkins!
The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be
Hopkins isn't gonna do shit other than pick his ass up off the canvas to get put down again.
...
what i honestly expect is for calzaghe to punch hopkins arms a few times, and hopkins to land a jab or straight, over and over for 12 rds
i seriously think calzaghe is HORRIBLE, i dont think hes ever fought anyone with even decent defense, i think that kessler being highly rated to make calzaghe look good even tho kessler only beat like beyer (whos about to get fucked up by a 43 year old roy jones) is a joke
i expect hopkins to have NO trouble, i expect calzaghe to look AWFUL, and if he doesnt get hurt i think he will look worse, his father will have no clue what to tell him, and maybe finally this can all be over, if rees loses on saturday, which SHOULD happen, and calzaghe gets dominated like he should maybe this will all stop...
but i dont think it will...
i think what will happen is people will begin to say that hopkins is the best of all time and "OH DID YOU SEE THAT, CALZAGHE MADE IT SEVEN ROUNDS WITH THE GREAT HOPKINS!!!"
its like when paul williams dominated margarito, the margarito hype should have died down, but instead it became 'paul williams must be top 10 p4p if he can beat margarito'
anyway if hopkins does dominate calzaghe let it not be forgotten that a 43 year old man dominated him
I don't mean to be Captain Obvious here... but your so off key that i don't even know why i am replying. Everything you say is baseless opinion. Kessler is not overrated he beat Andrade with basic ease. Andrade is very far from pushover status. You said that he only beat Beyer who is about to get beat by Jones.. (never happpened yet). And moving on to Calzaghe i really have no clue how you think that it's going to be so one sided for Hopkins.. This i just think you are uninformed about. Calzaghe will beat this man handily and i actually think he (Hopkins) is going to be KO'd. I see the Hopkins bandwagon is rolling and i have made a decision not to brake my ankles trying to jump on. Joe Calzaghe wins by late stoppage.
I think Hopkins will be pressured quite a bit from jump off and will have to offset Calzaghes forward rythem.Once he does this ,Joe will play right into his hands ....and straight rights,shoulders,left hooks and Guile.Calzaghe is a class comer but will be in depths he has never seen even If Hopkins is nearly collecting social security.
And Williams did not dominate Margarito
I pretty much agree with what you say here but Andrade showed that night that he IS a pushover to elite level fighters... Beyer is a decent fighter and Kess should be given credit for that and also the fact he was able to be IN the fight with Calzaghe. Joe pulled away in the later rounds but Kess is clearly the future of the SMW Div. I understand not getting on the Hopkins bandwagon but a stoppage? C'mon, man![]()
Hidden Content
"There's nothing special about him." -Sergiy Dzinziruk
Hidden Content
"There's nothing special about him." -Sergiy Dzinziruk
agreed 100% for that, Hopkins is mediocre at best THESE DAYS and is a cheater to boot, Hopkins has done nothing but hit and hold at LightHeavy the fact that this fraud has slipped thru the cracks is just an example of how people get steeped in romance for an old fighter... Wake up!!! Taylor beat Hopkins on workrate and energy and that was like 3 years ago and Taylor as half the boxing skill of Calzaghe... Hopkins was able to resurge late in those fights because Taylor lacks stamina.. Joe does not
Calzaghe will be all over him like stink on shit for 12 rounds and people will realize that a win over a weight drained suck ass one hit wonder milk dud Tarver, and a 5 division over his natural limit fat ass Winky Wright that the officiating was questionable to begin with, arent impressive wins
Hellooooooooooo Mcflyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you think him throwing fewer punches had something to do with the fact that Williams thru a 10000000000000000000000 punches a round and Margarito couldnt get in a groove.
Thats like a baseball team saying they would have won if the pitcher gave us good pitches to hit... wow man I just nominated you for dumbass post of the year![]()
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