Analysis of it all

There has been a lot of talk about the fight leading up to it, their legacies, and now they'll be a lot of talk about who won. While normally I don't engage in these kinds of threads I felt this one has enough purpose and gravity to warrant a thread (despite, I'm sure, a plethora of them being made). The Build Up While they were hardly on a collision course to each other, it became clear that a fight between them should most definitely be made. Despite it being more than a few years too late, it was a welcomed fight by virtually everybody in boxing and its fans. Hopkins took a lot of flack about his 'white boy' comments. As usual, Bernard is doing his best to sell a fight and he took a slightly different approach than usual. Granted, he did throw down the PR flag, but who cares about them (kidding)? At the end of the fight Bernard is smiling because he just had a close fight in which he made a lot of dough and didn't damage his legacy by losing or getting knocked out. While it's somewhat sad to see, it is common place with many fighters nowadays; so I won't knock Hopkins for it. Fight The fight started off clearly in favor of Hopkins. The early flash knockdown made Calzaghe think twice about throwing a lot, being off balance, and generally engaging Hopkins. B-Hop's pace was meticulous, as usual. Neither impatient or hurried, he did his thing as usual. Every round w/ the exception of 1 or 2 of the first 9 rounds were almost all close, contested rounds. Calzaghe throwing weak punches that were missing or being picked off while Hopkins continued to throw 1 or 2 punches at a time; but still not landing often either. As the fight went down the stretch it became more clear that Calzaghe would get the nod. Judges will award defense and clean punching; but you have to offer up more than he did to get the nod. Hopkins should have known better after his 2 losses to JT, but I suppose the Wright fight made him believe he'd get those nods from judges again. People can claim robbery or blowout, but both are wrong. To truly have respect and knowledge about the sport is not necessarily have the "correct" scorecard, or trying to convince others that yours is proper, but understand where other scorecards from from (exceptions for retarded ones). To claim either fighter having won is understandable, even by a handful of rounds. Anybody who claims blowout, boxing lesson, or any such retarded phrases are merely proving themselves to have boxing knowledge on par w/ their choice in phrases. Boxing is the definition of a subjective sport when it comes to scoring. There is no "right" way to score rounds. There are guidelines which you follow, but choosing how and when to weight aspects of them more so than others is where the subjectivity of scoring comes up. Ring generalship could technically go to either man almost any round. Ring generalship isn't the only thing scoring is based off of obviously, but I merely am using it as an example. Legacies I've posted a long time about how evaluating active fighters' legacies is almost impossible as fighters they've beaten are generally still in the game and might one day be champions themselves, proving just how great of a champion they were for beating them. With both men into the twilight of their careers it's much easier to judge. Hopkins has cemented his legacy w/ his numerous title defenses, disputed decisions, and will easily end up in the HOF. People can dislike his style, his dirty play, his attitude, but to discount his accomplishments in the ring would be silly. The loss to Calzaghe hurts his legacy a bit, but anytime a 43 year old man loses in boxing it can hardly be considered shocking. Calzaghe, on the other hand, hasn't quite finished making his mark on the sport. In recent years he has gained more notoriety over wins over an overrated Lacy, a relatively untested Kessler, and now a seasoned veteran in B-Hop. If Calzaghe continues down the path of big fights w/ dangerous and solid fighters than there will be no more doubting him. Even if he goes on to lose a fight or two against top names that still garners more attention than beating tin-cans. I still think Calzaghe has a decent amount to prove (to me at least), because I stated that this fight would obviously be Calzaghe simply throwing more punches and the judges awarding him rounds. There aren't as many dangerous fighters out there anymore, but a fight w/ Pavlik or RJJ should answer any lingering questions for doubters; including myself. For the record, I scored the fight 114-113 for Calzaghe, was ok w/ the decision, but was rooting for Nard.