I've picked Hopkins all through the build up and laid some good money on him to pull out a decision. You learn not to bet against someone like Bernard. Age is only a number and he proves it. No one can make him fight every minute of every round, because he moves so well and has such a tremendous defence that its not simply a case of exchanging blows with him, like it was with Calzaghe against Lacy who was there to be hit. Calzaghe's gonna have to go after him. And in doing so he'll leave himself open to the big counter right, and make no mistake Hopkins is strong at this weight, he's imposing, he's razor sharp and when he makes you miss he makes you pay. I think that will tell in this fight. I think Calzaghe's gonna be a little overeager, I think he's gonna eat some big rights and I think he's gonna find himself on the wrong side of some roughhouse tactics inside, it's gonna be dirty, punishing and very intriguing. Hopkins by decision.
I am a fan of both fighters: the more skillfull fighter Calzaghe won the fight.
More skillful? Are you kidding? Hopkins made him look like a 10-fight novice in the first half of the fight. Thereafter Calzaghe mostly outworked Bernard, it had nothing to do with skill. In that department Bernard was far superior
I really would happily bow at the feet of Joe if he wins. I've never said Joe was a bad fighter despite picking Hop, I think he's a wonderful fighter with amazing handspeed and workrate. He's a bonafide pound for pound elite, though I prefer punchers who punch with the knuckle part of the glove as opposed to the inside of it, whatever I respect him. I just think Hopkins knows too much for him.
if Joe wins there should be no talk of Hopkins age, he's 2-0 in his last two against quality opposition, particularly against Winky, and he's in great shape. If Calzaghe wins he has nothing more to prove, though who can deny a fight with Pavlik is mouthwatering should he come through this?
He beat Judah (former undisputed welterweight champ of the world) and De La Hoya (world super-welterweight champ).
But I totally agree that he should fight Cotto. The Oscar rematch is inexcusable.
To answer your question, no it won't affect him.
Also, you discredit Mosley. He may be 37 but he hasn't all that much mileage on the clock, has never been stopped, is still evidently a very fast and accurate fighter competing at the top level. Mosley has always been good at landing power shots, even against Wright (rematch) he landed them well, that fight was very close.
I think Hopkins is being underrated in this fight by many people.
Let's face it, at age 43 Hopkins SHOULD be past his best, but he has little mileage in the form of wars, and he trains like a FREAK, stays healthy, goes to bed early, does constant roadwork, and has made subtle changes in his style to combat the effects of age on his body.
Against Wink he was fighting someone younger, faster, fitter and he changed his style from the Tarver match to be almost mechanically efficient with his punch output, conserving energy for the later rounds and taking the snap out of Wink's punches by taking half-steps back and spending much time moving laterally along the ropes and not standing still.
Against Calzaghe this will work because Joe's never fought a fighter like that (Lacy and Kessler were both one-dimensional plodders; Eubank was way past it and with a ton of mileage on the clock in 97), and even if he deals well with it, there's no way you can look spectacular against that style. Jermain went 2-0 against Hop and still looked quite mediocre in both of those fights because of Nard's awkwardness.
Also I get the feeling Calzaghe will suffer from the same overeagerness Hatton had in his fight with Mayweather. With so much to prove and so much expectation he'll try to establish himself early and - always -Hopkins is a very difficult man to 'establish' yourself against because he takes such little clean punches and has such a great defence.
Calzaghe's blusters of punches will do nothing to Hopkins - most of them won't even land as Hop will be on the move, and his high guard is one of the best defences in the business. Calzaghe meanwhile is vulnerable to the uppercut and straight right (perfect against southies)
Hopkins will shut Joe down
Cotto just has a way of overcoming all obstacles. He's been hurt, dropped, outfoxed, outsped and he manages to turn it around. He's a complete fighter. Tony is big, strong, he can bang, but a lot of people are forgetting that less than a year ago he dropped a clean decision to Paul Williams. Who subsequently looked very ordinary and ran out of ideas against Carlos Quintana. A smaller fighter who Cotto had pummelled like a sparring partner.
Cotto is gonna get him outta there with a mean body shot or take a competitive, but clear, unanimous decision. Tony has a punchers chance
There's no big fights left for him.
Pavlik (or his promoter at least) doesn't want it, after Hop beats Calzaghe he's not gonna want it (and why should he? He won already and he's 43 with nothing to prove), Calzaghe win or lose will likely retire, Abraham's not a big enough name to mean anything, Tarver wants 175 belts and is part of the 4-way tournament at that weight so there's no one for Wink to pick off...
Plus he just isn't interesting. He bores me and he bores a lot of people. He puts you to sleep when he talks. Sure, his fighting style is more aggressive and pleasing than it used to be, sure he's incredibly skilled, but to be brutally frank I'm just not very interested in seeing Winky Wright. Bottom line.
Bad, simply because there was such little time left on the clock and Chavez could really have inflicted no further damage, and Mel woulda won the biggest fight of his life. But there's a lot going on in there. Steele got caught up in it, he didn't think. He made a snap judgement. And because he made a snap judgement he'll forever be known as Dick Steele
Maybe, I wasn't addressing that.
Though Kessler is huge at 168 and had a half-dozen title defenses.
Kessler was also picked to beat Hopkins (fantasy) by over 80% of this site's posters.
That can hardly be held as a badge of honour considering the general idiocy of many posters here. One guy yesterday tried to tell me Wladimir Klitschko would have tested a prime Tyson.
Oh you would be surprised, Lacy was quite good before the Calzaghe fight, quite good. Most of the fans and the media did not support him for nothing. Lacy had the sort of chin and tenacity that would not be discouraged by Hopkins's rare counter rights and ring movement.
Chin really doesn't come into it. Johnson had a steel chin, which was my original analogy, and Hop punished him for 12 rounds (afterwards shouting to press row that he wished they still made fights last 15 rounds). I remember Lacy from before the Calzaghe fight, yes, he was a pretty devastating guy but he hadn't fought anyone. He busted up a very shopworn Robin Reid. He had a little speed, that's all. He was mostly a mauler. He wouldn't be discouraged but he'd be outclassed. That bullyboy tactics don't work with Bernard Hopkins, he's too clever for that and his lateral movement disallows it. With regards to your comments about the fans and media...well often they are easily pleased. The same fans and media hyped up Tommy Morrison in the 90's. They hyped up Shannon Briggs. They hyped up Acelino Freitas who turned out to be a quitter. They hype up a lot of people. Don't get carried along on the wave and assume their right all the time.
But Mayorga was a blown up welterweight just like tito, and yeah, I expect him to KO mayorga pretty easily, especially taking into account that Mayorga's defense is subpar and tito was deemed the hawk of his time.
I hate when a fighter is deemed 'blown up' just because they originally began at a lower class. Let me educate you. Tito was always a huge welterweight. To call welterweight his 'natural' weight might be doing him a disservice. Did he look small against Vargas? No. Surely he would though seeing as how Vargas was a 'natural' light-middleweight? Did he look small against Joppy? Nah.
It's like saying Roy Jones was a natural middleweight. Was he? Really? If that was the case he'd look small against the LHW's he fought for much of his career. The truth is fighters often pick a weight to fight at based on what weight they can make, based on how big they're gonna be over opponents. Fighters GROW into weights. Growth is natural. That's why so many guys move up. I mean if you take a recent example - Mayweather-Hatton - Mayweather actually looked bigger and stronger than Hatton, despite being, in your logic, a 'natural' super-featherweight. Natural super-feathers shouldn't be able to physically match natural light-welters, sorry.
if anything its the hardcore fans that hate floyd
casual fans love him
Judah is hilarious in that pic. Like he just walked out of a speakeasy in 1920s New York
Props for posting.
Shaeffer is quite a funny guy.."for those of you who didnt understand what Enzo said I'll translate.."
Quite disrespectful to erroneously refer to Calzaghe as English as well.
Hopkins is a superior fighter in my opinion. He's what, 12-0 vs southpaws? Age is only number and he proves it. He fights efficiently and conservatively anyway, his punch output his economic and accurate. He doesn't slap. If Calzaghe comes to throw 1000 punches he's gonna get countered badly all night. This is style vs energy, age vs youth. I just think Hopkins is gonna put on a clinic and Calzaghe will be overeager. I also don't think the weight increase will help him as much as he says. Hop has really grown into the lt-heavy mark.
Who in the hell was there at middleweight at the time? All of Bernards critics often cite the fact that the middleweight division was very poor. Tito beat the WBA beltholder Joppy by brutal KO in round five, Bernard unified with Holmes the WBC champion. The fact is Trinidad beat everyone before him. He had beaten the best welterweights in the world (Oscar, Whitaker, Campas, Carr, Pineda), the best light-middles (Vargas, Reid) and he fought for the middleweight title in his first fight. To try and discredit Tito is plain stupid.
Oscar was gifted his "WIN" and belt and never to this day proved himself a legit Middleweight.
And who did Tito ever really beat?
At MW?
I don't doubt his natural talent. I doubt his overall makeup. I was very unimpressed with him in his last fight. And he's already shown he's not at the very top of the game against Cotto. There's too many *****s in his armour and he's seemingly too arrogant to address them.
Jeff Lacy was an overhyped fighter who got alot of attention because he's chiseled and was a straight pressure fighter. Yet Joe and fans talk about it like he knocked out Ali. Did you watch Lacy v. Manfredo. He couldn't dispose of the Contender chump properly.Mikkel Kessler whatever, but please stop talking about beating Jeff Lacy like it gives you clout or by any means is a stepping stone to a legendary status. Can't wait to see how JC homers defend this.
CO-sign that
Big, as in for general public, fame and money? Yes, you can say that.
But neither really had a good chance against him to begin with. DLH really had nothing to beat hopkins to begin, he just did not have the size, power or stamina. And as later histroy showed Tito's potented power was really detoriarated in the higher divisions.
Trinidads power later proved to be deteriorated? Huh? Did I miss something?
He wasted Joppy (always been durable) and anihalated Mayorga after a huge layoff. It wasn't so much his power that was ineffective versus Winky as his tactics and skill. And Tito would have to have to be have boulders in his gloves to carry his power to LIGHT HEAVY versus Jones, that'd be a leap of nearly 30Lbs since his original class. That's like expecting RJJ to KO John Ruiz. Clown.
Gifted fighter, a B-. He has a lot of faults opponents can capitalise on, and he will have no longevity. In two years we wont be talking about him. But he does have good attributes like handspeed and movement.