Hopkins Brushes Off Calzaghe's Workrate

[Knicksman20]

Calzaghe won't necessarily fight aggressively, he adjusts to the boxer in front of him. What's funny is people think Joe is just gonna fly in there head first, Hatton-esque, like a bumbling idiot. Fact is, Joe knows how to win fights, much more so than the people on this forum who see everything only in black and white. Why is everything so cut and dried with you lot? This is boxing. Anything can happen. One punch can change everything. Hopkins hasn't seen anything like Calzaghe since he fought Jones in 1993. 15 years ago, when he was severely outclassed by a superman.

By the way, Knickman20, you do realize that, during the fight with Reid, Joe was suffering with an elbow injury and recovering from food poisoning? He still won at least 7-5.

Like you said anything can happen & Hopkins being one of the best counter punchers today has the ability to hurt Calz. The punches you don't see are the ones that hurt you. And BTW, I'm leaning towards Calz winning this fight but it's not going to be as easy as you & some others are making it. I don't see anyone rolling over Hopkins, even at this stage of his career. Injury or not Cal struggled with Reid because Reid is a natural counter puncher. He was obviously uncomfortable in that fight & I think it had more to do with styles.

[Allucard]

I'm not overly impressed with the workrate argument myself, and that's all you hear - but it isn't something I ignore either. The thing about Calzaghe's workrate though is that he jumps in.. He rushes in like a Kamikaze with alot of that and just windmills away when he's breaking serve.. That isn't going to work on Hopkins for more than a couple of series at most.

Calzaghe hits pretty good, but he's going to pay when he does that. Joe don't hit quite good enough to stop Hopkins from moving, and while Calzaghe is quick he's not nescessarily explosive.

Joe doesn't have the inclination always to be clever about how he goes in. Like I've been saying since 2 minutes after the Kessler fight here on this forum when Calzaghe mania exploded; Joe Calzaghe makes too many mistakes to beat Bernard Hopkins, and I'm sticking to it. Joe's secret weapons are naked aggression and a tremendous chin. His chin is what worries me.. You have to honestly fear Joe could walk through every mistake. His chin is that solid even though he's been down in the past..

Calzaghe advocates talk about the Taylor fights, but Joe doesn't do it like that. He's different, and he's also getting older and slowing down himself. To me he looked gaunt, weak, and weathered at different points during the Kessler fight. Of course Kessler helped create that reflection, no doubt.. But it was there. Could that have been weight or some mistake? We'll see.

Footwork is going to be a killer.

Yes, in fact Hopkins body is as if a 26 year old while poor Joe hs already slowed down. Damn these corrupt boxing matchmakes, always hurting the poor white man.

[Kris Silver]

Even if Calz did find Reid tough, your relying on Joe being less prepared for countering, he's preparing for Hopkins countering. Plus, he's not injured or recovering from food poisoning. Furthermore he's a better fighter, clever, will be firing less, but firing harder with good reach.

[FRKO]

Might be another fight, but wasn't Joe ill and/or a hand injured around time of before Robin Reid?

Yeah Kris, as I said in another post, he had an elbow injury and was trying to recover from a dose of food poisoning. He also apologized to his fans after the fight and said they will never see such a bad version of Calzaghe again. We haven't, so far, and that fight was more than 9 years ago.

Like you said anything can happen & Hopkins being one of the best counter punchers today has the ability to hurt Calz. The punches you don't see are the ones that hurt you. And BTW, I'm leaning towards Calz winning this fight but it's not going to be as easy as you & some others are making it. I don't see anyone rolling over Hopkins, even at this stage of his career. Injury or not Cal struggled with Reid because Reid is a natural counter puncher. He was obviously uncomfortable in that fight & I think it had more to do with styles.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I think it was just a bad night for Joe, considering his illness and injury. Rob Reid was right in his prime at that point, he was pretty dangerous and extremely fired up (see him yelling like a madman during his ring walk). I've never seen anyone so fired up, to be honest. Still, he lost, even with Joe being in a very bad state.

BTW, I never once have said it'll be an easy fight for Joe. Being a fan of both fighters, I have no extreme bias going on, but if anything I do have a slight bias towards Joe. In my opinion, for what it's worth, I think Joe is a better all-round boxer. Probably not an easy fight, though. I would never count Hops out! He's dangerous, even at 43. On the other hand, you never know what will happen with Calzaghe. He can make a seemingly good fighter look very average.

[Knicksman20]

1) I was not comparing the two as fighters.

2) You mentioned how getting hit with a few counter rights would deter Joe...I simply stated that Joe was hit with at least 3 monster uppercuts that clearly stunned him (all in one round I might add) and he was able to adjust.

Give me an example of Bernard adjusting his gameplan...did he do so against Jones? How about Taylor-he had 24 rounds to do so with the young kid who had never even really fought a MW to that point?

I am a very silly boy you are correct but it is gonna be a diffferent tye of fight for the old man and to think Joe will fight like a Tarver, or a Wright or an Oscar or a Tito is almost as silly...not as silly but almost right...wrong, yes...no.

This is what you said:

"Just like the monster uppercuts that Kessler smacked Joe with...those seemed to really unravel Joe's gameplan.

Im sure he will get smacked with a some counter rights but Im also sure he will adjust."

Whether you realize it or not you indirectly compared the two. Cal is going to get hit with some counters. The difference is it's going to be more frequent because Hopkins is that skilled. To bring up the Jones fight is silly again because you're talking about 1993 when he & Jones were both trying to establish themselves. So Hopkins finishing stronger than Taylor was not adjusting during the fight? How about what he did to Winky an actually throwing almost 700 punches & shutting Winky's punch output down. What about Antwun Echols fight when he was slammed on his shoulder & had one arm? Or his fight with John David Jackson & how he outboxed him then put the pressure on him eventually stopping him? How about letting DLH come to him the first few rounds giving him a false sense of comfort instead of imposing his size on him? Then stepping up his activity & stopping him?

[FRKO]

Whether you realize it or not you indirectly compared the two. Cal is going to get hit with some counters. The difference is it's going to be more frequent because Hopkins is that skilled. To bring up the Jones fight is silly again because you're talking about 1993 when he & Jones were both trying to establish themselves. So Hopkins finishing stronger than Taylor was not adjusting during the fight? How about what he did to Winky an actually throwing almost 700 punches & shutting Winky's punch output down. What about Antwun Echols fight when he was slammed on his shoulder & had one arm? Or his fight with John David Jackson & how he outboxed him then put the pressure on him eventually stopping him? How about letting DLH come to him the first few rounds giving him a false sense of comfort instead of imposing his size on him? Then stepping up his activity & stopping him?

With all due respect to those guys, Joe is better than all of them. I don't think Winky, DLH, Echols, etc., are as good as Joe when it comes to adapting on-the-fly.

[Knicksman20]

With all due respect to those guys, Joe is better than all of them. I don't think Winky, DLH, Echols, etc., are as good as Joe when it comes to adapting on-the-fly.

That wasn't the question. Scap asked when did Hopkins adjust during a fight & I answered it. A better question is can Cal adjust his fighting style to defeat Hopkins? Just because he has a high workrate doesn't mean he's going to win. Cal makes alot of mistakes in the ring & has been able to get away with it because of his natural ability. This fight he's going to have to use smarts in order to beat Hopkins.

[scap]

This is what you said:


Whether you realize it or not you indirectly compared the two. Cal is going to get hit with some counters. The difference is it's going to be more frequent because Hopkins is that skilled. To bring up the Jones fight is silly again because you're talking about 1993 when he & Jones were both trying to establish themselves. So Hopkins finishing stronger than Taylor was not adjusting during the fight? How about what he did to Winky an actually throwing almost 700 punches & shutting Winky's punch output down. What about Antwun Echols fight when he was slammed on his shoulder & had one arm? Or his fight with John David Jackson & how he outboxed him then put the pressure on him eventually stopping him? How about letting DLH come to him the first few rounds giving him a false sense of comfort instead of imposing his size on him? Then stepping up his activity & stopping him?

Again I never compared the two fighters as you sort of say when you say "indirectly". But lets move on...


You say the Roy fight doesnt count...ok fine lets throw it out...but if we are to throw that one out I think the JD Jackson fight probably has to go as well as the Echols fights...those are ancient history...actually some maintain he quit in the Echols fight Im not one of them but what adjustment did he make in that one?

You say he made adjustments in the Oscar fight? I saw something different I saw a very passive overly cautious Hopkins sit back for narly 2/3 of the fight finally realizing that the little man could not hurt him...Bernard could have done that 5 rounds earlier but he just doesnt take risks or put the pedal to the medal its his style...not to knock it because the style has gottne him a helluva long way.

The Taylor fight...again Im sorry he lost the fight therefore failed with regards to adjusting...sure he was winning th elate rounds but an all time great such as Nard should have stopped Jermain late...can we agree Jermain ws all thru? And if we can agree Hopkins simply did not do enough...not doing enough is not adjusting its simly losing and thats what he did and thre master of the adjustments basically fought the exact same fight in the return bout.

Ok you ob viously know yur stuff and I usually only like to fight with ****heads so let me say you have my respect...now lastly...

To me Bernard Hopkins is a very good fighter that has been overrated a bit by the fans the media and MOST importantly the fighters who step into the ring with him, the most important weapon a fighter can bring into the ring against Bhop is not respecting him to the extent that OScar did or Tito did or Eastman did-Taylor respected him but was not in awe of him-Joe will be that an more...my guess is that if Joe Calzaghe follows the very active style of Jermain Taylor he will give Nard real fits and when it comes time for the championship rounds he Joe will then be able to transform into Jermain Taylor on HGH...

[MickyHatton]

So has Hopkins so? There have been plenty of fighters that fight aggressive like Calz but after a few hard counters they become gunshy. Calz has never had to deal with someone as skilled as Hopkins with countering punching. The closest person to that was Robin Reid & that fight was very close.

It wasn't about Hopkins, the point was that Calzaghe obviously knows he will take shots...he been Champion for ten years, in that time hes took a few shots so......

[edgarg]

There's much in what you say, and no one is regarding Hopkins as "useless" He has years of experience if nothing else, and of course he has lots of "else". I didn't see the Jackson fights, but the very flabby Winky was outmatched from the beginning in size and agility. Being 15 lbs over his proper weight, with less training and conditioning didn't help. This fight was as unneccessary as the Oscar fight. It showed boxing fans nothing but NEGATIVES. And the two styles were ALL wrong for each other.

It was almost like watching grass grow.

As for Echols, there was "bad blood" between them and there was nothing wrong with Hopkins' shoulder. The well padded ring isn't a cement floor, and it wasn't a "body slam". The shoulder thing was worked up frantically by the commentators, who know heaps less about medical matters than about generating phony excitment. If Hopkins had a dislocated shoulder, he'd have quit, as he did when he "hurt" his ankle against Allen. His corner or the doctor would have stopped the fight, and Echols would have been DQ'd or NC. Instead, he played "the old soldier" game. He tried for a round and a half to "sucker" Echols in, by not using it, but then, from then on, threw as many right hands as before, and deservedly won the fight.

The body slam and the dislocated right shoulder, have gone into boxing mythology, like all the "cudda", "shudda", "wudda" tales that turn up all the time.

Was this the Echols fight where Hopkins spun Echols around and deliberately rabbit-punched him, dropping him like a fly?? He should have been DQ'd.

As for Oscar, he was too frail, too chubby and not tough enough for Hopkins, and never would be. I have no idea why that fight took place other than money. I don't think that Hopkins put extra pressure on deliberately. As Oscar began to wilt, as he ALWAYS does in later rounds, Hopkins would naturally come on, being given the opportunity. Oscar was VERY tentative during the whole fight. One would have thought that he was refighting the last 5 Trinidad rounds, since he knew that this fight had no business in taking place at all. A fraud on the public.