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Article brings up good points but is obviously biased and a little unfair to Hopkins though he did bring this on himself.
This will probably be my last word on the fight:
Hopkins said before the fight he was studying Bika/Calzaghe and he pretty much duplicated that fight. Hopkins did what he felt he could or needed to do to stand a chance; smother Calzaghe's quick jabs, counter punches, and combinations by holding, roughhousing/fouling, and keeping his distance. Joe's hand speed and moblility would have had him eating shots all night if he tried to push the fight. Obviously, he dragged Joe into an ugly fight and kept him from scoring too much; problem is he couldn't get much offense going himself.
He scored a few good counter punches but had trouble landing anything of note after the third. Joe left the fight with a small cut on his nose(from the one good shot Hopkins landed) and was never in trouble, so arguing he got busted up is just plain nutty. Joe obviously didn't land much of note himself but he did score cleanly far more than Hopkins and controlled most of the fight by simply staying busy, missing bunches but still landing enough. Hopkins may have been hurt by the second "low blow", got backed up a few times, and he was getting his head and body iced so I wouldn't be surprised if he felt some of those shots. Still, neither fighter was ever in series trouble and though Hopkins made Calzaghe look ugly, he still couldn't do enough to win or convince the more experienced judges.
If this was like Chavez/Taylor I and Joe was getting ****ed up and hurt frequently by obviously damaging punches despiting outlanding and seemingly outworking him than I can see some people's point but that was simply not the case on Saturday.Last edited by Thunder Lips; 04-22-2008, 10:48 PM.Comment
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BHs face obviously dont get cut up. But his body probably has bruises on it and he is peeing blood for days. That BH wont tell you about.Comment
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Problems with boxing judges
EXACTLY! I watched a lot of this fight in slow motion because lately I've been disgusted with judgments of fights. Joe Calzaghe throws open-handed slaps and rarely ever closes his fist when he punches. I was actually AMAZED at how skillful Hopkins was at eluding his slaps and punches through the first 8 rounds of the fight. I counted 11 clean, closed-fist punches to the face and 4 to the body for Joe. THAT'S PATHETIC AND THAT'S TRUE. Watch yourself.
Judges think that way too many of these random slaps in combos hit because 2 out of 3 of them can't see and have blocked vision during the fight so they make horrible assumptions that ruin the outcome of fights. These decisions are why fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez and Hopkins are underrated, when they consistently lands a slightly lower number of hard, effective punches to his opponents' higher volume of less effective punches.
This is why people thought the De la Hoya vs. Mayweather fight was controversial or a loss. De la Hoya threw numerous flurries of missed punches. Just because they graze someone's face or hit a glove DOES NOT mean they land. That SHOULD be viewed by the judges as a plus for the defensive boxer who eluded the punches rather than a plus for the "aggressive" fighter who threw them. In a real fight, how do you determine the winner? The winner is the one who received the least punishment or KO'd the opponent. If judges viewed fights by this criteria, the outcomes would go to the fighters who are better defensively and punch more effectively and harder.
I know some judges are better than this, but it seems whenever there is a crowd in favor of one fighter and they cheer loudly even if no punches are landing (De la Hoya, Hatton, Calzaghe, etc.), the judges are affected and if they can't quite see the punches, they ASSUME some landed because of the noise of the crowd.
Any future bets I make on fights, I will find out the judges and check their previous decisions on BoxingRec.com.Comment
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Hopkins shouldn't have made that "white-boy" comment before his last fight because now the media hates him. Everytime he is written about, the "white-boy" comment will be in the back of the writer's mind when they think of words to say about him.Comment
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John Hivley is the biggest ****sucker on the planet!Comment
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This kid turns eleven next week.
What exactly did Calzaghe land (or even throw for that matter) that was going to cause a bruise?? "Peeing for days..!" That was good!
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