Calzaghe: "Jones is a Legend, Not Hopkins"

[brently1979]

Hopkins is a good fighter but his middleweight reign lasted for as long as it did because of the complete lack of real quality opposition. If Hopkins had come up as middleweight during the mid 70's or early 80's during Hagler's reign he'd have a difficult time cracking even the top 5. He was a good middleweight champion but hardly a legend, heck he lost to an inexperienced protected fluff fighter named Jermain Taylor twice. Yeah he's a legend alright ....in his own mind..

That being said I don't think Joe Calzaghe is a legend either and he has a better record...Ali, Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Robinson not those were more than good champions... THEY WERE AND ARE LEGENDS

This post sums up Hopkins and where he fits into things as far as legends are concerned.

[edgarg]

Yeah at 40 years old! How old was Hagler when he was clearly slipping and retired? Oh yeah, 32 . So shut the **** up!

Considering that Hagler was one of the very best of all time, it took him about 50 fights to get his title shot, and once could suppose that his best days were already beginning to wane. He's already fought some top opponents. I don't think that Hagler had any "gimme" fights, which are so popular with today's champs. I think that after becoming Champ every fight was against the best opponent available.

I for one, think that Hamsho would have beaten Hopkins. Too fast, accurate and strong, and lots of heart. And skilled too. He was a top guy, apart from his 1st Hagler fight, was only beaten by Hagler (again) and 2 other Champions at the very end of his career.

When you consider the actual "strength" (I hope I'm excused for using THAT word) of Hopkins' Title opponents in general, there's NO comparison. I'm not going to go into picking out which ones, it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. At the same time I'm not saying that hopkins was no good; he's clearly proved that he was, just not anything outstanding, except when compared to his mostly carefully chosen opponents. They all do it today. Warriordom is gone....... The "I'll fight any man in the house" aura of a REAL Champion has LONG gone. MONEY is what drives most of the matches today. If they also happen to be against very tough evenly matched opponents we're lucky. Why do you think that the MAIN ATTRACTION, most often seems to be NOT THE FIGHT ITSELF....but all the PR CRAP leading up to it which is geared ONLY to make the fight appear a SUPER ATTRACTION....

Then the fighters, promoters trainers etc, go off into a corner and count their money, .......and plan the next......SUPER SHOW.!!

[edgarg]

Joe was one round (114-112, not the 116-111 scorecard) from losing or a draw with a 43 yr old with no power left in his punches. and he got floored and his face lloked beat up unlike old Poppy Hopkins. I love RJJ, but Tarver destroyed Tarver in 12 complete rounds at 40 yr old. the man,Tarver, That KOd Rjj and beat him twice if not three times if you include their first fight. Also, Hopkins destroyed Glenn Johnson who KOd RJj. Hopkins KO Tito in his Prime when Tito had no Defeats. I think they are Both Legends, but if you cal Roy a Legend then you have to call Old Poppy Hopkins a Legend. Joe got Floored, and Slpas his punches in bunches. We all know that those Old judges count every punch that gets picked off as a point. Those judges have old eyes. I didnt see Je land more than 3 or 4 decent good hard punches in the Whole Hopkins fight. Hope Roy has gas in the Tank and puts on a Clinic one more Time.

You sound like the prosecutor in a case where the State has no real evidence, so makes all sorts of confetti accusations.
]
There was no 114-112 round. The scores were 113-114, 115-112. 116-111.

[edgarg]

This is just an ignorant post.

Which fights, for example, did hopkins use illegal tactics to win?

And it bothers me that people judge hopkins on how he looked at age 42 and 43 (against Winky and Calzaghe) which was nothing like how he used to fight. People need to understand that hopkins changed his fighting style pretty dramatically to adjust to age. That's why he was able to fight for so long. Hopkins always had outstanding boxing ability.

Hopkins did more fighting before he became champion. I suppose for him, one style got him there, and another kept him there.

Other fighters have done the same thing. Something happens- then you see a new fighter. For example John Ruiz, Macho Camacho,

[edgarg]

So he just had his hardest fight of his career against the bum that is B-Hop? He made himself sound like an idiot with that one. I guess he should get used to fighting past it Legends because he'll never be one himself.

Calzaghe didn't say it was the hardest fight of his career. His answers weren't going in that direction at all. Maxie carefully steered him by asking where he would place this fight amongst his toughest fights, and Calzaghe answered "well yeah, it was probably one of the toughest", but he was being ver polite and accomodating since he'd won and was very happy.

Max had likely (in my opinion) been rehearsing how to best ask this question for days, having (again, my opinion) been told by Golden Boy to ask it (depending on actual fight outcome).

[edgarg]

First off, Hopkins beat Johnson in his prime. Jones fought Johnson when he was older and coming off of a devastating 2nd round KO and was barely behind on the cards without hardly trying and got caught. Had Johnson fought Jones Jr. in his prime, there would have been no doubt that Jones would have KO'd Glenn. Besides, Jones beat Hopkins too. And, dont say Hopkins was green , because they had about the same number of fights and they were both fighting for a title for the first time. I think that if Roy gets in good conditioning to last the whole 12 rounds, he will give Calzaghe trouble with his speed and combinations. It is my belief that Joe will be intimidated by Jones and will get KO'd for being passive at times. Possibly by about round number 8 with a stiff counter punch. A straight right or a left hook. I like Calzaghe alot, but Roy is not a good matchup for him. Roy is faster on his feet than B-hop and hits way harder with more speed. That will spell trouble for the Italian Dragon.

That rundown sounds right on the mark.

[Thread Stealer]

Hopkins did more fighting before he became champion. I suppose for him, one style got him there, and another kept him there.

Other fighters have done the same thing. Something happens- then you see a new fighter. For example John Ruiz, Macho Camacho,

Hopkins has really only been that consistently boring, ugly to watch, always clinching, style of fighter lately as he has to preserve his energy so he picks his spots and usually had a low workrate.

In his earlier (pre 2004) days as champ, he had some ugly fights here and there (who doesn't), but wasn't consistently like that. The Vanderpool, Jackson, and Holmes fights were ugly as hell, but the Echols fights were entertaining, and he gave some fairly entertaining and brutal beatdowns/schoolings of guys like Mercado (rematch), James, Trinidad, Joppy, Johnson, Allen II, and had an explosive KO of Lipsey.

[Degsy]

Calzaghe did look amateurish against a slow and old Hopkins. If hopkins was younger it would have been embarrassing for Calzaghe. In my opinion he didnt "BEAT" Hopkins.. if anything Hopkins lost the fight because he was too old to throw any punches. It wasnt like anything Calzaghe did kept Hopkins from winning. Calzaghe won on points but that aint saying much because he never did anything special during the whole fight. He looked tentative and was easily hurt anytime Hopkins hit him flush with that right hand. I cant remember a recent opponent of Hopkins who was hurt so much by the right hand. If Calzaghe fights the same way against Roy Jones he is going to get his ass tore up.

Yep, he was hurt so much that he was up almost before Cortez started counting, so badly hurt that Hopkins went in for the Kill.........NOT. So badly hurt that he could chase Hopkins around the Ring for the next 11 rounds, Bernard was so generous, he took a three minute break to allow Joe to get his breath back.

If Calzaghe was younger, no wait a minute, maybe just his hands were less brittle, it would have been embarrrasing for a Hopkins of any age. You want to watch a few more fights my friend. If a Philly native only gave it to Hopkins by one round and the other two judges were both American, you can hardly call it a robbery, add that fact that Cortez 'allowed the fight to flow' for 160 clinches and its hardly a conspiracy against Hopkins is it??

[CardioMonster]

I thought the fight was close when i watched it, i had Calzaghe a round or two up.

on rewatching in the cold light of day Calzaghe won by about 5 rounds in my opinion.

The fact that Hopkins had to feign a low blow and generally do everything possible to prevent him having to fight, it didn`t look good on Bernards part.

With a different referee who wouldn`t tolerate Hopkins clinch, cheat, headbutt, clinch style, he would have been stopped in the late rounds IMO.

And to those who say Calzaghe has no power, he used to be a knockout artist but had to change his style due to weak hands, which nearly ended his career.

He can still **** though if he wants to.