Hopkins is a ****ing cheater

[Kilrain]

What technical skill did you see in the Lacy fight? Calzaghe basically threw a thousand odd punches at a guy who was overrated to begin with, and punched out the victory. It's not as if he employed feinting techniques, shoulder rolls, switch-hitting, great lateral movement, dancing left and right. He kept on his toes and just punched the hell out of the overmuscled and overmatched Lacy. Nothing more.

The Kessler fight he brought in some adjustments and figured out some early problems. He started slowly and worked his game out. Kessler was strong in the first couple of rounds but basically he was study and straight ahead, he wasn't no bag of tricks boxer.

Kessler was strong with the right uppercut but Calzaghe just had to tighten up. It wasn't like he drastically switched tactics.

[Clegg]

This "Joe is getting old too!" argument is crap, as far as I'm concerned. He hasn't got much wear and tear, he's obviously fuelling peoples arguments on that topic based on his comments about retiring, but I don't view him as having declining skills, and am pretty much of the notion that he is in his prime at this moment.

Well then I guess Hopkins is in his prime too, because he's always had a very good defence and rarely gets hit with a flush shot. I mean you seem to think age is meaningless and has no effect on stamina, speed, punch resistance etc.

I'm sure you're a consistent kind of guy, so you're opinion is that Jones was in his prime when suffering consecutive KO losses, right?

[Kilrain]

Well then I guess Hopkins is in his prime too, because he's always had a very good defence and rarely gets hit with a flush shot. I mean you seem to think age is meaningless and has no effect on stamina, speed, punch resistance etc.

I'm sure you're a consistent kind of guy, so you're opinion is that Jones was in his prime when suffering consecutive KO losses, right?

Obviously not the same thing as Roy had to shed like 25Lbs of muscle to move back down to Lt-Heavyweight.

No, Hopkins is not in his prime, even when watching the Wright and Tarver fights, on paper two of his biggest wins, you can see that; contrast it with his fights with Simon Brown or the Allen rematch. Much better workrate back in the day, perfect balance of offence and defence, and tremendous ring generalship

[Kris Silver]

What technical skill did you see in the Lacy fight? Calzaghe basically threw a thousand odd punches at a guy who was overrated to begin with, and punched out the victory. It's not as if he employed feinting techniques, shoulder rolls, switch-hitting, great lateral movement, dancing left and right. He kept on his toes and just punched the hell out of the overmuscled and overmatched Lacy. Nothing more.

The Kessler fight he brought in some adjustments and figured out some early problems. He started slowly and worked his game out. Kessler was strong in the first couple of rounds but basically he was study and straight ahead, he wasn't no bag of tricks boxer.

Kessler was strong with the right uppercut but Calzaghe just had to tighten up. It wasn't like he drastically switched tactics.

Prior post was great, but it's now spiralling onto dis crediting Calzaghe on several other levels, topics, history etc. To be fair not that I agree, but it's fairly well executed. Still I think it's better that all too common stuff goes elsewhere, in a new or old thread. The topic is about Hops allegedly cheating in R10 afterall.

[cuzfozzy]

well golden boy shows why

its better to have fighters fight and promoters promote
because the fighters don't fight anymore
what about de la hoya and hopkins fight
that was a joke ... fighters should concentrate on fighting

[WetSexyLlamaPR]

Lol. I find it hilarious how apparently a 36 year old Hopkins (against Trinidad) is supposed to beat the harder punching Calzaghe around 30-33.

Jokers...

A 181 lbs Joe Calzaghe beat a 190 lbs Bernard Hopkins.

You are blinded by your fanaticism.

Calzaghe was going forward throughout nine but he was missing virtually every punch, he looked terrible frankly, like he did throughout the entire fight. He only won because Hopkins' legs got tired and father time began to grind on the champ. Pure and simple. A prime Hopkins would've murdered that boy, no question.

Agreed.

I love how people say that Hopkins being 43 years old doesn't count because Joe was 36. That makes perfect sense...

[cuzfozzy]

yeah but it wasn't calzaghe who put the fight off for so long
calzaghe chased hopkins for years. now he can use the excuese
of being too old but its a fact that hopkins ducked calzaghe
for years now we know why

many have tried all have failed , still undefeated calzaghe

[Clegg]

Obviously not the same thing as Roy had to shed like 25Lbs of muscle to move back down to Lt-Heavyweight.

So you don't think age played a part?

No, Hopkins is not in his prime, even when watching the Wright and Tarver fights, on paper two of his biggest wins, you can see that; contrast it with his fights with Simon Brown or the Allen rematch. Much better workrate back in the day, perfect balance of offence and defence, and tremendous ring generalship

I agree, but the reason for that is age, not wear and tear, right?

[abadger]

What technical skill did you see in the Lacy fight? Calzaghe basically threw a thousand odd punches at a guy who was overrated to begin with, and punched out the victory. It's not as if he employed feinting techniques, shoulder rolls, switch-hitting, great lateral movement, dancing left and right. He kept on his toes and just punched the hell out of the overmuscled and overmatched Lacy. Nothing more.

The Kessler fight he brought in some adjustments and figured out some early problems. He started slowly and worked his game out. Kessler was strong in the first couple of rounds but basically he was study and straight ahead, he wasn't no bag of tricks boxer.

Kessler was strong with the right uppercut but Calzaghe just had to tighten up. It wasn't like he drastically switched tactics.

You are confusing "slick boxing skill" with "technical boxing skill". Calzaghe is not Mayweather for sure, and nor is he prime Joel Casamayor, his skills do not lie in those areas. What Joe is, is a master of distance and positioning. Lacy hardly extended him I admit, but remember that Lacy did not get merely beaten, he got destroyed. Calzaghe did this by knowing what Lacy was going to do before he did it, moving into a position to avoid the attack, unload his own shots on a Lacy who had no idea where Joe was, move away to avoid Lacy's response, and so on ad infinitum. Calzaghe can only throw those hundreds of shot because 1) he is not on the receiving end of anything coming back, and 2) he his opponent canot prevent him from doing so, all achieved with distance and positioning.

The same was true in the Kessler fight, IMO even more impressively because Kessler is a well schooled technical boxer himself, and at times he made Kessler look ******. I remember moments in R6 when Joe is slipping Kessler combinations with his feet planted and relying solely on defensive head movement, like James Toney, and time after time saw Joe standing at the side of Kessler watching him punch into the space where Joe had just been, before opening up with a flurry of punches. ALL of this, the foundation of both these wins is achieved by extreme technical proficiency, all the more impressive because Joe appears to determine the right course of action on the fly as it were, without having any detailed gameplan.

I repeat, Joe Calzaghe is one of the best technical boxers out there, I'm not sure I can think of a single boxer who does what he does quite as well. That his skill is not visible to so many of you seems cray to me, especially in a world where Miguel Cotto is routinely hailed as an excellent technical boxer.

[Pecs]

where is part 7 of the video???