Prime Joe Calzaghe vs Prime Bernard Hopkins

[Dan...]

A large factor in how you answer this question is what sort of a Hopkins you think turned up against Calzaghe.

Personally I think it was the worst version of BHop I have ever seen. He was absolutely terrible in that fight IMO, yet he still took a near-prime Calzaghe to the edge.

One thing is for sure. If you take the two at the point at which they fought and compared that to their prime states, there is a hell of a lot more improvement in Bernard than there is in Joe.

[Jumpman23]

you dont even believe this.

idiot

Calzaghe is **** compared 2 Hopkins... prime 4 prime, B-HOP beats Joe 8-4.

[hookoutofhell]

The people who think Joe's activity level overwhelms a prime Bernard Hopkins, have never even seen a prime Bernard Hopkins. He was a come forward wrecking machine, and if you engaged with him his counters were still as crisp as they are today.

well the vast majority of ppl who do say JC would lose havent seen him in his prime. In fact id argue that most people haven't in fact.

i dont care how crisp his counters were back then imo he cant compete in a come forward brawl against JC. the guy has good power but imo its not KO power, the last time he Ko'ed someone was a welterweight (DLH)!!

by sying hes a wrecking machine you make him out to be a geoge foreman!!!
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KAWASAKI M5

[hookoutofhell]

A large factor in how you answer this question is what sort of a Hopkins you think turned up against Calzaghe.

Personally I think it was the worst version of BHop I have ever seen. He was absolutely terrible in that fight IMO, yet he still took a near-prime Calzaghe to the edge.

One thing is for sure. If you take the two at the point at which they fought and compared that to their prime states, there is a hell of a lot more improvement in Bernard than there is in Joe.

what!! Hopkins trains like a spartan hes not an idiiot!! no one was making any noises beforehand about how hopkins looked in poor condition.

i knew sooner or later someone was going to come along and say that Hopkins was in bette shape for the JC fight - if anything he probably outweighed JC by 10 pounds on fight night!!

seriously sometimes fellas you sound beyond delusional!!!
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BUY VAPIR ONE

[Dan...]

what!! Hopkins trains like a spartan hes not an idiiot!! no one was making any noises beforehand about how hopkins looked in poor condition.

i knew sooner or later someone was going to come along and say that Hopkins was in bette shape for the JC fight - if anything he probably outweighed JC by 10 pounds on fight night!!

seriously sometimes fellas you sound beyond delusional!!!

Whatever. I wasn't even necessarily referring to his physical condition, just that it was a terrible version of Hopkins - he fought like ****. If you have seen prime Hopkins fights and can't see that there was a massive difference in terms of his level of performance then and against Calzaghe then it is you who is dellusional.

So yeah, **** yourself ****.

[ßringer]

well the vast majority of ppl who do say JC would lose havent seen him in his prime. In fact id argue that most people haven't in fact.

i dont care how crisp his counters were back then imo he cant compete in a come forward brawl against JC. the guy has good power but imo its not KO power, the last time he Ko'ed someone was a welterweight (DLH)!!

by sying hes a wrecking machine you make him out to be a geoge foreman!!!

It all depends on what you view as a "prime" version of Calzaghe, or even a "prime" version of Hopkins.

Given that they're both older fighters who continue to rack up wins in the twilight of their careers.

I would say Hopkins prime ran from...96-ish until '02, with his absolute peak coming in '01 against Trinidad.

Calzaghe's I'm not sure of, I haven't see him fight pre-1999 except for the Eubank fight in '97.

But the older Bernard got the more and more improvement he's shown, the older Joe got the more and more lackluster he became IMO. His style now is one of the worst to watch in boxing if you ask me.

Granted it's only a matter of opinion.

[ßringer]

Whatever. I wasn't even necessarily referring to his physical condition, just that it was a terrible version of Hopkins - he fought like ****. If you have seen prime Hopkins fights and can't see that there was a massive difference in terms of his level of performance then and against Calzaghe then it is you who is dellusional.

So yeah, **** yourself ****.

I love how you try to break it down a bit in your first paragraph, but then decide that ultimately, it's a futile effort.

[KJB]

Prime Hopkins all day every day.

[Dan...]

I love how you try to break it down a bit in your first paragraph, but then decide that ultimately, it's a futile effort.

Yeah, I'm just beyond trying to deal with these tools who won't accept that Joe most probably wouldn't have beaten every fighter in history prime for prime.

[K-Nan]

Looking back at Calzaghe-Hopkins and then analyzing their prime years, anybody can see that neither guy was on form. I mean, at this point in time, both guys have basically become exaggerated versions of their worst habits in the ring. Hopkins used to be a roughhouser who broke you down. Against Calzaghe he was simply a roughhousing punk looking for an easy way out. Calzaghe used to be a fast, smart boxer with some punch. Against Hopkins he sacrificed literally all of his punch to slap B-Hop and just score points. It's like he's settled on just winning it in a modern Olympics style.

Anyway, I'm saying this to point out that it's not just B-Hop that we have to plug in to the equation, in terms of how he would fare with Joe. Calzaghe was much better in his prime too.. Cuz believe me, he's about 2 years away from his prime right now. I do think B-Hop would take him though. Had it been 2001 and 'Nard (yeah Bringer, 'NARD) had Joe on his ass in the 1st, he wouldn't have let him off the hook like that. ****, it almost seemed like the B-Hop that fought Pavlik wouldn't have let Joe off the hook like that.