Joe Calzaghe, Paper Champ?

[_Hunter_]

You are absolutely correct. Look, we all hate the belt jumpers... guys who win a title then vacate the belt because they want bigger paydays and bigger fights than mandatories... but when all you do is defend a belt and fight mandatories... you aren't going up against the super powers of the division...you're going against the up-and-comers.... Joe did just that, defended a belt... but Hopkins did the same for a decade. Both guys have a few really good opponents on their resume... and a TON of not so great guys on their records... but Hopkins did not grind it out against the gods of boxing for a decade... he defended his belts against the designated mandatories.

Agree with spider again. nathan got some good posts going too

[squealpiggy]

When is Calzaghe's prime then? when he was a nobody fighting Tomato cans in whales.

Yes. Here he is fighting a bum in a whale:



Unfortunately whales are not see-through so you'll just have to imagine it.

And Oscar been in the game since his early 20's, and been on the p4p list for years. Hopkins was in prison in his early 20's, thats why he hit his prime later.

Hopkins turned pro in 1988 at the age of 23. Calzaghe turned pro in 1993 at the age of 21. De La Hoya turned pro at the age of 19 in 1992.

Just saying.

well since you didn't follow boxing you probably never knew that those were all top ten fighters cept william bo james, steve frank, and hakkar. guess your own personal rankings system is better than the rings?

I'm just happy to see that someone on NSB agrees with me that Jose Luis Castillo was the second best fighter and number one contender at Jr Welterweight when he fought Ricky Hatton.

Hopkins has much better fighters imo.

Johnson (undefeated), Allen, Trinidad, Joppy, De La Hoya, Eastman, Winky, Tarver and Pavlik that stand out the most.

Ding ding ding ding ding we have a winner. Howard Eastman is a stand-out on the record of Bernard Hopkins. Howard Eastman. He stands out. Howard Eastman.



Howard ****in Eastman.

[daggum]

hopkins ducked juan carlos jiminez ferrari to fight howard eastman. true story.

[Naps]

hopkins ducked juan carlos jiminez ferrari to fight howard eastman. true story.

Eastman was robbed. Fact.

[ButlerBoxing]

If Joe retires without giving Hopkins a rematch, or fighting any of the other top contenders in consideration, will he go down as a Paper Champion?

when will this end. he beat everyone in his division, moved up and beat the ring magazine champ. who exactly has he 'ducked'. the mans 36 isn't he allowed to retire someday? everyone slags off fighters for going on too long but when one does want to retire on top hes ducking someone.

[daggum]

when will this end. he beat everyone in his division, moved up and beat the ring magazine champ. who exactly has he 'ducked'. the mans 36 isn't he allowed to retire someday? everyone slags off fighters for going on too long but when one does want to retire on top hes ducking someone.

NO! he has to go out like apollo creed.

[Mojita]

Paper Champion? He was truely SMW champ of the world after Kessler. So he gets credit for that [boo-hoo outta how many fights?]

he still sucks. beats out of prime fighters at LHW who would have smoked him to the way side in their prime.