Hopkins, Golden Boy Push For a Calzaghe Rematch

[Dave Rado]

Lol. All the Calzaghe fans don't want to see him lose.

How does preferring an exciting Dawson fight to an ugly Hopkins fight mean you don't want to see him lose? Dawson is at least as much of a threat as Hopkins, probably a bigger threat. Stop misrepresenting people, it just shows you up as a hater.

[The Great Shark]

How does preferring an exciting Dawson fight to an ugly Hopkins fight mean you don't want to see him lose? Dawson is at least as much of a threat as Hopkins, probably a bigger threat. Stop misrepresenting people, it just shows you up as a hater.

I missed the part where my post was specifically for you. Also, your statement has some logic issues.

My point is, Calzaghe states he left because he "had nothing else to prove", yet Dawson clearly challenged him before he officially left. Calslappy still has a lot to prove, avoiding high risk fighters such as Dawson to keep that 0.

[Dave Rado]

I missed the part where my post was specifically for you. Also, your statement has some logic issues.

My point is, Calzaghe states he left because he "had nothing else to prove", yet Dawson clearly challenged him before he officially left. Calslappy still has a lot to prove, avoiding high risk fighters such as Dawson to keep that 0.

He explained why the Dawson and Hopkins fights didn't excite him enough to postpone his retirement for those fights, and it had nothing to do with losing his 0. The reasons he gave made sense to any open minded person who is not a hater, even though most people, including most of his fans, would have preferred it if he had fought Dawson before retiring. But apart from haters, they respected his reasons and accepted them. Almost no one other than Hopkins fans wanted to see another Calzaghe-Hopkins fight though, because most people think it would be another ugly, unwatchable fight, and that Calzaghe would win another very close decision, which would achieve nothing.

But his fans did want to see him fight Dawson, so it's got nothing to do with not risking his 0.

And not one person in this thread has said anything about not wanting him to risk his 0, and you misconstrued all the Calzaghe fans posts collectively, so that includes mine.

[Dirk Diggler UK]

Again, I'd buy it if Hopkins wasn't clinching so much. It helps him conserve energy. He's throwing accurately but little, and he clinches frequently and tried to take 10 minutes worth of low blow breaks. Calzaghes walking him down, but missing 2x as much as he's landing if you want to call it that. Against Pavlik the offense is turned up to the max, he's moving backwards and at angles a lot despite being so much quicker when he didn't have to and clinching a fraction of the time. He's moving constantly.

Oh, Dirk, c'mon. Hop chose to fight Kelly like that. He could've hauled ass backward the ENTIRE fight like he usually does but said in the post fight interview he purposely came into that fight aggressively and would do so in the future for fear of losing any more close decisions. Part of that was him actively pushing to make Kelly look bad and not just Kelly's deficiencies allowing him to go wild and look like Superman.

If he didn't mention his philosophy change against Pavlik, I would've thought him incapable of fighting at such a pace at that point. For now, I'm taking BHop's word for it...overactive thyroid against Calzaghe.

Im done trying to reason with your ******ity.

Yeah Hopkins chose to fight Calzaghe like that. He chose to look like ****. He thought he'd give Calzaghe a chance.

Get the **** outta here

[The Great Shark]

He explained why the Dawson and Hopkins fights didn't excite him enough to postpone his retirement for those fights, and it had nothing to do with losing his 0. The reasons he gave made sense to any open minded person who is not a hater, even though most people, including most of his fans, would have preferred it if he had fought Dawson before retiring. But apart from haters, they respected his reasons and accepted them. Almost no one other than Hopkins fans wanted to see another Calzaghe-Hopkins fight though, because most people think it would be another ugly, unwatchable fight, and that Calzaghe would win another close decision, which would achieve nothing.

Anyone but a hater

What were these "reasons" (also known as excuses)? You can defend your favorite fighter all you want, it still doesn't change the fact he'd rather retire than further cement his legacy by putting down some young guns, assuming he'd win that is. As a boxing fan, I'd rather much have him stay in the game, fight bums then leave because he's bored.

[Haglerwins]

Im done trying to reason with your ******ity.

Yeah Hopkins chose to fight Calzaghe like that. He chose to look like ****. He thought he'd give Calzaghe a chance.

Get the **** outta here

It's not about giving him a chance, or choosing to look like anything. It's a philosophy. If you are a fighter who takes a hit and don't get hit approach, you're actions will reflect this mindset in the ring. BHop has been overly defensive and he finally realized it. Instead of leading in a fight, he'll trail and only look to counter for example. I find it strange you flip out like that, when I tell you Hopkins said in his post fight interview against Pavlik that he changed his fight approach because this style was costing him too many close fights. Take that ******ity issue up with Hopkins, not me.

[Dave Rado]

What were these "reasons" (also known as excuses)? You can defend your favorite fighter all you want, it still doesn't change the fact he'd rather retire than further cement his legacy by putting down some young guns, assuming he'd win that is. As a boxing fan, I'd rather much have him stay in the game, fight bums then leave because he's bored.

My favourite fighter is Ali, followed by Sugar Ray Robinson. Calzaghe is in my top 100, but for you to call him my favourite fighter is presumptuous in the extreme.

I respect any fighter's honest reasons for retiring. He was not ducking. I would have preferred him to have had one more fight first, against Dawson, but I respect his reasons for not being able to get excited enough about that fight to postpone his retirement. There's no point in going over them with you because you have already shown yourself to be totally closed minded and a hater.

What bugs me most about this thread is that Shaefer is trying to lure Calzaghe out to fight Hopkins rather than Dawson, when Dawson is the fighter most people would want Calzaghe to fight if he did come out of retirement. But apart from me, no one is complaining about that.

[Dirk Diggler UK]

It's not about giving him a chance, or choosing to look like anything. It's a philosophy. If you are a fighter who takes a hit and don't get hit approach, you're actions will reflect this mindset in the ring. BHop has been overly defensive and he finally realized it. Instead of leading in a fight, he'll trail and only look to counter for example. I find it strange you flip out like that, when I tell you Hopkins said in his post fight interview against Pavlik that he changed his fight approach because this style was costing him too many close fights. Take that ******ity issue up with Hopkins, not me.

I dont care what he said. He was fighting Pavlik. End of story. If he fought the same way against Calzaghe, he would lose even worse. Calzaghe loves more aggressive/attacking fighters.

The best way to beat Joe is to be cagey, to draw him onto you because he gets wild and squares his shoulders up looking to engage and is open to counter right hands. Hopkins knew that and thats why he fought that way.

[Dave Rado]

It's not about giving him a chance, or choosing to look like anything. It's a philosophy. If you are a fighter who takes a hit and don't get hit approach, you're actions will reflect this mindset in the ring. BHop has been overly defensive and he finally realized it. Instead of leading in a fight, he'll trail and only look to counter for example. I find it strange you flip out like that, when I tell you Hopkins said in his post fight interview against Pavlik that he changed his fight approach because this style was costing him too many close fights. Take that ******ity issue up with Hopkins, not me.

I think your points are reasonable, but I'm unconvinced. I'm not saying you're wrong, but if I had to bet on a rematch being exciting or ugly, I'd bet on it being ugly. And as Dirk Diggler UK says, I think he'd actually fare worse against Calzaghe if he was more aggressive.

[Haglerwins]

I dont care what he said. He was fighting Pavlik. End of story. If he fought the same way against Calzaghe, he would lose even worse. Calzaghe loves more aggressive/attacking fighters.

The best way to beat Joe is to be cagey, to draw him onto you because he gets wild and squares his shoulders up looking to engage and is open to counter right hands. Hopkins knew that and thats why he fought that way.

With his ability to adjust that only seems to be effective short term. When Hop was too tired to feint Cal started to sniff out the right some.

I actually think Joe is more vunerable backing up against Hopkins. He wouldn't be able to plant and flurry like he does if he's forced back with no leverage. And he needs the output to keep Bernard in a points deficit. Despite what you think, I'd like to see what bag of tricks for Hopkins he has on the back foot because he can't hurt him. I know this much though, if there was a rematch, Hop wouldn't play ring a round a rosie all night. He knows he's not likely to get a decision playing his old game.