Hopkins, Golden Boy Push For a Calzaghe Rematch

[CiganoBoxer]

Yeah, he's just pretending. Like how after the 5th round he started making the sweat fly from Hopkins' head from all the "slapping." And how his workrate of "flailing" tired Hopkins out so badly that he had fake a low blow to buy time.

Joe was under a ton of pressure, the kind he's never really faced before, and he got caught early. Then he simply outhustled the man to a victory. Hopkins was completely gassed at the end of the fight.

I'm an American who was pulling for he old man, but Joe won that fight, and he'd be even better in a rematch. Zaghe has nothing left to prove. He's the greatest ever at 168, and top ten from there to 175.

Thats how i see it

[Pugilistic™]

Joe stops Nard if this happens again.

funny guy.....

[Dave Rado]

Well I guess I'm not the only one quick to judge; I JUST asked you to post the reasons, because I didn't read the reasons he stated whenever that was.

You said "what were his reasons: reasons = excuses?", which hardly indicates someone with an open mind - it indicates someone who is a hater, who just wants to play games trying to tear down whatever reasons I gave. That's an easy game to play, and a pointless one.

And you said that you knew that the only reason he retired when he did was to protect his 0.

And you said that all the Calzaghe fans in this thread had said they didn't want him to fight Hopkins or Dawson because they wanted him to protect his 0, which is a blatant misrepresentation of what we said, considering that several Calzaghe fans had said they would like him to fight Dawson; and considering that the only reason they had given for not wanting him to come back to fight Hopkins is that they thought it would be another unwatchable, ugly and indecisive fight that he would probably win by another close decision, which would achieve nothing.

I have no problem with honest and rational discussion with someone who is sceptical, but you have shown yourself so far to be a game playing hater rather than rationally sceptical.

But in the forlorn hope that you really have put playing games aside, here are the reasons he gave for not postponing his retirement in order to fight Dawson.

At the end of his career, when he was ready for a retirement that he had already been looking forward to for several years, he said he needed a big fight against a big name to get him excited enough to continue. He said:

"If I was at a weight category where I could fight the likes of Ricky Hatton, Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather, then it would be a different story, they are fighters to carry on for."

In other words, at that stage of his career, he needed to fight a future hall of famer in order to give him enough motivation to continue, and to do the hard training that it requires. He felt that Dawson had the potential to become a future hall of famer, but that he hadn't reached that level yet, as he was not a dominant champion yet, is not a well known name yet outside of hardcore boxing fandom, and has no really big wins yet. A fight with Dawson wouldn't create the sort of buzz he needed in order to motivate him at this point in his career when he was ready to retire.

Hopkins is a certainly a future hall of famer and maybe an ATG, but their styles just clash, and he felt a rematch would be as ugly, unwatchable and indecisive as the first fight had been, and would achieve nothing. Plus the way Hopkins had disrespected him after the first fight had left a bad taste in the mouth and made him feel the guy didn't deserve a rematch.

But he would have continued in order to fight a light-heavyweight equivalent of a Mayweather or Pacquiao.

In terms of his statement that he had nothing left to prove, he meant nothing left to prove to himself. There will always be someone more to fight, and there will always be some people who think you have something left to prove; but when you have reached what you consider to be retirement time, it's not about whether there is anyone to fight, but whether you would prove anything to yourself by beating them.

Most of his fans, including me, wanted him to continue for one more fight against Dawson (but not Hopkins, for the above reasons). And most of his fans would be pleased if he came back immediately, now, to fight Dawson. So it has nothing to do with not risking his 0. But we respected his reasons for retiring when he did - and I would respect any boxer's honest reasons for retiring. It's their arse on the line in the ring, not mine.

What his fans don't want to see is for him to retire for several years and then come back - if he's going to retire he should stay retired. If he's going to come back it should be immediately, before he's properly retired. The guy's 35, for goodness sakes, and although he has aged quite well, he does not age like Hopkins.

[Abstraction]

Hopkins won the last bout, Joe's Running and brushed of Re-Match questions shows that.
End of discussion.

[Johnny Rebel]

Correction: Calzaghe threw twice as many punches but hopkins landed the clean shots.

I mean this basically sums up the fight:

[img]http://i28.***********.com/albums/c217/natas206/hopcalz-1.gif[/img]

Here Calzaghe throws 5 punches and lands 0. Hopkins throws one that lands cleanly. I'm sure compubox had calzaghe landing 3 of these punches too. In real time it's a blur of awkward looking, often slap-like punches. A closer look reveals the truth which for most of the rounds, hopkins landed the clean/effective punches, while calzaghe threw many ineffective punches. That was the story of the night. Now this is where people disagree on scoring. Some will always score for aggression alone. Others will score for clean/harder shots, ring generalship, defense and strong emphasis on EFFECTIVE aggression.

JC landed a left hook/uppercut there and Hop landed a headbutt and a right. Let's not pretend that Hop was landing "clean, effective" punches throughout the fight, because he wasn't! Neither one of them were...

[Abstraction]

JC landed a left hook/uppercut there and Hop landed a headbutt and a right. Let's not pretend that Hop was landing "clean, effective" punches throughout the fight, because he wasn't! Neither one of them were...

Er.. What left Uppercut? You mean that slap to his shoulder?

Hopkins landed two punches there, one to the body, and one on right on his chin.

[Technical_Skill]

Correction: Calzaghe threw twice as many punches but hopkins landed the clean shots.

I mean this basically sums up the fight:

[img]http://i28.***********.com/albums/c217/natas206/hopcalz-1.gif[/img]

Here Calzaghe throws 5 punches and lands 0. Hopkins throws one that lands cleanly. I'm sure compubox had calzaghe landing 3 of these punches too. In real time it's a blur of awkward looking, often slap-like punches. A closer look reveals the truth which for most of the rounds, hopkins landed the clean/effective punches, while calzaghe threw many ineffective punches. That was the story of the night. Now this is where people disagree on scoring. Some will always score for aggression alone. Others will score for clean/harder shots, ring generalship, defense and strong emphasis on EFFECTIVE aggression.

Everybody welcome to the truth, Disgraceful scoring in that fight, hopkins knocked him down, landed the cleaner, harder, more effective punches.

Calzaghe knew he was in trouble, got desperate and threw a zillion windmill punches which didnt land clean, but idiot judges these days will score for anything.

The rematch wont happen, calzaghe is all about one thing, protecting that 0, retiring before dawson could get to him, not wanting a rematch with hopkins, saying jones was old and that a fight with jones would prove nothing, then fighting jones in a 'career defining' fight. Just some of the reasons he lacks real legitimacy.

[Zmlacksz]

Everybody welcome to the truth, Disgraceful scoring in that fight, hopkins knocked him down, landed the cleaner, harder, more effective punches.

Calzaghe knew he was in trouble, got desperate and threw a zillion windmill punches which didnt land clean, but idiot judges these days will score for anything.
.

Based on a 3 second clip of the fight. A better clip that sums up the fight would be round 10 Hopkins getting a 5 minute rest after feigning a low blow. And round 11 when he tried to do the same after a body shot, which should have got a point deduction.

[WESS]

Hell ****ing no, I wouldn't wanna see this bore-fest in fact I will go out on a limb and say that Holyfield-Valuev was better than this ****fest

Not singling you out specifically BUT my thoughts are this. Most everyone on here speaks of a "BORE-FEST". In what way would it be? HOP has said after the Pavlik fight he will let his hands go and fight. He knows first hand Joe cant punch hard enough to get by his defense and hurt him. He knows first hand he can drop Calzaghe and as a matter of fact if you know anything about the fight you would notice (as Emanuel Stewart presented) Hop "almost" dropped him a few times. So why would he hold as much, he has something to prove now. He already said he would fight. I believe he will.

Will this fight be tactical? Sure. Will it be dirty? Yes, especially if Joe pulls the ****sexual act of acting like he was having sex with Bernard Hopkins doggie style (must be a euro thing???? Someone explain.).

This fight for BOTH men would make big statements. True/die-hard fans want to see it. Boxing needs it. The money is there. Joe Calzaghe's fans will be there for sure buying tickets. A$$'s will be in the seats. So what's the problem. EVERYONE here knows damn well that if it were to happen you would pay 50, 60, 70 dollars to watch this fight. Either way this would be an interesting fight with a BIG impact on each fighters career.

Its all up to Joe and rightfully so. He's retired. I would give him much respect for taking on B-HOP again. Both guys would make a hell of a lot of money, especially Joe . Should be his biggest pay yet. I'm for it. I hope it happens. There has been worse fights. Lets see these old men fight once more and retire once and for all........

No hate...just my 3 cents.....

[Sparked_1985]

I'd watch it.

But it would be boring as ****, no two ways about it.

Both Hopkins and somehow nobody ever really gets it Joe Calzaghe are spoilers. They spoil the other guys work, it's what they do.

I'd watch it, and it would be crap. And Calzaghe would win again. Wider because it will be in Wales.

Hopkins has a small chance of knocking Calzaghe out, so small that it is almost negligable.

If you're Calzaghe you don't take this fight because it really is pointless.