Comments Thread For: Photos: Bernard Hopkins, Joe Calzaghe Vegas Reunion

[SAJ10]

I love both these guys - Hopkins and Calzaghe! Probably one of the few to really appreciate both guys. I thought JC edged an incredibly close fight but B-Hop - wow, what he's proven since! Both great fighters imo - HOF without a doubt!

Of course the respect is there - all the trash talk is mainly to sell tickets, and b4 the fight of course, there's hostility, but, boxers of that quality - Hop + Joe - they are two in Millions - of course they are going to respect each other!

[Brassangel]

Calzaghe barely squeaked by a Hopkins that was 7 years older than him, and managed to get knocked down by the old man in the process.

But it's nice to see them being friendly with each other.

Calzaghe had been in the game just as long as Hopkins, and was no spring chicken at 36. His game was speed, stamina, and volume of punches, and remember, those are the first things to go with age. Joe had been past his prime for nearly 5 years, while Hopkins was putting on a better show in his 40's than he was in his 20's.

Calzaghe simply had more in the tank after round 4.

******* Steroids, they make your head bigger.

******* doesn't make your head bigger.

Steroids only do it through Acromegaly, and Calzaghe displays no symptoms of that whatsoever. Having worked with and treated people who suffer from that condition, I can tell you, with absolute certainty, that Calzaghe is clean (from PED's, that is). Furthermore, there's no way he could have maintained speed, stamina, and a weight of 168 pounds for so long if he were juicing.

Bernard Hopkins won the first four rounds of their fight. That's it. After that, Joe settled in and just simply out-hustled the man. He threw more, landed more, and even made the sweat fly from his bald opponents' head. Contrary to the "Calslappe" comments - which, by the way, has to be the dumbest nickname of all-time; do you really find that clever in any way? - Joe's punches were enough to wear Bernard out (which hadn't happened before or since), and even forced him to fake two low blows to buy time. He was going to go down if the fight stayed at that pace, and he knew it. He was another combination or two from getting embarrassed by the white boy he said would never beat him.

I say this as an American who was pulling for Hopkins that night. Calzaghe drives me nuts, but he was simply better.

[Ravens Fan]

You really are confused, more than little. So you should look up further into my response.

I just assumed, wrongly, that you were talking about the Calzaghe fight. And I stand corrected.

[cupocity303]

Calzaghe had been in the game just as long as Hopkins, and was no spring chicken at 36. His game was speed, stamina, and volume of punches, and remember, those are the first things to go with age. Joe had been past his prime for nearly 5 years, while Hopkins was putting on a better show in his 40's than he was in his 20's.

Calzaghe simply had more in the tank after round 4.



******* doesn't make your head bigger.

Steroids only do it through Acromegaly, and Calzaghe displays no symptoms of that whatsoever. Having worked with and treated people who suffer from that condition, I can tell you, with absolute certainty, that Calzaghe is clean (from PED's, that is). Furthermore, there's no way he could have maintained speed, stamina, and a weight of 168 pounds for so long if he were juicing.

All that typing, for a facetious joke.

[ShoulderRoll]

Calzaghe had been in the game just as long as Hopkins, and was no spring chicken at 36.

The fact remains that Calzaghe was in an incredibly close fight with a man who was 7 years older than him and in his 40s.

And Calzaghe got knocked down by that man.

That's all I'm saying.

[Forza]

The fact remains that Calzaghe was in an incredibly close fight with a man who was 7 years older than him and in his 40s.

And Calzaghe got knocked down by that man.

That's all I'm saying.

It wasn't close at all, 1 judge (byrd, the worst judge ever) had bhop winning by a point. The 2 others had nearly complete shut outs for calzaghe.

Calzaghe was also about to turn 37, had broke both hands 5+ times, fought bhop on his home turf, and still handed him his ass.

Bhop's prime peaked a lot later than most fighters, he got into the fight game at like 22 years old. Calzaghe had been boxing since 5 years old, held amateur titles etc by 36 he was about done.

Also if the fight was held at SMW, bhop would have been TKO'd

[cupocity303]

Now lets respond to the second part of your post, which I just noticed. The way you went on writing a long paragraph trying to prove that Joe's head isn't big because of ******* Steroids made me overlook this

C
Bernard Hopkins won the first four rounds of their fight. That's it. After that, Joe settled in and just simply out-hustled the man. He threw more, landed more, and even made the sweat fly from his bald opponents' head. Contrary to the "Calslappe" comments - which, by the way, has to be the dumbest nickname of all-time; do you really find that clever in any way? - Joe's punches were enough to wear Bernard out (which hadn't happened before or since), and even forced him to fake two low blows to buy time. He was going to go down if the fight stayed at that pace, and he knew it. He was another combination or two from getting embarrassed by the white boy he said would never beat him.

I say this as an American who was pulling for Hopkins that night. Calzaghe drives me nuts, but he was simply better.

Bernard Hopkins won a lot more than four rounds. On top of the lead he built with the 10-8 first round, there were plenty of close, hard to score rounds, that could've easily went to Hopkins. Which they did, after all, one judge had Hopkins WINNING, for a good reason.

Secondly, I don't care what the punch stats say, what I saw was Hopkins landing the cleaner, more effective, eye catching shots, and Calzaghe's face proved it after the fight. He was the one busted up.

All I saw Joe do round after round was this:

[IMG]http://i300.***********.com/albums/nn20/vv1985/SlappyJoe.gif[/IMG]


And to your final point, yes Calzaghe has earned the "Slappy" moniker for a good reason. Which is one of the reasons why I'm biased against him, his boxing style is that of a ***** fighting his way out of spiderwebs. I mean, just look at the GIF I posted above, SAYS IT ALL.

[Ravens Fan]

It wasn't close at all, 1 judge (byrd, the worst judge ever) had bhop winning by a point. The 2 others had nearly complete shut outs for calzaghe.

Calzaghe was also about to turn 37, had broke both hands 5+ times, fought bhop on his home turf, and still handed him his ass.

Bhop's prime peaked a lot later than most fighters, he got into the fight game at like 22 years old. Calzaghe had been boxing since 5 years old, held amateur titles etc by 36 he was about done.

Also if the fight was held at SMW, bhop would have been TKO'd

I had Joe winning 8-4 in rounds and 116-111 and 115-112 is not close to pitching a shut out in 12 round fight.

[SAJ10]

I couldn't have said it better! I'm Welsh but you'll struggle to find a bigger Hopkins fan in the UK! I love the bloke! His mind games, ring IQ - boxing ability, heart, defensive nous, LEGEND!

He's my kind of fighter! The way he adapted and adjusted in both pascal fights and took to school - Pavlik, Tarver, Trinidad etc etc in pure boxing lessons.

My new favourite fighter - Mr Andre Ward! Sublime talent - what people don't understand is his and Hunter's intelligence!

Hop was a legend but he lost imo a close decision to Joe. Plus Cortez let B-Hop hold all night long in that fight, but that's a different argument!

Hopkins has sealed a great legacy with his win over Pascal at 46. Becoming the oldest. World Champ ever etc. Plus the wins he should get in his next two fights against young, credible dogs!

I don't see what a win over a 39 year old Joe - who's been on the sniff and partying hard for a year after he retired will give Bernard legacy wise.

joe's been out of the ring for 3 years - the desire's gone for Calzaghe, it hasn't for Hopkins who can still beat more live opponents than Joe currently is.

[Dedication]

The fact remains that Calzaghe was in an incredibly close fight with a man who was 7 years older than him and in his 40s.

And Calzaghe got knocked down by that man.

That's all I'm saying.

True say, and if you turned the tables, by putting a 36 year old Hopkins up against a 43 year old Calzaghe. I doubt Calzaghe would have made it past the 3rd round.