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Bet on Hopkins
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I honestly think someone who had something to do with picking Tarver for the heavyweight role, had something planned out for a huge bet in the upcoming fight of Hopkins vs Tarver. Bernard Hopkins has many advantages in this fight, a couple of which were caused by the movie he did. It isn't just the weight.
It doesn't take a boxing expert to know that an expert counterpuncher who used to be a slugger, and best punch is a counter straight right hand, has a serious style advantage over a lesser southpaw counterpuncher, who has a longer torso and much more target available to strike, and much less skilled technically. The straight right hand is a southpaw's worst nightmare, and if the guy throwing it is the best counterpuncher in the world, you have a tough fight ahead of you. On top of all this, you throw in his experiences on the Rocky 6 set, and it can only be negative. Even if he didn't sit around eating cake on the set, his skills are still worse than they would've been if he had been training for the fight of his life like he did before he fought Roy Jones Jr. Hollywood softens everyone involved with it, especially fighters on the world class level about to go into the worst style matchup possible for their style. The weight gained for the movie will only allow Bernard to land the straight right hand with more ease. The weight will slow down everything the already slow Tarver did. Tarver vs Hopkins is a style nightmare for Tarver, much like Lacy vs Calzaghe was a style nightmare for Lacy, and there's no doubt in my mind he's taking Hopkins lightly to an extent, thinking the boxing he missed because of the movie filming won't be a problem because he's assuming Hopkins' skills eroded with his age much like they did with Jones Jr, but he's mistaken, and I see Hopkins winning via KO in the 9th. People need to understand that the Hopkins Antonio is facing is a different animal than the lessened version of Roy Jones Jr that he knocked out. Having said that, Tarver was very lucky to get that knockout vs Roy Jones, and has absolutely no chance to catch Hopkins like he caught Roy. Hopkins would never lead with a left hook vs a southpaw counterpuncher.
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I honestly think someone who had something to do with picking Tarver for the heavyweight role, had something planned out for a huge bet in the upcoming fight of Hopkins vs Tarver. Bernard Hopkins has many advantages in this fight, a couple of which were caused by the movie he did. It isn't just the weight.
It doesn't take a boxing expert to know that an expert counterpuncher who used to be a slugger, and best punch is a counter straight right hand, has a serious style advantage over a lesser southpaw counterpuncher, who has a longer torso and much more target available to strike, and much less skilled technically. The straight right hand is a southpaw's worst nightmare, and if the guy throwing it is the best counterpuncher in the world, you have a tough fight ahead of you. On top of all this, you throw in his experiences on the Rocky 6 set, and it can only be negative. Even if he didn't sit around eating cake on the set, his skills are still worse than they would've been if he had been training for the fight of his life like he did before he fought Roy Jones Jr. Hollywood softens everyone involved with it, especially fighters on the world class level about to go into the worst style matchup possible for their style. The weight gained for the movie will only allow Bernard to land the straight right hand with more ease. The weight will slow down everything the already slow Tarver did. Tarver vs Hopkins is a style nightmare for Tarver, much like Lacy vs Calzaghe was a style nightmare for Lacy, and there's no doubt in my mind he's taking Hopkins lightly to an extent, thinking the boxing he missed because of the movie filming won't be a problem because he's assuming Hopkins' skills eroded with his age much like they did with Jones Jr, but he's mistaken, and I see Hopkins winning via KO in the 9th. People need to understand that the Hopkins Antonio is facing is a different animal than the lessened version of Roy Jones Jr that he knocked out. Having said that, Tarver was very lucky to get that knockout vs Roy Jones, and has absolutely no chance to catch Hopkins like he caught Roy. Hopkins would never lead with a left hook vs a southpaw counterpuncher.
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