Round by Round: Bernard Hopkins vs. Joe Calzaghe

Agree completely.

No way Bernard won that fight.

 

Compubox was off tonight...Calzaghe was hardly landing anything. But besides that...Bernard was landing the cleaner harder punches. He stunned Joe quite a few times.

It was a close fight and the KD was the difference.

Split decision either way was fair...I agreed with the judge who had it 114-113 for Hopkins.

Best card of the night!

 

This just goes to show how great of a fighter Hopkins is. Even at his age of 43 or 44 he still was able to make it a close fight with Joe who is younger and more within his prime.

 

Calzaghe won the fight on rounds, and I thought it was clear, MUCH clearer than the 2 Taylor fights.

I saw more clean, sharp punches land by Hopkins; specifically if you count body shots which Calzaghe inexplicably neglected :dunno: but a 2-to-1 scoring clip will get a win when Calzaghe is a heavy handed puncher.

I'll say that again: Joe Calzaghe is HEAVY HANDED. He slaps so much because he wants to maintain his speed and throw more, NOT focus on knocking a fighter out. After all, a guy like Juan Diaz is high volume, but he doesn't come close to knocking guys out. Calzaghe has done so on a high level on many occasions.

If you want to see what Calzaghe fights would look like if he turned those punches over completely, watch Miguel Cotto. Hell, take a look at what HOPKINS throws, because for all of the low-workrate guys who is NOT known for power, he cerainly gets people to respect it for some reason.

It was an ugly fight, but I'll be the pervert and say I enjoyed watching it dammit. :flip:

 

Compubox was not off, Joe landed almost twice as many punches. Anyone with 2 eyes could see this.

After 3 rounds I was amazed with Nard seemingly pulling it off again.

But from rounds 4 to 12, CONSISTENTLY, for almost 3 minutes of every round, Calzaghe walked him down, backed him up, controlled the pace, landed jabs, landed straight lefts, landed counter right hooks, and basically outlanded Hopkins in almost every round and controlled the pace - he won the fight hands down.

If you scored the fight for Hopkins, quite simply you don't know how to score a fight.

I was rooting for Nard until he wanted to quit, and I've liked Hopkins for years. This is the first time I have EVER picked against him.

But the fight was a clear win for Calzaghe. Anyone who scored the fight for Hopkins should really start watching horse racing.

 

btw wtf was calzaghe doing when he was shaking his ass when when his nuts were resting on bernards rearend?

 

Holy shit.

Am I hearing people say Hopkins won only three rounds? Wow...ok. Whatever. Didn't score the fight but thought it was close, possibly with a clear edge to Joe C. CompuBox was waaayyy off though, particularly in the early rounds. Kinda scary - which is why it's a completely bullsh*t stat.

Hopkins faded bad and Calzaghe failed to impress against the old man. As I said a few weeks ago on this fight - TWO WORDS: Sakio Bika. Calzaghe is a sloppy in-fighter. That will be his doom against Jones.

Such a pity that he didn't fight these guys a few years ago. He'd have a couple losses already.

 

Eat your crow like a man. I told you ages ago that Joe would win 8 or 9 rounds and you said I was full of shit.

This was the first time I've picked against Nard, and with good reason.

Do me a favour Kenneth, score the fight round by round today or tomorrow and see what score you come out with.

 

It's just a cheeky British schoolboy type thing to do.

 

Well it must say alot for American boxing if this guy was the best light-heavyweight, a top p4p'er..and such an awesome, awesome great legend,.. maybe if Hopkins can stop clinching, and allow his opponents to beat his arse they will give you the oppurtunity to impress...:crafty:

 

Eat what crow? The fight went exactly as I predicted. Just like Hopkins-Winky but Hops did not have the workrate. Calzaghe by ugly decision. Que crow? :nono:

I will score the fight, although it is a moot point for me. I've argued for years that Joe C., while good, is not great. And you'll see when he faces Jones--even a 39yr old version. Actually, you saw it last night. Actually, you saw it plenty of times before.

 

I love Bernard Hopkins. But you could see his decline when he fought Winky. He should've murdered him. Instead, he went 12 ugly rounds with a fat, old junior middle who had NOTHING once Hops took away his jab. And Hopkins even claimed a few hard punches in that one - some definitely got his attention.

Upon seeing that, I knew his end was near.

 

I thought you picked Hopkins? I thought that's what we were debating a while ago?

To be honest, I've always been more of a Nard fan than Calzaghe.

There is a certain allure to the wily old wardog.

But fuck if Calzaghe aint great. He is the best supermiddle ever, and has just beaten Nard at least as convincingly as Roy did.

He is an up and down fighter, fights to the level of his opponents.

I'm surprised at you though Kenneth, saying Joe didn't look good against Nard.

Who has looked good against Nard? Even Roy didn't.

 

Yes he's the best smw ever...for what it's worth. But beating a 28yr old Bernard is a lil different than beating the 43yr old version. As I said, I knew Hops lost it once he struggled with Winky.

And sure few have looked good against Bernard but geezus christ, TITO TRINIDAD landed more punches than Calzaghe did last night. He simply won the fight by throwing WAAAYYY more and possibly landing a couple more - f*ck a CompuBox.

If Joe C. had fought Hopkins a few years ago, he would've been decimated. Same with Jones. And I am of the opinion he loses to Jones even now.

 

As I said,.. with the beloved Hopkins bowing out, he'll have selective little "primes" now the way Tyson does,.. GREEN! for Roy, GREEN! for Mercado.. OLD! (prematurely) for Taylor.. and now OLD! once again for Calzaghe,.. but everyone knew it was coming,.. its like Shannon Briggs and the word "asthma" post fight.

 

No, tito didn't land anywhere near as many punches against Nard as Joe did. Tito landed fuck all, he was dominated from start to finish.

And no, Roy won't beat Joe now.

Fancy a bet if the fight happens?

 

Well that's one way to sidestep an argument.

But the bottom line is clear: The Bernard Hopkins who fought Antonio Tarver didn't show up against Winky Wright. That's all you need to know. Against Calzaghe, he faded pretty bad, taking five minute breaks and sh*t. 43 is OLD dude, even for Hopkins.

 

Tito was dominated because Bernard threw back. Not quite the ten punches a round guy we see now. But, looking back over 12 rounds, Joe landed very little. Sorry, call em as I see em.

Sure, I'll take the bet you kidding me? I'm surprised you're actually offering one. I offered you for Mayweather-Hatton but you skipped out.

 

That's because I knew Floyd would win, I'm not stupid.

Bur Roy won't beat Calzaghe. And Tito landed fuck all, are you kidding me? He landed almost no clean punches. Shit, I'm sure even Nard himself would tell you that Joe landed way more than tito. Calzaghe didn't land much for the first 3 rounds, after that he was landing consistently, jabs, straight lefts, counter right hooks and slaps, round after round, MANY of them landing and backing bernard up.

And by the way, Nard looked fine against Winky.

Winky is another fighter that's not easy to look good against.

He also looked good last night until Calzaghe took over.

For a 43 year old, he sure can pull the trigger on that counter right. It's fucking fast, and accurate too.

His only element of decline is his workrate. He's still strong, he's still sharp and he's still fast.

 

dsimon writes:

I can honestly see everyone's arguments. This is one of those fights that you see what you are looking for. Bernard was holding a bit but hit with more effective punches. Calzaghe hit with more punches, but they were fuck all and did no real damage.

I don't like that judges now-a-days like the punching machines.... but they do. They don't even care if the punches land effectively. Comoubox was a joke also. It was off.

In the end you could have scored it either way with justification.

 

::

The Mayweather-Hatton debate wasn't over who'd win - but HOW. Remember this:

Yeah.

Anyway, Hops faded pretty bad last night. Sh*t, it wasn't like Calzaghe was landing anything. In fact, he was getting sloppier and sloppier...while throwing more and more. A younger Hopkins gets him outta there. A younger Jones brutalizes him. And an older one will comfortably outboxes him.

 

You could only score if for Hopkins if you're blind and retarded.

All he was doing round after round was doing the right hand-grab-'n'-headbutt move, all the whilst being backed up by Calzaghe and eating jabs, lefts and right hooks.

And if Nard's punches and bodyshots etc were so effective, then why did he never back calzaghe up, or stop him in his tracks, or control the pace with these better, clean punches?

I wasn't seeing what I wanted to see, because up until Nard tried to quit, I was rooting for him. I saw what happened, and that was Bernard lose clearly, and land only the occasional clean right hand.

 

Yeah that surprised me, that Floyd roughed hatton up. Hatton would have never beaten Floyd, but he has badly declined. The Hatton around the Tszyu time was far, far better than this hatton.

He has lost his energy and stamina and speed.

Attackign fighters with such a high energy style generally have short primes, especially if they let themselves go between fights like Hatton does.

So how much do you want to bet on Calzaghe - Jones if it happens?

 

dsimon writes:

There were several times Nard buckled Joe's knees inside. Watch the fight again carefully. But Nard also was wrapping that other hand around which did take away from what he could legally do insided, instead of firing away with both hands.

Nard hurt Joe, Joe did not hurt him back. But joe hit with more volume as Nard tired, so again, youscore what is more important to you.

 

Yep 5 minute breaks, to stop himself being knocked out perhaps?...do those breaks and excessive clinches and butts make you feel proud to be a Hopkins fan?..or is it the things that he says or the way he sabotages negotiations at the last minute like he did with Calzaghe back in 2002?... and what argument do you speak of?.. all you're doing is exasperating in bitterness because Hopkins lost to the worst possible opponent from a flag-waving imperialistic point of view, the Bernard Hopkins who showed up for Antonio Tarver, also didn't show up for Eric Mitchell, Roy Jones, and Jermaine Taylor,..but let's attempt to pardon him from quality fighters who's styles he cant handle, and instead, pull "prime" Hops out of his fights with mandatory scrubs like Rock Allen..then try and phase out rock's identity and replace it with Joe Calzaghe,....:shit: now,..now now...y'all see, dats wat Hops woulda done ta him in his prime . :nono: Kenneth please,..don't make me break out a bit of Jeffery Dahmer....because I can feel it coming,...

 

Um, no Nard didn't hurt Joe, what fight were you watching?

Neither fighter was hurt. Even the knockdown was flash, I think it just caught him by surprise, and he was rushing in and a bit off balance.

And after that, at no point was Calzaghe hurt. Nard landed one counter right hand in round 2 or 3 that caught him flush, and seemed to stop him in his tracks, and he won those rounds.

But after that, at no point was calzaghe hurt, or stopped in his tracks, or backed up, or stunned etc etc.

And he was the aggressor that was forcing the action, controlling the pace, and landing almost twice as many punches.

If you think Nard won the fight, you need to start watching horse racing.

Thinking Nard won is worse than thinking Marge beat Williams or Oscar beat Floyd.

 

first of all Calzaghe isn't going nowhere near jones. EVER! Why would he. If you negate Calzaghe's speed you've got nothing. Bad style matchup for him. Calzaghe will fight easier targets, like Tarver or even Dawson and continue to cement his legacy. I wouldn't be surprised if a fight with Taylor materializes too. No Jones fight for Joe.

Cupey

 

Agreed in most respects.

Seriously, Mex, you know I'm a major Calzaghe nuthugger and all, but I don't see what you think you saw. Not at all. I saw a close fight which Calzaghe just about did enough to win on workrate alone. He backed Bernard up all night, but Bernard was already backing up anyway. He waited and waited and waited for Joe to come in, then he threw the quick right hand and clinched.

Basically, he did what I expected him to do, and to be honest, I think Joe really did struggle with it. I've never seen his punch output be so low, and I don't give a fuck what compubox says, Bernard was only hurt ONCE in the whole fight (the eleventh round when Joe really tagged him with a left hook), whilst Joe seemed very open to that straight right counter.

Again, it depends how you score fights. Much of the cleaner shots came from Bernard, but the greater work came from Joe. Bernard looked fucked late on in the fight, but at no stage did he look like he might stop the contest. Calzaghe MIGHT have landed more shots, but very few were hurtful to be frank and Bernard was never in any serious trouble. Oddly, that right hand of his was quicker than most of Joe's right hand leads- there were times when he was beating Joe to the punch.

I'm not saying that I think Bernard won- he deserved to lose for fading badly down the stretch, cheating his ass off in the tenth round and generally spoiling and backing away all night long. But that was no clear, comfortable win for Joe. No way on earth. He did enough, but not much more than that. I know that EVERYONE looks like shit against Bernard, which is what he is about nowadays, but Joe made errors, looked sloppy in patches and gave what was, for me, a pretty scrappy, unconvincing performance.

MTF

 

That's virtually what he did against Tarver too,..it's a stinking, stinking fucking style,.. his opponents are only forced to "fight his fight" and "fall into his trap" because they GOT to chase him or there would be no ffucking fight at all, I don't see anything "brilliant" about it to be honest, it would be nice to see Hopkins fight like a man for once. An ideal thing for Hopkins next opponent would be to just stop,.....and motion Hopkins to come in to be timed with a shot.

 

::

Yeah, that break last night was all you needed to see. Ugh. But get knocked out? LOL. Come on, man. He was gassed as fukk...dude, did you see that Winky fight? Granted, most of us slept through it but didn't he look old? He even took some shots from Winky. And I know the Winkster is an excellent fighter but he was 35, fighting at 170...and it showed in his midsection.

Compare that Hopkins to the one who fought Tarver, or Jermain Taylor. 43 man...keep saying that over and over in your head: 43...43...43. It's not an excuse, he's fukking old.