b-hop vs calslappy fair decision? or not?

[abadger]

ttt.........

What does that mean?

[sylvestersweet]

I don't like Calzaghe's style but yes he clearly won the fight

[garryd]

What does that mean?

it means i concur or i agree or good post or to the top etc etc

[Bad-Wlad]

niether man deserved to win this fight the problem i have is Hopkins tried to steal the fight and Calzaghe just was'nt effective at all i could understand people saying Calzaghe outworked him but i cant see how Calzaghe outworked him when he missed most of his punches i dont score missed punches i dont know about you, as a matter of fact that is a criteria i use to score a fight i look at the 2 respective fighters and when rounds are close i look for who is on top for the majority of round and whos punchers are landing rather than being thrown and blocked or missed

u could say Calzaghe outhuscled Hopkins to win but he did not win by being more active because my criteria for active is landing punches not missing them

[garryd]

You know i often wonder what peoples reaction would have been if Calzaghe would have said that he will never lose to a blackman !???
if you think hes hated now,****ing hell just imagine!

[abadger]

You know i often wonder what peoples reaction would have been if Calzaghe would have said that he will never lose to a blackman !???
if you think hes hated now,****ing hell just imagine!

He would have been arrested. But Bernard saying the whiteboy thing isn't as bad as that.

[WESS]

In reference to your remark which I've emboldened.....the vast majority of Calzaghe's earlier fights ended in KO or TKO. That fact doesn't really agree with your opinion. I understand your agreeing with the split decision win (though in my own opinion it was a lopsided Calzaghe win, but then I hate cheaters and clinchers; Hopkins is blatantly both), I'm just saying that Calzaghe was never exactly a light puncher, especially early in his career. Ask Lacy if he still thinks Joe is a slapping puncher. Jeff was as strong as a bull, had never even been close to going down in his career before, and was literally beaten down by someone he thought was feather fisted.

I don't want to get in the name game. There are a million threads about that. The main point that comes across all those threads are the "BUMS" or "nobodies" etc etc that people refer to them as that he TKO/KO'ed. I've seen a fair share of his "KO's" I couldn't tell you who some of those guys were back then but I do know when challenged with so called "legit" guys like Lacy you speak of or Kessler He couldn't finish with his TKO'KO's. (Yes I know age comes into factor) But again I don't want this to turn into a name game where who was who and so on...

This is just my opinion and when and if Calzaghe goes into the HOF, the KO/TKO you speak off will have little interest in the decision. The Eubank, Lacy, Kessler, Hop, MAYBE Jones and possibly Pavlik will most likely be looked at for his HOF status. Like HOP is referred too, which is fighting A LOT of nobodies, no one wants to look to his PAST of 19 defenses and bla bla. Everyone only speaks of his current wins that will put him down as a legend and so on and so on...

Anyway i'm not trying to turn this into a name game/hater thread.. like MOST are easily turned into when someone else disagrees with the other.

[garryd]

He would have been arrested. But Bernard saying the whiteboy thing isn't as bad as that.

.....Why not!?

[WESS]

niether man deserved to win this fight the problem i have is Hopkins tried to steal the fight and Calzaghe just was'nt effective at all i could understand people saying Calzaghe outworked him but i cant see how Calzaghe outworked him when he missed most of his punches i dont score missed punches i dont know about you, as a matter of fact that is a criteria i use to score a fight i look at the 2 respective fighters and when rounds are close i look for who is on top for the majority of round and whos punchers are landing rather than being thrown and blocked or missed

u could say Calzaghe outhuscled Hopkins to win but he did not win by being more active because my criteria for active is landing punches not missing them

I agree some what. That's why I called it a controversial Olympic style win. He didn't land much but the fact that he physically touched him is what scored the points to give him the close SD. But a SD is fair.

[Stickman]

I'm sure you know this already, but I'd say the two fights of Calzaghe's career that looked most like Hopkins are Karbary Salem and Sakio Bika. No coincidence, they were both right handed spoilers with a tendency to lead with the head. In the early rounds of both, Calzaghe looked quite like he did against Hopkins, only much more dominant. The difference was that neither was as good as Hopkins so Joe was able to back off and box them, which he couldn't do against Hopkins, so even these two were hardly the 'olympic style wins' that WESS is talking about.

Would you agree that against the opponents he failed to KO, Joe usually won by outboxing them and overwhelming them with a large variety of extremely accurate punches? There are exceptions, but this was his method IMO.

I'd agree, yes. Additionally, I think that when it really boils down to it, Calzaghe's just smarter, both in the ring and in the gym, than his opponents. He's never, ever come into the ring in other than perfect condition, which enables him to throw non-stop for 12 rounds, and gives him that ****ing iron chin. That ain't no accident, he's just smart enough to know that it's necessary. And he's got a savant-like knack for figuring out how to nullify another fighter's best qualities, usually by the 4th or 5th round, enabling him to go undefeated his entire career.

Even against Hopkins, the Great Spoiler, he managed to pull off the win. Personally, if I were Calzaghe, I'd never have taken a fight when Hopkins, especially in the US. He knew it was going to be an ugly fight, and had to know also that Hopkins would manage to sway at least 1 of the judges. And in the Kessler fight (many predicted it would be a KO win for Kessler), same thing...it took him maybe 4 rounds to come up with a solution for beating Mikkel, applied it, and it worked perfectly for the rest of the fight. Same with Lacy, and so on.

There have been, as you say, a few other fights that were at least a little similar to the Hopkins fight, but Calzaghe's always managed to pull off the win because he's smarter, and in better shape than everyone else.

There are better boxers than Calzaghe....hell, in my opinion Kessler is actually a better "boxer", but none are smarter, at least not in the sport today.