BoxRec

Calzaghe struggled with a past his best Hopkins (I had him losing). It proves that Calzaghe would not have had a chance against a prime Hopkins.

Hopkins had the 2 best rounds of the fight, but at the end I had Joe C winning by 5 pts. Who else in B-Hop's career had him visibly frustrated besides Calzaghe. I couldn't have scored that fight for Hopkins if I wanted to.

Seamus wrote:Hopkins had the 2 best rounds of the fight, but at the end I had Joe C winning by 5 pts. Who else in B-Hop's career had him visibly frustrated besides Calzaghe. I couldn't have scored that fight for Hopkins if I wanted to.

I thought Calzaghe won clearly too. In the UK the TV had it very, very close. They were not sure who had won.

I didn’t think Calzaghe shined at all. And it was much harder than I thought it would be. But it seemed like a definite win to me. Certainly in no way a disgraceful decision.

Goodnight, Irene wrote:

BoxBuzz wrote:I think Calzaghe won the fight. I think Calzaghe deserved the win as well. G.I. will tell you this means two different things to some of us.


However in this case, the champion did not deserve to keep his belt. With all those low blows, and that reluctance to engage. It was nearly as bad as sticking your head out of the ropes in a championship fight. None of these sorts of shameful antics should ever be rewarded by judges.


Those two judges done good by just saying "no" to nonsense.

If only he'd adopted a more honourable tactic --- like pulling down his opponents neck hundreds of times, punching air while your rival beats you about the head to the point of a busted eardrum, or swapping out punching for dancing.

Judges love them some of that.

Well....if wishes was fishes beggars would ride. There's no hit show named "Punching with the Stars" now is there? They want dancing, and "slap happy" moments. That's the way you do it!

Never the less.....We agree on the Calzaghe moment.....and that ups my general stock quote for the day.

For everyone saying Hopkins was at his peak in 2002, remember that Calzaghe had held a World Title for over 10 years when they met. Calzaghe's peak was lost in the middle of fighting all those lesser quality WBO challengers (before he got Lacy), imo. He was 36 when he fought Hopkins, that's a pretty long stint.

Calzaghe and Hopkins both showed, with their respective results afterwards, that they were both top class fighters. Both were way past their best, although; both were also not much worse off for it. Both had lost a lot of power and maybe also their killer edge, as shown by RJJ's other recent results.

The result looks better now for Calzaghe, but it's also a feather in Hopkins's large cap... to push him so close.