What would've happened if Bernard Hopkins vs Joe Calzaghe took place in 2002 ?

The fight was close to happening but late demands by Bernard meant the fight fell through. What would've happened had the fight taken place, Would Bernard have boxed to a comfortable decision, would Joe be experienced enough to handle a fight like this at that stage, or would Joe's workrate and windmill style still have been too much for Bernard to keep up with ?

an execution

My guess? Calzaghe was ALWAYS too athletic for Hopkins. Close fight. Calzaghe by decision.

BHOP mauls the ever loving shit out of Calzaghe and either stops him or wins 8-4 on rounds

the exact same thing that happened in their fight, except Joe would have been even faster.

Birdofthad wrote:

an execution

+1

it would of been a close fight maybe ..what would bo hop do differnt.nothing in reality.joes work rate and agilty would of made the fight at a even faster pace for joe..i feel the results would of been the same.joe puts too many rounds in the bank and doesnt coast or sleep on a lead.

Joe won that fight 7-5 at best in my opinon and it was obvious Hopkins was old and slow

not seeing what alot of yall are seeing

Hopkins mauls him In my esteemed opinion haha

soonermark890 wrote:

Birdofthad wrote:

an execution

+1

Make that +2

joe was also old too.hopkins work rate isnt one to maul a guy..joe at his age and to punch constant was something else..he did several things excellent that your either overlooking or its gone unnoticed.a take it for granted type thing.hopkins didnt maul oscar..was ahead by a round.joes much busier then oscar..at a younger age joe would of outhustled bernard like he did in the later years..its a combination maybe of underating joe overrating hopkins.

go rewatch BHop then dmar he didnt maul guys with work rate he mugged and mauled guys by being dirty as fuck n the inside, holding hitting, holding turning and hitting, and jsut plain out bullying you

Another ugly fight that could have gone either way.

Calzaghe by decision

Birdofthad wrote:

go rewatch BHop then dmar he didnt maul guys with work rate he mugged and mauled guys by being dirty as fuck n the inside, holding hitting, holding turning and hitting, and jsut plain out bullying you

But that only worked for him when he was the superior athlete. Both Jones and Calzaghe showed what happened when Bernard was NOT the superior athlete.

marbleheadmaui wrote:

Birdofthad wrote:

go rewatch BHop then dmar he didnt maul guys with work rate he mugged and mauled guys by being dirty as fuck n the inside, holding hitting, holding turning and hitting, and jsut plain out bullying you

But that only worked for him when he was the superior athlete. Both Jones and Calzaghe showed what happened when Bernard was NOT the superior athlete.

Hard to tell marble. BHOP was an animal for a long time. He was much older than Calzaghe. There is a 7 year difference. BHOP catches him in his prime I think BHOP is the better athlete. As for Roy. Roy is a much better athlete than both of them.

soonermark890 wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

Birdofthad wrote:

go rewatch BHop then dmar he didnt maul guys with work rate he mugged and mauled guys by being dirty as fuck n the inside, holding hitting, holding turning and hitting, and jsut plain out bullying you

But that only worked for him when he was the superior athlete. Both Jones and Calzaghe showed what happened when Bernard was NOT the superior athlete.

Hard to tell marble. BHOP was an animal for a long time. He was much older than Calzaghe. There is a 7 year difference. BHOP catches him in his prime I think BHOP is the better athlete. As for Roy. Roy is a much better athlete than both of them.

I just don't see it. A 35 year old BHOP is a better athlete than a 28 year old Calzaghe? BHOP never had faster hands or more agility than Calzaghe showed even at 36-37 did he? BHOP was a superior technician, but he was also accustomed to being the superior athlete.

I think athletically Calzaghe is a lot closer to the Jones, Manny, Sergio, Ali level than many think. I think he's one of the the 20-25 finest pure athletes I have seen in the sport.

Roy got Bernard early and calzaghe late

i can argue his one easily

marbleheadmaui wrote:

soonermark890 wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

Birdofthad wrote:

go rewatch BHop then dmar he didnt maul guys with work rate he mugged and mauled guys by being dirty as fuck n the inside, holding hitting, holding turning and hitting, and jsut plain out bullying you

But that only worked for him when he was the superior athlete. Both Jones and Calzaghe showed what happened when Bernard was NOT the superior athlete.

Hard to tell marble. BHOP was an animal for a long time. He was much older than Calzaghe. There is a 7 year difference. BHOP catches him in his prime I think BHOP is the better athlete. As for Roy. Roy is a much better athlete than both of them.

I just don't see it. A 35 year old BHOP is a better athlete than a 28 year old Calzaghe? BHOP never had faster hands or more agility than Calzaghe showed even at 36-37 did he? BHOP was a superior technician, but he was also accustomed to being the superior athlete.

I think athletically Calzaghe is a lot closer to the Jones, Manny, Sergio, Ali level than many think. I think he's one of the the 20-25 finest pure athletes I have seen in the sport.

How would he keep a much more prime version of BHOP off of him? He could not hurt BHOP.

soonermark890 wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

soonermark890 wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

Birdofthad wrote:

go rewatch BHop then dmar he didnt maul guys with work rate he mugged and mauled guys by being dirty as fuck n the inside, holding hitting, holding turning and hitting, and jsut plain out bullying you

But that only worked for him when he was the superior athlete. Both Jones and Calzaghe showed what happened when Bernard was NOT the superior athlete.

Hard to tell marble. BHOP was an animal for a long time. He was much older than Calzaghe. There is a 7 year difference. BHOP catches him in his prime I think BHOP is the better athlete. As for Roy. Roy is a much better athlete than both of them.

I just don't see it. A 35 year old BHOP is a better athlete than a 28 year old Calzaghe? BHOP never had faster hands or more agility than Calzaghe showed even at 36-37 did he? BHOP was a superior technician, but he was also accustomed to being the superior athlete.

I think athletically Calzaghe is a lot closer to the Jones, Manny, Sergio, Ali level than many think. I think he's one of the the 20-25 finest pure athletes I have seen in the sport.

How would he keep a much more prime version of BHOP off of him? He could not hurt BHOP.

BHOP never got ON anyone. BHOP always wanted to counterpunch. I can't see a scenario where BHOP can force Calzaghe to do what he wants. He doesn't have that big exploitable advantage that I can see. Calzaghe is faster, more agile and almost the same size. BHOP is smarter and technically better. But based on what we saw the gaps in the latter two aren't all that big. Calzaghe knew what he was doing in the ring and was technically better than adequate. He was especially good at being at the right distance and taking angles. The distance and especially the angles are what BHOP exploited against guys like Tito and Pavlik and Tarver. But against better athletes like JC, Jermaine and Roy he couldn't do it the same way.

Now I think for the same reasons a prime Roy handles a prime Calzaghe. JC doesn't have those edges there.

gotta agree to disagree

marbleheadmaui wrote:

soonermark890 wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

soonermark890 wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

Birdofthad wrote:

go rewatch BHop then dmar he didnt maul guys with work rate he mugged and mauled guys by being dirty as fuck n the inside, holding hitting, holding turning and hitting, and jsut plain out bullying you

But that only worked for him when he was the superior athlete. Both Jones and Calzaghe showed what happened when Bernard was NOT the superior athlete.

Hard to tell marble. BHOP was an animal for a long time. He was much older than Calzaghe. There is a 7 year difference. BHOP catches him in his prime I think BHOP is the better athlete. As for Roy. Roy is a much better athlete than both of them.

I just don't see it. A 35 year old BHOP is a better athlete than a 28 year old Calzaghe? BHOP never had faster hands or more agility than Calzaghe showed even at 36-37 did he? BHOP was a superior technician, but he was also accustomed to being the superior athlete.

I think athletically Calzaghe is a lot closer to the Jones, Manny, Sergio, Ali level than many think. I think he's one of the the 20-25 finest pure athletes I have seen in the sport.

How would he keep a much more prime version of BHOP off of him? He could not hurt BHOP.

BHOP never got ON anyone. BHOP always wanted to counterpunch. I can't see a scenario where BHOP can force Calzaghe to do what he wants. He doesn't have that big exploitable advantage that I can see. Calzaghe is faster, more agile and almost the same size. BHOP is smarter and technically better. But based on what we saw the gaps in the latter two aren't all that big. Calzaghe knew what he was doing in the ring and was technically better than adequate. He was especially good at being at the right distance and taking angles. The distance and especially the angles are what BHOP exploited against guys like Tito and Pavlik and Tarver. But against better athletes like JC, Jermaine and Roy he couldn't do it the same way.

Now I think for the same reasons a prime Roy handles a prime Calzaghe. JC doesn't have those edges there.

I guess. I just dont think we can look at their fight and be sure. In that fight you could tell BHOP had lost a lot of speed and was showing his age. Even in the Jermain fight he was a little. I will say this I think prime vs prime BHOP takes JC easy. That 7 year age difference is a big one.

JC was getting knocked down by old Benns come on guys

Bhop's tactics were such that age did not diminish his performance. Age had more effect on Joe than Hop at that point. Joe was/is just better. In 2002 Joe may have won by a wider margin, which would explain Hopkins' actions in killing the first fight.

and CHARLES BREWERS

soonermark890 wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

soonermark890 wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

soonermark890 wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

Birdofthad wrote:

go rewatch BHop then dmar he didnt maul guys with work rate he mugged and mauled guys by being dirty as fuck n the inside, holding hitting, holding turning and hitting, and jsut plain out bullying you

But that only worked for him when he was the superior athlete. Both Jones and Calzaghe showed what happened when Bernard was NOT the superior athlete.

Hard to tell marble. BHOP was an animal for a long time. He was much older than Calzaghe. There is a 7 year difference. BHOP catches him in his prime I think BHOP is the better athlete. As for Roy. Roy is a much better athlete than both of them.

I just don't see it. A 35 year old BHOP is a better athlete than a 28 year old Calzaghe? BHOP never had faster hands or more agility than Calzaghe showed even at 36-37 did he? BHOP was a superior technician, but he was also accustomed to being the superior athlete.

I think athletically Calzaghe is a lot closer to the Jones, Manny, Sergio, Ali level than many think. I think he's one of the the 20-25 finest pure athletes I have seen in the sport.

How would he keep a much more prime version of BHOP off of him? He could not hurt BHOP.

BHOP never got ON anyone. BHOP always wanted to counterpunch. I can't see a scenario where BHOP can force Calzaghe to do what he wants. He doesn't have that big exploitable advantage that I can see. Calzaghe is faster, more agile and almost the same size. BHOP is smarter and technically better. But based on what we saw the gaps in the latter two aren't all that big. Calzaghe knew what he was doing in the ring and was technically better than adequate. He was especially good at being at the right distance and taking angles. The distance and especially the angles are what BHOP exploited against guys like Tito and Pavlik and Tarver. But against better athletes like JC, Jermaine and Roy he couldn't do it the same way.

Now I think for the same reasons a prime Roy handles a prime Calzaghe. JC doesn't have those edges there.

I guess. I just dont think we can look at their fight and be sure. In that fight you could tell BHOP had lost a lot of speed and was showing his age. Even in the Jermain fight he was a little. I will say this I think prime vs prime BHOP takes JC easy. That 7 year age difference is a big one.

Well geeze of COURSE we can't be sure. What fun would that be? I think one of the remarkable things about BHOP is how he minimized his physical deterioration. I think at 42-43 he was closer to what he was in his boxing prime (late for him, maybe 34-35?) than anyone I've ever seen (Big George excepted) anywhere close to that age. What I'm saying is when I watch Bernard against Calzaghe I see physically just about the same guy who fought Antoine Echols.