By Dave Lahr: In looking back at Joe Calzaghe’s 12-round split decision win against then 43-year-old Bernard Hopkins, Calzaghe has to consider himself very fortunate that he got the win on that night, because he fought the worst fight imaginable. Actually, I think Calzaghe lost the fight by a couple of rounds, but given the benefit of the doubt by the judges.
To say that Calzaghe fought poorly is an understatement, because the way that Calzaghe fought, he should have lost the fight. Hopkins made it tough on Calzaghe by using John Ruiz’s punch and grab technique of fighting, thus eliminating almost any chance that Calzaghe could get to land anything.
Hopkins was smart in the first half of the fight making sure that he was the one that was punching first and then grabbing Calzaghe before he could even get ready to retaliate with anything. Calzaghe made it worse for himself by coming in squarely at Hopkins and making it easy for Hopkins to tag him with right hands.
This is exactly what happened in the first round when Calzaghe squared himself and came right at Hopkins, who took advantage of Calzaghe’s unorthodox fighting style by blasting him with a hard right hand, knocking Joe to the canvas.
I don’t know who taught Calzaghe to come in square like that, but by the time that Calzaghe fought Hopkins, he should have taken that out of his offensive arsenal because it made him a sitting duck for many of Hopkins’ big right hands in the fight.
Aside from Calzaghe’s poorly implemented attacks, he also didn’t have any clue how to deal with Hopkins’ constant clinching. Instead of using movement and his jab to pick Hopkins off as he would try to grab Calzaghe in a clinch, Calzaghe continued to come straight at Hopkins in a straight line.
This was playing straight into Hopkins’ hands, as he fired his shots and grabbed Calzaghe each time he would plod in. Finally, in the second half of the fight Calzaghe just began to throw massive amount of slaps, basically overwhelming Hopkins as he would try to clinch or land right hands.
Hopkins still was able to clinch without any problems but he had to eat three or four slaps before he was able to grab a hold of Calzaghe and shut him down. The high volume slapping, but it was the wrong tool for the job. It ended up working, but only because of Calzaghe’s youth and energy.
If Hopkins was a bigger puncher or if he had moved more in the fight, I think he would have ended up beating Calzaghe by a knockout. Calzaghe fought in a stupid manner and one in spite of his poor fight strategy. I think many American fighters would have done a much better job against Hopkins than Calzaghe did.
American fighters know how to deal with the old punch and grab technique, and they would have had much less problems with figuring out what to do against Hopkins. Yet in Calzaghe’s case, sporting a built up 40-0 record by the time he fought Hopkins, Joe didn’t have even the faintest idea how to deal with Hopkins.
This was an old version of Hopkins, but even an old one was enough to cause Calzaghe to freeze up with one of the simplest tricks in boxing. All Calzaghe could do was throw desperate looking slaps, missing most of them and continuing to eat a lot of right hands from Hopkins because Joe was standing square to Hopkins so often.
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