Bernard Hopkins

By Eric Thomas: Light heavyweight Bernard Hopkins (48-5-1, 32 KOs) is still understandably not happy with the outcome of his 12-round split decision loss to Joe Calzaghe on April 19th at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Specifically, Hopkins, 43, is unhappy with the scoring from judge Chuck Giampa, who happened to score the fight 116-111 for Calzaghe. That score, more than either of the two, seemed way off base considering the closeness of the fight. Hopkins is naturally upset about that score, for if Giampa had scored the fight in Hopkins’ favor, he would have won the fight.

Hopkins has reportedly suggested that the judges have occasional evaluations, to judge their competence to score the fight accurately. What Hopkins says seems to make a lot of sense, for when a person ages, their eyesight is often the first thing to go. In a sport that involves fast punches and furious action, much of it coming with a blur, it takes especially keen eyesight in order to capture all the punches being exchanges between two fighters.

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By Aaron Klein: Fresh off his impressive 12-round unanimous decision over Bernard Hopkins last Saturday night, undefeated super middleweight Joe Calzaghe had this to say to the BBC about Bernard Hopkins’ reluctance to acknowledge his defeat: “He should get over it. He should watch the tape and accept that he lost.” This was said in large part due to the fact that Hopkins, 43, has failed to accept the loss, saying that he was the one that should have been given the decision. In that, Hopkins is in the minority, because an overwhelming amount of fans and sports writers alike feel that it was Calzaghe who ultimately won the fight.

It was close, with Hopkins starting out looking exceptionally good in the first four rounds of the fight. It appeared that Hopkins, who knocked Calaghe down in the first round with a short right hand, won all of the first four rounds of the bout. After that, however, Calzaghe seemed to get more comfortable in the ring, figuring out what Hopkins was doing – punching and immediately grabbing a hold of Calzaghe – and compensating by hitting Hopkins with quick flurries before Hopkins could grab him and wrap him up in one of his many clinches in the fight.

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By Eric Thomas: I still can’t get over the fact that Joe Calzaghe was given the decision the other night against Bernard Hopkins. It seems as if only one of the referees got the fight correct, scoring the fight 114-113 for Hopkins, although even that score was too generous for Calzaghe, because Hopkins had landed the much harder punches in the fight compared to Calzaghe’s slapping shots. Also, Hopkins had done an extraordinary job of slowing down Calzaghe’s high volume punch output to virtually a trickle during most of the fight.

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By Chris Stein: Undefeated Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) survived a 1st round knockdown tonight to come back and pound out a 12-round split decision over former middleweight/light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (48-5, 32 KOs) at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Beyond the first round, there was little suspense in the fight for Hopkins, 43, quickly adopted the boring tried but true grappling/clinching style of former heavyweight champion John Ruiz, as Hopkins slowed the fight to a crawl with his two punches followed by a clinch style of fighting.

It was no match for Calzaghe’s speed and combinations, though Hopkins likely knew that he had no chance other than to take the fight into a boring wrestling match in order to have any kind of chance. The final scores of the fight were 114-113 for Hopkins, and 115-112 & 116-111 for Calzaghe. The 114-113 score was laughable, because Hopkins did little in the fight other than pot shotting and dulling up the bout, and couldn’t stand up to Calzaghe when the two stood at center ring. Te more truer score was the 116-111, but even that was being far to generous to Hopkins, who seemed to feign being hurt by low blows in the fight, as if looking for a hand out from the referee Joe Cortez, a referee noted for penalizing fighters for fouls.

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By Peter Kurth: If you’re all that familiar with Bernard Hopkins (48-4, 32 KOs) and know how he typically fights, you already know that this Saturday’s fight with undefeated super middleweight Joe Calzaghe (44-0, 32 KOs) is going to be bloody and filled with a certain amount of fouls. That, I’m afraid, is almost a given. The question is how many and whether the fouls will have an effect on the mindset of the 36 year-old Calzaghe. On the whole, I fully expect Calzaghe to be cut in the first three to four rounds, likely a bad cut from either a head butt or an elbow.

The cut, especially occurring so early in the fight, will put Calzaghe into a position where he will very likely have to either fight harder, as he attempts to build up a lead in order to be ahead in case the fight is stopped prematurely due to the severity of the cut or have the opposite effect, where Calzaghe backs off to try and protect the cut.

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By Scott Gilfoid: This Saturday night unbeaten super middleweight Joe Calzaghe (44-0, 32 KOs) will meet up with ring great Bernard Hopkins (48-4-1, 32 KOs) at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada. For the most part, many of the boxing experts have been predicting that the 36 year-old Calzaghe will be able to overwhelm Hopkins with his 1000 punch per bout output, which on the surface, is a total that Hopkins can never come close to matching even in the prime of his career. Yes, and of course they’d be right about Hopkins not being able to match that kind of output with his own punches.

Strange, I’ve never seen the fight going this way. But then, maybe I’m a little more familiar with Hopkins style of fighting than many of the so-called ring experts. I think for most of the boxing experts, they can’t get away from thinking in terms of Calzaghe’s offensive style of fighting, forgetting altogether how Hopkins typical fights. Quite simply, Hopkins has never been in a bout in which he allowed a faster opponent to dominate him from the outside with flurries like Calzaghe hopes to use on him on Saturday night. On the whole, Hopkins adapts his style against speedy types like Calzaghe, taking the fight to the inside and choosing to stay there, where he grits it out with his expert infighting.

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By Aaron Klein: Undefeated super middleweight Joe Calzaghe (44-0, 32 KOs) will be making his first appearance fighting in the United States on Saturday night when he takes on light heavyweight Bernard Hopkins (48-4-1, 32 KOs) at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada. This excitement for this fight has been building up for three months now and most of the comments from both fighters are getting a little stale by now, with both of them merely repeating the same old phrases that they’ve been saying for months. Hopkins, now 43, the master of psychological warfare, has made most of the more interesting comments, yet none of them have seemed to have the same effect on Calzaghe as they did in previous pre-fight trash talking with fighters like Antonio Tarver and Felix Trinidad, who seemed uncomfortable at times with Hopkins verbal attacks.

Calzaghe, however, seems to understand what Hopkins is attempting to do, knowing that he’s counting on it getting to Calzaghe and maybe throwing him off his game a bit. However, Calzaghe is a different fighter than Winky Wright, Tarver and Trinidad, in that he hasn’t learned to lose yet, while at the same time he has been the absolutely best fighter in the super middleweight division for a decade now.

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