Hopkins-Calzaghe Showdown More of a Letdown

Posted by Alan Berg on 04.28.2008

Looking at the Hopkins-Calzaghe matchup and how Bernard has only himself to blame.


Photos by Will Hart

Split decisions always stir controversy. Both fighters can claim victory and their respective supporters can use statistics and other means to state their opinions.

The only important stat from The Ring Magazine championship fight is that Joe Calzaghe won. He remains undefeated and rules the boxing world in the super middleweight and light heavyweight divisions.

It wasn't a pretty performance by Calzaghe's own admission but let's face it, nobody beats Bernard Hopkins easily.

Whether you agree with the judges' decision the fact is there was no clear-cut winner and both fighters had their moments. Hopkins looked great early on and is now being criticized for being old. Calzaghe finished strong but was dropped in round one and didn't come close to throwing his 1,000-punch output.

Calzaghe has never fought someone as skilled as Hopkins. The Executioner has a reputation of taking away what makes a fighter great. For the first couple of rounds, it looked as though making the trip to Vegas wasn't going to be the longest part of Joe's trip to America.

B-Hop served notice that Calzaghe wasn't in the ring with Mikkel Kessler when Hopkins dropped the challenger with a sizzling counter-right. This appeared to rattle Calzaghe's confidence as he let Hopkins dictate the pace of the fight and kept making Joe miss.

As the fight wore on Calzaghe found his range and although Hopkins never seemed hurt, Calzaghe was landing and impressing the judges. Joe finished strong landing almost twice as many punches in his split decision win.

Another close loss for Hopkins, even though he seemed to dictate how the fight was fought, he walked away no longer the champion but didn't feel he like a loser.

Hopkins can make the art of counterpunching look like a Picasso. B-Hop draws his opponent in and brutally answers with a reality check with either hand. However when the fighter in front off him isn't a buzz saw like a Felix Trindad, who was a perfect foil for the Executioner just by his lack of head movement alone, he will refuse to engage. Hopkins sacrifices action in favor of control of the fight.

The problem comes when he's in a fight where the aggressor chooses to take his time and give Hopkins a space of respect. It happened twice against Jermain Taylor, once against Winky Wright and finally Calzaghe. Hopkins only one won of these fights, all close scorecards except the win over Wright. Hopkins told various reporters against Taylor, "I felt like I dominated the fight; I believe I should have gotten a unanimous decision." Against Wright, "It was a very close fight, a tough fight." Against Calzaghe, "I wanted him to run into my shots and I think I made him do that, and I think I made it look easy."

Hopkins pays respect to Wright after winning the fight, the Executioner won the fight despite landing fewer punches 152-to-167, a lower percentage 24-27 percent. Against Taylor, B-Hop outlanded Jermain 96-86. And Calzaghe landed 232-127, clearly a much bigger gap.

Without scoring round-by-round Calzaghe looks like the winner. He picked himself up off the canvas, took over the fight down the stretch and looked like the fresher fighter after the 12th round ended.

Scoring round-by-round it's hard not to come within a round or two of giving the fight to either man. Arguments are part of close decisions but Hopkins has only himself to blame.

Hopkins is one of, if not the best, fighter of this generation but isn't he tired of using the same excuse after losing a close fight?

In the Taylor fight he landed 96 punches, that's exactly eight punches a round. Against the Pride of Wales, 127 punches, that's 10½ punches a round. A counter-puncher still has to throw and land and Hopkins with these numbers doesn't really have a case to complain. Frankly he just doesn't do enough. Sure he's a master craftsman, he knows how to neutralize a fighters strengths, he took Wright's jab away, he exploited Taylor's youth, stifled Antonio Tarver's timing and made Calzaghe throw one-to-two punches a time.

All these things were created by Hopkins' smarts, tying his opponent up, making them move in an opposite direction, closing the space between him and his opposition. It's all a thing of beauty.

What keeps costing Hopkins these close decisions is the simplest skill of all: landing punches.