I watched this fight.. Hopkins was not pleased with the decision and afterwards asked... What did he (Chad) do?


At 47 Hopkins again was great... I have never seen a fighter his age with the reflexes he shows on defense. Chad landed some shots... But Hopkins slipped and evaded most. HOPKINS WAS CHAMP AND I DON'T THINK CHAD DID ENOUGH TO TAKE THE BELT FROM THE UNDER-APPRECIATED (TOP 50 GREATEST OF ALL TIMES IN MY BOOK) LEGENDARY CHAMPION. I feel that Hopkins will put on another great performance against Cloud at 48. He will do so because he is still great defensively. And another thing.. Hopkins has continually shot holes in that getting old overnight THEORY. Hopkins may be the GREATEST DEFENSIVE FIGHTER EVER.... considering that age at which he makes opponents miss...

I thought Chad won the 2nd fight easy. Hopkins was even headbutting like a bitch.

LOL

I lost respect for Hopkins in the 2nd Dawson fight. I felt like he went the KG route. His dirty tactics went from veteran savvy to his main method of attack. That said, I've been saying all along that I think he will beat Cloud. I've never been impressed with Cloud. I've never saw the hype materialize and he's already had 2 fights in which I thought the other guy got completely robbed. Fuck him lol

the bully got bullied. he didn't want that fight because he knew chad would beat him. that's why he faked injury in the first one.

I don't know being picked up and dropped, this ain't MMA.

But I still think he lost the second. Styles make fights and this was just bad for his age.

let's not act like bhop wasn't throwing that predictable right so that he could get chad to dip then lean on him. the ref should have warned him about that but didn't.

Is it Hopkins fault that Chad can't defend properly? I swear that shit when drop there heads and put it in the other fights chest/body is mainly because there head movement sucks.

I hate that thinking. It implies the challenger has to do more than the champ for victory. I mean, doesn't the champ bear the responsibility to defend that belt by beating the challenger convincingly? Personally, I thought Chad won the 2nd fight, not b/c I pretty much loathe B Hop, but b/c Chad did more....a LOT more than the (ahem) "champ".

nvm

i'll agree to disagree.

hops never wanted that fight to begin with. i was shocked he showed up in the ring. chad beat him fair and square. no shame in a loss.

Just a bad style for Hopkins I think, since he has to slow the pace of the fight to a stand still otherwise it doesn't work out for him.

it's really simple. anytime a fighter has better feet than bhop...he loses. roy(1st fight), calzaghe, dawson...the exception being taylor.

better feet Prof?? I understand all the aforementioned analysis yet this fight seems to mirror the Calzaghe bout in many respects. No way in hell Calzaghe beat Hopkins although it was close in my view. I recall dawson whiffing big time often trying to land flush... I can agree Hop could have done more offensively but I am struggling to see anything emphatic in the Dawson victory. No shame in the loss especially at the age of 47 though...

better/faster...yes.

bhop does well with age because he has excellent foot work and uses it to slow opponents down big time. he understands positioning very well and how to minimize impact of an opponents punch...or make them miss altogether. the guys he tends to beat usually are inferior in this area. trinidad, pavlik, pascal...they all had sloppy footwork in comparison.

calzaghe just simply outpointed bhop imo. sure...it wasn't a great win...but it was a win none the less.

dawson pretty much did the same...he outworked bhop. the most damage bhop did was as someone previously stated...with his head butts and dirty tactics.

i take nothing away from his accomplishments. he's one of the greatest in the history of the sport...but he can be beaten.

Great analysis on the footwork vs inferior opponents--- I agree of course he can be beaten just like any other fighter yet how many emphatic losses has he had in his career? his first pro bout at 175----Jones 1.. taylor 2 maybe...

I don't think Calzaghe beat Hopkins. I've seen that fight so many times and just can't see a win for him.

Neither can I especially in in slo motion watching hop often make Calzaghe miss 6-7 girl slap type punches trying to hit him... cal landed a few clean shots but not enough to offset being on the canvas

i might have fallen asleep on that fight. if i remember correctly, i had it a draw. i could see it going either way. i'd have to watch again to say for certain. i remember joking that they both deserved a loss for that one.

I don't blame you to be honest. Maybe I just had a strong dislike for Calzaghe lol

I disagree that he lost the Calzaghe fight, he won the 1st 6rds easy and had the KD to make it 10-8 but Calzaghe did win the 2nd half of the fight by overwhelming Bernard with those 6th grade pitty pat shots of his. The thing I want to know from the judges that night is what RD did he win in the first 6, he was dominated and he started to slow. I had it 115-113 because of the KD, without it would've been a draw

i have to watch it again. i'll get back on this one.

Come on man.. you sound as if the fight was bore... it was an intense and intriguing bout.. Hopkins had some antics with milking time at points but the bout was a compelling and intense match

The 2nd fight was as bad as the first fight, and that shit ended in a foul, WTF, "did I really just order this shit?" type manner.

That was horrible style matchup for both guys, seriously. Dawson has this staring syndrome, where he just moves around and stares at his opponent for rounds on top of rounds without doing much at all. Hopkins doesn't mount a great offense, usually cruises through rounds and waits to counter punch.

All of these factors made the fight a "head-scratcher" before the first bell. I think that Chad did just enough...just a little more than he did in the first fight, but not enough to "wow" us. It took him several rounds to let his left hand/uppercut go.

Hopkins on the other hand, basically relied on pre-fight dialogue to get him through the fight. He couldn't make those adjustments that he usually makes in fights, and he couldn't get to the inside as easily as usually does. Great footwork nonetheless, but Chad's range kept Hopkins off of him.

As for the Calazghe fight...fuck him...Calzaghe that is. Another gritty fight for Hopkins, but neither of them did enough to be awarded anything. I had Hopkins edging that fight by 1 point, and I DO remember falling asleep during that fight. Then again, I was drinking while I watched, but there's nothing new there.

i knew i wasn't alone!!!

lol...

Cloud had his hands full with one of the best ever

As I posted on another board, Hopkins can beat 80-90% of the cats in the game of straight mind fuck. Changing just enough during a fight to negate their plan and render them neutral.

Like I said before BHop will win by UD. Some people just don't seem to understand that it isn't about strength/power and speed, it's about how intelligent you are in the ring and right now the only person with more ring intellect in this sport than Hopkins is Floyd.

I think people are more concerned about the age, I mean he has to slow down and get old at one point. I actually think that Hopkins maybe smarter than Floyd ATM. mostly because he is more or less relying on his IQ, since his physical attributes have diminished while Mayweather still has quite a lot of speed and what not.

Hopkins was not only smarter he was quicker to the punch and actually seemed to be hitting with more power than Cloud.

i gave clouds new coach credit he didn't deserve before the fight. i also thought a few other things played into it. cloud fought the totally wrong fight. had he fought his old style, he would have had a much better chance. he played right into bhops hands by not applying early pressure and forcing exchanges. bhop clearly had the superior feet so there was nothing cloud to do to force the exchanges early. he just followed him around letting bhop fight when he wanted to.

Cloud began to feel the sting of Bernard's punches.. even to the body- he became hesitant and was looking amatuerish-- his mind was all fucked up in there