If Hopkins beats Kolorav......

then how do we rate him?

Also every Hopkins win bumps Calzaghe up the table. A win against Kolorav makes Calzaghe's questionable record look a tad better.

Was watching Pacquiao vs David Diaz last night and the HBO team said:

"Pacman must be up there with the p4p top 3 now, maybe even number one with Floyd retiring. We have Calzaghe, Pacquiao....who should it be"

So I guess they rated him highly regardless??

Didn't think they did.

Don't see how it bumps up Calzaghe's win ......

Let's make Jermaine Taylor a great he beat him twice !!!

I'm hoping Hoppo gets knocked cold after a minute and b**gers off.

Hoppo has done more for Joe's career/standing than JC ever did, pretty much!

Calzaghe's legend is his longevity and unbeaten record....same as The rock.....

Taylor beat him twice beforehand..

Do you not think it makes JC's win look 'better', though?

Just thinking from the perspective of, if Hoppo had retired shortly after, it would look like he was almost past it anyway and JC only scraped part him.

However his accomplishments since suggest he was still very much a 'live' opponent therefore it was indeed a very good win for JC (something his CV is arguably lacking in general).

It's a good win.............

Hoppo's recent success say's more about the standards of today including refereeing standards than anything else..........Great canny survivior that he is..

If I refereed his fights he'd have at least three points off for spoiling and then he probably gets chucked out after...

Get old Mills Lane refereeing his fights....see what happens.

Can only fight a minute a round..

Firstly let's give the WBO Champion the credit he deserves ONETWO - his name is Sergey Kovalev, not Kolorav.

Agree with Truss 100% here. It would be a great win, but it's about time ol' Popkins was pensioned off. He's certainly unique but we all know how he fights. He spoils for 2 minutes a round and frustrates his opponents the rest of the time. He hasn't knocked anyone out in 10 years, mainly due to his economic style of fight (to preserve energy I presume!), but let's not forget we haven't seen him on the floor either.

Sergey has to be patient and pick his shots carefully - I am going to stick my neck out and say he will actually send Bernard into retirement. If he doesn't, I will be surprised. He's catching the old man at a good time and he's a hungry fighter, with a murderous punch. This isn't 6 years ago when Hopkins took Pavlik's will away. Perhaps this is Bernard's way of taking a last payday? I simply can't see it ending any other way than a Kovalev win, with a UD being unlikely. Accumulation of punches will probably force a referee's stoppage or a corner retirement with no complaints from Hopkins.

Bernard, old boy, retirement is beckoning. Please take it!

Hopefully Kovalev knocks him out cold and then wipes his ass with Hopkins halloween mask.

Mr Bounce wrote:Firstly let's give the WBO Champion the credit he deserves ONETWO - his name is Sergey Kovalev, not Kolorav.

Agree with Truss 100% here. It would be a great win, but it's about time ol' Popkins was pensioned off. He's certainly unique but we all know how he fights. He spoils for 2 minutes a round and frustrates his opponents the rest of the time. He hasn't knocked anyone out in 10 years, mainly due to his economic style of fight (to preserve energy I presume!), but let's not forget we haven't seen him on the floor either.

Sergey has to be patient and pick his shots carefully - I am going to stick my neck out and say he will actually send Bernard into retirement. If he doesn't, I will be surprised. He's catching the old man at a good time and he's a hungry fighter, with a murderous punch. This isn't 6 years ago when Hopkins took Pavlik's will away. Perhaps this is Bernard's way of taking a last payday? I simply can't see it ending any other way than a Kovalev win, with a UD being unlikely. Accumulation of punches will probably force a referee's stoppage or a corner retirement with no complaints from Hopkins.

Bernard, old boy, retirement is beckoning. Please take it!

Pascal knocked him down twice (or was it three?) in their first fight.

Bernard has supreme confidence and ring smarts. He often gets into the opponents head. With Kovalev, I can't see him fazing the Russian.

It would be another remarkable achievement by 'The Alien', but not one I see happening. With every win, Bhop just makes a prime RJJ look better

..... I still maintain Bhop was robbed against Calzaghe.... Just saying!!!

I agree, I thought B-Hop won, by god do I refuse to watch that fight again to confirm

At first watch I though Hopkins won as well (and I'm Welsh). I haven't watched it since though because, you know, life's too short.

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:Also every Hopkins win bumps Calzaghe up the table. A win against Kolorav makes Calzaghe's questionable record look a tad better.

It doesn't bump him up at all. Like Truss says let's bump up Jermaine Taylor then. After all, Taylor beat a younger Hopkins and did it twice.

Styles makes fights and Joe just had the style to beat a 43 year old fighter.

Truly amazing phenonoma is Hopkins. I can't think of anyone in the world of sport playing at the top level who is over 40 years of age.

Forgot....... Phil Taylor

There's a fight I'd like to see... Hopkins against Phil Taylor.

I  thought jc edged Hopkins. It was a proper stinker and like others I've no inclination to watch it again to confirm the view.

I  will say that although I thought Calzaghe won,I wasn't left in much doubt about who the better fighter was and who would have won had Bhop been  nearer his prime.

How could we fairly match Taylor and Hopkins though? Maybe we could have them throw darts, while wearing boxing gloves.

I watched Calzaghe Hopkins recently and thought JC won somewhat convincingly by a couple of rounds. Hopkins couldn't live with the pace Joe was trying to set and I think BHop faked the low blows in the last few rounds. A fight in their prime at SMW would have been very interesting indeed though.....a younger BHop against a lighter Joe with with better hands. Although I'm not sure I could see anyone having beaten JC apart from a match with prime Roy Jones which is as close to a 50/50 as you can get.

On a side note about JC I rewatched the Kessler fight recently too. Man he ate some big shots in that fight, especially the 4th round. I forgot how good a shot he could take.

Atila wrote:How could we fairly match Taylor and Hopkins though? Maybe we could have them throw darts, while wearing boxing gloves.

I was thinking, make it like boxing chess or whatever they call it.... A round of boxing, followed by a leg of darts during the break between rounds.

They could market it as 'double or quits'.

Hatton would be up for training him, having played darts together previously and Taylor trained at Hattons gym when shifting an amount of weight.

Fancy watching Hoppo and JC again....

Self hate is a terrible thing.

I didn't remember it being just that bad first time around.....it really is a stinker

aja424 wrote:Hatton would be up for training him, having played darts together previously and Taylor trained at Hattons gym when shifting an amount of weight.

Did he shift it from his gut to his arse or vice-versa?

I like Milky had Calzaghe edging the Hopkins fight but almost purely on work rate which was effective because it was visibly slowing BHop down and pushing him on the defensive.

Prime for Prime however i'm less sure, the old man adapted his style and became even more of a spoiler as he got older, a more athletic version might actually have been easier for Calzaghe to overcome.

You could be right hammy, its a fair argument. He certainly became ever harder to look good against.

To me though , Hopkins just looked better than calzaghe when he did let his shots go and the way he handled jc in those early rounds when they did fight makes me think he was just too good a boxer to lose to him when he had the engine to go with it...  Eg the trinidad fight.

Calzaghe v Hopkins is a funny one. There is only one time I've ever bet on a draw with cash and that was it. When the 12th was over I felt Joe had nicked it but being a fan of Calzaghe ( so perhaps a tad bias ) and being in America I really thought they were going to call a draw. Glad they didn't now but at the time I'd convinced myself that without my fan glasses on it probably was pretty much even. I did watch it again soon after, hey I said I was a fan, but I haven't watched it since.

I have long though on a similar line to HH, that Hopkins might have suited Joe better when younger. Those of you that have read the brilliant 5 star "No ordinary Joe" (what a read!) will know Calzaghe suffered with his hands more than most late in his career and lost some pop. Joe was also dependent on speed throughout his career, being in his late 30's and going up to light-heavy suggests that assets wasn't going to be at its best. I'm not entirely sure he wins but it has given me a great deal of thought over recent years. Only giving Hopkins the benefit of the doubt for age and not Joe doesn't work for me.

As for Kovalev I suspect Hoppo does think it'll be Pavlik all over again. If he wins then everyone should hail an amazing performance no matter how he does it as it just should not be possible. I'm going to stick a few quid on Hopkins UD if the odds are good but definitely think Kovalev wins this... its just Hopkins keeps on surprising everyone so why not stick a couple of quid on it?