He basically shut Pavlik out and hurt him several times. It was an extremely one-sided fight and Pavlik took a decent beating.
That isn't true at all. Hopkins picked and choose who he fought at the last part of his career. He would only fight young guys if they were unskilled and he stayed the hell away from anyone that could outwork him.
I don’t think anyone would suggest it was peak Hopkins, but 43 year old Hopkins was good enough to win titles, beat pfp fighters, and be a damned good win for anyone. Duder didn’t really get to the top until his mid thirties.
Yeah, he was still an elite fighter and went on to become lineal at LHW after losing to Calzaghe. He was clearly diminished from what he was in his mid 30s, though, particularly in terms of his stamina and physical strength (part of this was him moving up from a weight he comfortably made his whole career). He physical decline started to become noticeable after the Joppy fight, around 2004. I think Calzaghe's ability clearly exceeded what his resume would suggest. It's a shame he didn't get more big fights in his prime, as he was an excellent fighter. I can actually see him beating a guy like Ward, prime for prime (it'd be extremely competitive one way or the other).
Roy came out of his prime and tanked hard. Others like Hopkins and Calzaghe had things to fall back once their athletic prime was gone. Roy had that speed and reflexes, once that was gone dude was a walking target, it's entirely his fault but beating 39 year old Roy isn't impressive
Wrong... The tarver that bhop beat had already avenged the glen johnson belt and defended it against roy, and had beaten Griffin before those. It was the best version of tarver.(not young, but mid 30s) Chad dawson then beats tarver twice. B-hop beats him up too. Dawson was 29. Pavlik had beaten Taylor twice and defended his belt at age 26 before facing b-hop. Winky Was 12-0-1 in his last 13 fights(the draw was against Taylor). In his 30s as well shame on you for discrediting a human treasure of sports that is b-hop. he beat all of them when he was past 40... that makes it 10 times more impressive. (Young fighters my ass) nobody was green on this list when bhop whoops their posterior.
He wasn't a big hitter because of his hand injuries but earlier on he was pretty heavy handed. He floored Chris Eubank and only knock out artists like Nigel Benn had managed that before. Even Benn couldn't knock the iron-chinned Eubank out.
Calzaghe was a pretty good puncher at the beginning of his career. He lost power as time went on due to his hand injuries.
Calzaghe's top 4 is pretty good: Kessler, Bika, Hopkins, Lacy. He maybe waited too long to go the the States, so we'll never know. People confuse peak and prime. Hopkins was still at the tail end of his prime. He did become a unified champ again after Calzaghe, so he certainly wasn't past it. People already commented on the others.
Might genuinely be the most underrated undisputed champ of the last couple decades minus a few of the lower weight azn/latino boxers most casuals don't know of He wasn't the most technical, had an awkward style, was Welsh etc so he didn't get that much love. Hardcores called him Calslappy b/c of some of those issues and hand injuries His resume gets trashed but it's pretty good just not when you compare him to real ATGs near the weight or some guys of his era. BHop Kessler Eubank Lacy RJJ Reid Bika Mitchell Woodhall Brewer Sheika Not stellar by any means and a couple guys past their best but aside from RJJ the other past it guys were legit top level wins Put him there today and that resume shits on damn near everyone short of Manny and Canelo (if you ignore the controversy). GGG, Roman, Spence, Nietes, Usyk, SSR, Ioka, and JFE if he beats Roman are other resumes on par or behind but not laughable to mention in the same breath as Calzaghes His resume wouldn't be shitted on as much today with how garbage the resumes of the top fighters right now are. The problem was he could've fought more top 10 guys and wasn't that ambitious about some bigger fights but that's about it. It'd still get criticism when you start comparing him to legit ATGs though deservedly
This, he pretty much lifted Eubank off his feet with his rear hook, the guy had more than enough power before his injuries.
of the guys he fought I think only Jones beats him in his prime. I’d take Calzaghe over prime eubank every day of the week, and I think he can still outwork Hopkins His best wins were Hopkins and Kessler imo. We saw what problems a past prime Kessler gave froch, and hoe handled a better version of him, fairly comfortably
How in the hell does someone "peak" at 43yo? Peak Hopkins is a 30 something MW not a LHW in his mid 40s.
