I think it’s too handy of an excuse to say that it was “Father Time”, and not Joe Calzaghe, that beat Bernard Hopkins. Hopkins himself said age would not be a factor in this fight. The truth is, Hopkins was beaten by a better man last night. Calzaghe and the United Kingdom, but especially the people of Wales have a lot to be proud of. Their man won straight up and fair and square. Besides, Calzaghe , at 36 is no spring chicken himself.
Hopkins caught Calzaghe with a right hand midway through the first round, as Calzaghe was coming in. It landed flush and Calzaghe was knocked down. It was Hopkins’ best moment in the fight. The next few rounds seemed to go in Hopkins favor. He appeared to be controlling the pace of the fight. By the early middle rounds Calzaghe started to find himself and started throwing punches with more conviction. Calzaghe was not intimidated by Hopkins. Hopkins on the other hand was relying on a lunging right hand, while leading with his head, holding and twisting Calzaghe, and fighting against the ropes. It wasn’t pretty.
In the later rounds Hopkins started to look confused. His punches lacked any real strength and Cazaghe began to feel like he could win this fight. Hopkins sealed the deal when he was hit with a punch that landed just below the belt line and he went into one of the finest acting jobs I have ever seen. As far as I am concerned Hopkins was surrendering. He was looking for a way out of a fight he no longer believed he was capable of winning. Referee Joe “fair but firm” Cortez allowed him his rest and the fight continued. It was embarrassing. It became embarrassing again in the 11th round when Hopkins again went into his low blow act, but this time Cortez wisely ignored Hopkins forcing the fight to continue.
Several times in the later rounds Hopkins complained of being hit behind the head. He shouldn’t have, he was just as guilty. There were also a few times when out of view of referee Cortez, Hopkins attempted several low blows of his own. By this point I wanted to see Hopkins knocked out. As far as I’m concerned Hopkins went out with a whimper. Made all the worse by trying to convince interviewer Max Kellerman and anyone who was listening that he won the fight. He was right about one thing. The public knows who won that fight and it wasn’t Bernard Hopkins. It might be unfair, but even in losing, I expected more from Hopkins.
No comments:
Post a Comment