Saturday at the Thomas and Mack Center Bernard Hopkins did an excellent job of wrestling Joe Calzaghe. Unfortunately for him it was a boxing match, not a wrestling match. 2 of the 3 judges saw the fight the same way and gave a split-decision victory to the undefeated boxer from Wales Joe Calzaghe. Calzaghe improves to 45-0 and will look for a big fight later this year, probably against Roy Jones Jr., in London at 175 pounds.
Hopkins showed little class in defeat asking reporters at the post-fight news conference "if he looked like he had been in a fight"? The answer to me would be no, but aside from a small cut on his nose neither did Joe Calzaghe. But, Calzaghe can't be blamed for not trying to turn the fight into a fight. For 12 rounds he stalked Bernard Hopkins landing almost twice as many punches while repeatedly being tied upped by Hopkins. Hopkins is known as a counter-puncher, but landed only one clean counter punch and that was in the first round. A punch that put Calzaghe on the canvas for the only knock down of the fight. Calzaghe was not hurt by the punch and went right back to stalking Hopkins. Hopkins has a style of fighting that will make guys look bad due to it's defensive nature, but the pressure Calzaghe was able to put on Hopkins slowed down the man that vowed several times a "White boy will never beat me".
In victory Joe Calzaghe was humble. When asked by reporters what Bernard Hopkins said to him as he left the ring Joe responded, "Not much, because he just got his ass kicked by a White guy."
UFC 83 was also on Saturday night and George St. Pierre regained his UFC 170 pound belt against Matt Serra. "GSP" has been absolutely dominant in his last 3 fights, defeating former NCAA wrestling champion Josh Koshcheck and long-time UFC champion Matt Hughes for the second time. "GSP" might be headed to the 185 pound division to take on Anderson Silva, a man that is ranked number 1 pound-for-pound by Yahoo Sports.
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2 comments:
It's interesting that Whites perform so much better in the UFC than we do in Boxing (although the Russians have taken over boxing nowdays); I suspect it's because there's grappling in the UFC.
The grappling has a lot to do with it, but I think while blacks might have a speed advantage Whites have a strength advantage and that's important in MMA. And in my opinion blacks have always had suspect endurance, while most White MMA's have good endurance.
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