Source: HBO.com
Joe Calzaghe managed to overcome a knockdown in the opening round of his fight with Bernard Hopkins, and win the light heavyweight championship. Hopkins caught Calzaghe with a punch while he Calzaghe was coming in and off balance which prompty sent the Welsh fighter to the canvas. The knockdown did not do a significant amount of damage to Calzaghe but it still managed to give Hopkins a two point lead on the scorecards from the outset of the fight.
Source: HBO.com
The fight looked like an ugly brawl, which is typical for Hopkins fighters because he usually only thows straight right hands while he is coming in, and then grabs his opponent before they can retaliate. There were many clinches throughout the fight; however, this did not discourage the fighters from punching each other. In the middle rounds of the fight Calzaghe hit Hopkins with a questionable "low blow", and the referee allowed Hopkins five minutes to recover.
There is no question that Hopkins landed the cleaner, harder punches in the fight but Calzaghe landed nearly 100 more punches and was the aggressor throughout the fight. In the end, one judge had the fight 115-114 Hopkins, one had 115-112 Calzaghe and the last judge had 116-111 Calzaghe which gave him the victory. I felt that Hopkins won this fight by a very small margin, but I can see how judges could have favored Calzaghe's high punch output.
Following the fight Calzaghe was asked who he wanted to fight next, and he replied that he would like a match with Roy Jones Jr.. Jones was very impressive in his victory over Felix Trinidad, but he might encounter the same problem that Hopkins had when he faced Calzaghe which is overcoming the tremenous amount of punches Calzaghe throws. Nonetheless, a Calzaghe/Jones Jr. fight would certainly be intriguing and entertaining.
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