i'm sure that 8lbs wouldn't bother hopkins but froch is a bad boy. who wins this fight?

You must be joking.

Think Hopkins-Johnson or Hopkins-Elchols. This fight is ugly early for Froch. Hopkins beats him up badly

why is this even a question?

Lmao


Hopkins by punishing stoppage.

Froch on work rate. He's not stopping Hops and he'll have to wear a shot or two but he'd just out-work the guy.

Mr. Froch should be very flattered.

Hopkins loses










































a round maybe.

been too long since i've seen one of these

wait.... totally forgot.


Are we using an Albanian ref, one judge from Siberia, another from IndoChina, and the third from Sanga-Congo basin?

If so Froch totally gets the hometown decision.

Well, honestly, it's going to decision. Hopkins might be able to negate trinidad's welterweight power but Froch is a big old boy with long, long levers who carries his power late. He's gone toe-to-toe with a strong old boy who's just won a light heavy title, there's no way Hopkins has him on strength.

Hopkins will make Froch miss, will look to grab and grope, and will land the odd shot here and there but Froch has enough in the tank to fire back and stop Hopkins putting sustained work together. In that instance I can see Froch pressing more and more and although he's breathing out of his arse by the end of this he takes the nod by a handful of rounds.

The ONLY way Hopkins wins this is if he holds onto Froch harder than Dirrell could. I can see him man-humping his way to a stinking 12-round call but the only positive to come out of that would be a baby Frochkins 9 months later.

Coconut,

The title also said its about Hopkins in his prime. Froch could not beat Bernard who is 40= today.


A prime Hopkins would have a field day with Carl who would love to stand and trade, but would be a terrible idea.

What 'prime' fights do you have against a strong puncher with a reach advantage and a great beard?

Croch doesnt use his reach. His hands stay gunslinger by his hips and he keeps his head forward. I think hes going to provide plenty of highlights in his career but it wont be the kind your thinking.


I dont see him being competitive on the elite level. Thats just me. (although i do not hold the Dirrell fight against him in any way, he was trying to make a fight, hard to do when your fighting Andre "The squirrel" Dirrell.

Yet another 'shit on a guy because he's new' thread then. Ignore the fact that he could have the tools to beat someone who's been around longer.

It's like I've got vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals.

He probably has the tools to beat plenty of guys who have been around longer. Hopkins isn't one of them.

Ive never seen Frochs garage but ive heard those chaps from Nottingham are very handy, im sure hes got all kinds of tools.


A benchgrinder might do wonders on Nards teeth though.

This was genuinely funny, it's all too familiar to me.

That aside, Hopkins was a better puncher in his prime and had a higher punch volume. His defense was miles better than Froch or Dirrel's (whose defense was better than Froch's).

Seriously, the way Froch fights he'd get himself stopped by a young Hopkins.

Mercado was a pretty big, strong puncher, who appeared to have a good beard. In their rematch Hopkins took his lunch money. Froch isn't really a one punch guy. He's a grinder. And Hopkins has always shown that he can get surgical on that type of fighter. He'd outbox the shit out of Froch en route to a late rounds KO or a punishing decision that wouldn't be close.

Ah, right, rematch. Yes, after he'd had a while to sit and think and work him out. Super, yes.

Nobody is going to spark Nard with one shot, the guy's just too tough. But what the strength does is put Nard off his usual antics and discourages him from throwing too much. That's the clincher. Apart from Hopkins.

I thought he actually used his reach quite well against Pascal in the second half of their fight. He started jabbing from long range and kept Pascal at a distance quite nicely.

He attacks because it's often the only way he's going to land, but he's not totally a face first brawler as he proved that night.

In the first fight Nard was still a work in progress. The first fight also took place in Ecuador at altitude. That may well have played into the fight. Nard vs. Mercado I says more about him not being a fully finished product at the time than it does about what would give Hopkins a hard time in his prime. He really didn't hit his peak until a few years after Mercado. And in his prime strength wouldn't have bothered Hopkins or slowed his output much. He was a much more offensive minded fighter, but he was still a guy who looked to counter. Froch would leave plenty of countering opportunities and Hopkins would take them all. I'd be surprised if he threw less than 60 punches a round against Froch. And there'd be a good chance he'd be a hell of a lot more active than that.

Hopkins beats him up in what would at the very least be an entertaining, one-sided fight. A prime Hopkins probably beats up every guy in this tournament really, not just Froch, but Froch is the one who's tailor-made for him. No defense, hands down, comes forward, and more importantly, comes to fight. I don't see any way Froch wins unless he throws over 100 punches around and lands some good punishing shots with at least 30% of them. And I just don't see that happening.

If Froch tries to land that ridiclous uppercut he will get put to sleep. Its already waiting to happen. Hopkins has the smarts to take Froch's style apart in my opinion. I like Froch, he is a willing tough guy and i hope he does better than menay think he will but Hopkins is an all time great, Carl isn't

I'll take Hops close because I think he'd land the cleaner punches. I agree with Coco about a lot of the stylistic stuff. Two awkward operators in there.

But the thing for me is that in a bunch of nip and tuck rounds Bernard will land the punches you remember. Hops don't get his flush. Froch does.

Ugly fight.