I have seen some amazing things in my short time on this earth, one of the most amazing things I seen in boxing was Foreman vs. Moorer. I was excited because it was Foreman and my dad liked him. I thought this would be a time for us to bond and watch the old man give it another go. But as the fight wore on, my dad grudgingly went off to bed saying he did not want to see a boyhood idol take such a beating. Lone behold it was only 6 minutes or so that he bolted out of the bedroom upon hearing me scream "He did it, he did it!" What an awesome feeling. However, the fight tonight was not exactly a wake everyone up with screaming type fight, but it was something special for sure, something rarely seen.
I had predicted that Hopkins would soundly defeat the much younger Cloud, however, I was still hanging on the edge of my seat while watching the fight. I know Cloud can punch and Hopkins was playing a deadly game. But he played it wisely. Instead of hopping around the ring to keep Cloud off balance and unable to plant his feet, he calmly walked, conserving his energy. Cloud was completely unaware of this and failed to put more pressure on Hopkins. But Hopkins, the cagey veteran used everything he has ever learned, and did it with relative ease, so it seemed.
Hopkins would nail Cloud and then either tie up or, get this, use the shoulder roll and bobbing and weaving to get away. And this was reflected in the compubox as Cloud landed around 20% of his punches, which is dismal, and Hopkins 41%, which is amazing, especially considering that he is 17 years older than Cloud. Anytime Cloud started to put his foot on the pedal Hopkins would engage him and nail him with something that was hard enough to back him off. A couple times Cloud, clearly buzzed, backed away and Hopkins let him be because he knew that Cloud would think twice about rushing in so why try and go after a guy and risk getting stopped yourself? Classy veteran move. Hopkins literally beat up the younger man and in the 12th Clouds corner told him he needs to put Hopkins down and he came out initially trying and Hopkins threw a few uncharictaristically hard shots that landed solid on Cloud and ended any desire he may have had to come at Hopkins for the KO. A wonderfully brilliant and masterful performance by Hopkins who continues to give us more reasons to call him "The Greatest".
I am beginning to wonder if death himself is starting to worry about having to face Hopkins someday, I wonder.
I had predicted that Hopkins would soundly defeat the much younger Cloud, however, I was still hanging on the edge of my seat while watching the fight. I know Cloud can punch and Hopkins was playing a deadly game. But he played it wisely. Instead of hopping around the ring to keep Cloud off balance and unable to plant his feet, he calmly walked, conserving his energy. Cloud was completely unaware of this and failed to put more pressure on Hopkins. But Hopkins, the cagey veteran used everything he has ever learned, and did it with relative ease, so it seemed.
Hopkins would nail Cloud and then either tie up or, get this, use the shoulder roll and bobbing and weaving to get away. And this was reflected in the compubox as Cloud landed around 20% of his punches, which is dismal, and Hopkins 41%, which is amazing, especially considering that he is 17 years older than Cloud. Anytime Cloud started to put his foot on the pedal Hopkins would engage him and nail him with something that was hard enough to back him off. A couple times Cloud, clearly buzzed, backed away and Hopkins let him be because he knew that Cloud would think twice about rushing in so why try and go after a guy and risk getting stopped yourself? Classy veteran move. Hopkins literally beat up the younger man and in the 12th Clouds corner told him he needs to put Hopkins down and he came out initially trying and Hopkins threw a few uncharictaristically hard shots that landed solid on Cloud and ended any desire he may have had to come at Hopkins for the KO. A wonderfully brilliant and masterful performance by Hopkins who continues to give us more reasons to call him "The Greatest".
I am beginning to wonder if death himself is starting to worry about having to face Hopkins someday, I wonder.
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