By Matthew Hurley: As light heavyweight Bernard Hopkins continues to toss verbal insults across the pond at super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe the “Executioner” says that a bout between the two future hall of famers will indeed happen and that the fight will end up in Las Vegas. Hopkins, who first came face to face with Calzaghe at the Ricky Hatton – Floyd Mayweather weigh-in back in December has been very vocal as to what he will do to his Welsh rival..
“Calzaghe is cute,” Hopkins told BBC Radio 5 recently. “But he ain’t going to be cute after this facelift. If he steps out of his backyard, he will be handed his first defeat. I will beat Joe Calzaghe easily.”
Hopkins went on to stroke his own ego a bit and attempt to minimize Calzaghe’s standing. “When I fight Joe Calzaghe, I’m fighting a champion. When Joe Calzaghe fights Bernard Hopkins, he’s fighting a legend. Joe Calzaghe never fought outside the UK (actually he’s fought in Denmark and Germany), he never fought in America. I’ve fought in Paris, I fought in Ecuador. Let’s see how he fights when he hasn’t got 40 to 50,000 of his own fans behind him. To me, a great champion can go anywhere in the world, out of his comfort zone and still deliver. I’m not convinced by him. America is not convinced. Let him leave his home town and try to invade the United States and beat Bernard Hopkins, a great champion, a legend.”
For his part Calzaghe has taken Hopkins’ rants with a grain of salt. The veteran champion knows full well that Hopkins loves to rattle his opponents before they even step into the ring and has been extremely successful with his mental approach. He got under the skin of Felix Trinidad by tossing the Puerto Rican flag to the ground before their middleweight showdown. He used Antonio Tarver’s own arrogance against him by constantly bringing up the ‘Magic Man’s’ weight gain for his appearance in the Rocky Balboa movie and comparing his coming back down to light heavyweight with Roy Jones’s similar situation when Jones dropped back down to light heavyweight after beating heavyweight belt holder John Ruiz and subsequently never regaining his form. Hopkins said the same fate awaited Tarver before handily beating him and taking his title. And he was able to rattle the usually unflappable Winky Wright by smacking him in the face at a press conference. With Calzaghe, however, Hopkins will not have someone who will play into his head games.
“I understand what he’s doing,” Calzaghe says. “I’ve watched him do it before. He’s going to get in your face and try to intimidate you. But it ain’t gonna work with me. He tried his mind games but I took it and gave him a bit back. That’s what it’s all about and I’m buzzing. At the end of the day that’s the main reason I went over (to Las Vegas for Hatton – Mayweather) to try and make the Hopkins fight.”
Calzaghe recently told BBC Radio that 2008 will be his last year in the ring. “I’ve still got a couple of goals to achieve. I’ve still got the burning desire to be a light heavyweight champion and go down as a two-weight world champion and I’m going to do that in 2008. But 2008 will be the last year for me. I want to be one of the fighters who gets out at the top with everything in place and still looking pretty good.”
Meanwhile, in an interview with Boxingtalk.com, Hopkins says that the bout should be signed shortly. “I believe the date to be the 11th or 12th of April. I know I’m just looking to make it happen. We have an oral agreement. I could say oral agreements have stood up for the last five years of my career. (We) expect things to be wrapped up by the middle of next week at the latest.”
If the contracts are signed Hopkins says the bout will most likely take place at the Mandalay Bay or the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.