Quote:
Originally Posted by Bernard "Details don't mean Shit" Hopkins
"If Calzaghe and Frank Warren are serious, they can cross the Red Sea and come over to the United States, because we're the best in everything we do.
"Joe Calzaghe never fought outside the UK [he has, twice], he never fought in America. I've fought in Paris, I fought in Quito, Ecuador.
"Let's see how he fights when he hasn't got 40-50,000 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 Calzaghe], 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."
The Philadelphian, with a career record of 48 wins, four losses and a draw from 54 fights, added that he felt under no pressure to make the fight happen, despite the intense public and media clamour.
"I've never ducked anyone. Bernard Hopkins has beaten people that nobody else wanted to fight - Winky Wright, Antonio Tarver. I knocked out Felix Trinidad easily, Oscar de la Hoya with a body shot, I had world title 20 defences.
"If it happens it happens, if it don't it don't.
"I was sat at home in my rocking chair, sipping a cup of tea, with my teeth in a glass, minding my own business.
"I'd get more attention and more out of it if I waited to fight the winner of Roy Jones-Felix Trinidad [due to take place on 19 January]."
If this really is Hopkins with these outlandish statements, then here's the rebuttal. Numbered for easy comprehension by loudmouth Philadelphia trashtalkers.
1) The Red Sea lies between Egypt and Asia. If Calzaghe crossed the red sea to fight Hopkins, it wouldn't surprise me that Hopkins gave him a false address and started running the other way.
2) "Joe Calzaghe never fought outside the UK" - as the article points out, Joe Calzaghe has fought outside the UK twice, winning both times, although not against fantastic opponents. To hear Hopkins' claims, you'd think he'd won against fantastic opposition in his overseas excursions. In France in '92, he beat a guy with a record of 8-8-1, although admittedly Hopkins was still developing at that stage. His fight in Ecuador was a draw, against Segundo Mercado, whom he would later KO in 7, and for Mercado to disappear from the radar, winning 1, drawing 1 and losing 7 of the 9 further fights he had before retirement. Hardly a glittering overseas fighting record, eh Mr Hopkins.
3) As Hopkins has surely done, Calzaghe has also fought within Britain but in the hometown of his opponents. At most, 29 of his 43 fights have taken place with Calzaghe as the home fighter (fights across Britain involving Joe, but against foreign opponents included in figures, with all other fights taking place in neutral or hostile venues. Obviously...he has only fought in front of 40-50,000 people once, in the biggest unfication fight ever to take place at Super-middleweight.
4) "He mentioned my name after the fight, I didn't mention his." - Hopkins has repeatdly mentioned the name of Calzaghe over the years, since 2002 and probably even before that. Reported by the BBC in 2002:
"Right now I'm negotiating along with Don King and Jay Larkin of Showtime," Hopkins told maxboxing.com.
"We're talking to him about two fights, maybe my mandatory defence too, which makes it a three-fight deal.
"It would be the mandatory, Harry Simon and Joe Calzaghe."
And by the way, that quote also annuls the argument that Hopkins' withdrawal from a negotiation in 2003 was bogus, because he would never fight for Don King. He admitted it himself.
5) "I'd get more attention and more out of it if I waited to fight the winner of Roy Jones-Felix Trinidad" - Utter nonsense. Although it might be an attractive fight between two legends of the game, Hopkins actually gaining some measure of revenge over a washed up Roy Jones would gain little critical acclaim, as opposed to beating a prime Calzaghe who had unified the SMW's in his previous fight.
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Anyway, on the main topic of the thread, there's no way in hell Hopkins would go in with a guy as big as Haye with his speed and power. It would just overwhelm him, in terms of size difference and the stages of their careers.
