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Hopkins wants Calzaghe @ Yankee Stadium...& away we may go!!!
Wish granted: Hopkins open to fight with Calzaghe
By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=3094912
Less than 10 minutes after dominating Denmark's Mikkel Kessler to win a decision Saturday night before a mammoth hometown crowd of 50,000-plus in Cardiff, Wales, super middleweight world champion Joe Calzaghe was already looking ahead to the man he hopes to fight next.
"Bernard Hopkins. Let's do it," Calzaghe said of the light heavyweight champion during his interview with HBO. "He wants a big fight. Fight me. I'm here, man. At 168 I beat everyone. [If I] step up to 175, with the extra seven pounds, I will be a different animal altogether."
Frank Warren, Calzaghe's longtime promoter, is also eyeing Hopkins.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Bernard Hopkins has no qualms about facing Joe Calzaghe, but the Welshman will have to cross the pond to make it happen.
"He can pick the weight. He can pick the date. He can pick the site," Warren said during the postfight news conference. "We don't care. We want this fight. We'll fight him in his backyard, if that's where he wants it. Joe Calzaghe wants that fight and he deserves it."
On Sunday, Hopkins was licking his chops while thinking about the prospect of the mega fight.
"The best fights are happening and being put together so hopefully, in 2008, we can get in the ring," Hopkins told ESPN.com from his home in Delaware.
"I would love to entertain his request to fight Bernard Hopkins. I think he understands now and [promoter] Frank Warren understands that he needs that final stamp of approval from the American boxing writers and the fans. He doesn't have that name of that elite opponent from America on his resume. Jeff Lacy wasn't a veteran fighter who had achieved a lot before he beat him.
"Bernard Hopkins is the guy that Calzaghe and Frank Warren believe they have to defeat to get that stamp of approval over here in America. Even though Joe had a great performance and took Kessler's game plan away, nobody here knows Kessler. They know Bernard Hopkins."
Hopkins, coming off a July 21 decision win against Winky Wright in his first defense, said he hopes the fight can take place as soon as possible, preferably in the spring.
Hopkins' proposed venue?
"He said after the fight that he would fight me anywhere, even in my backyard, but I'm not asking him to come to Philadelphia," Hopkins said. "I wouldn't ask him to come to anywhere but Yankee Stadium. Hopefully for boxing, and for our legacy, it will happen."
Hopkins is keenly aware of the storied boxing history of the fabled building that will close in 2008. Legends Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali, among others, all fought at Yankee Stadium, and Hopkins wants to be part of a final fight there.
"How great would it be," Hopkins said. "This is a big fight. What a great promotion. The Brits will come. They got a direct flight from there to New York City. So am I interested in the fight? Absolutely. Do I feel I can give him his first loss? Yes. Can I neutralize the best weapon my opponent has and use it against him? Yes. His best weapon is that he throws a lot of punches. I know how to adjust to any style out there."
Calzaghe, 35, has held his title for more than 10 years and made his 21st defense against Kessler, adding the two alphabet belts that Kessler held to his own.
Hopkins (48-4-1, 32 KOs) said he has great respect for Calzaghe because he understands how hard it is continually get up for fights. Hopkins made 20 defenses at middleweight and also had a reign that last just over 10 years.
"He's made 21 title defenses, and I don't care if it was against 21 Charlie Browns or Donald Ducks. I know what it is to get up for defense after defense after defense," Hopkins said. "I know what it takes to maintain that mental strength. I'd be a fool to not respect a guy who made all those defenses. I know what he had to do within himself to get up for those fights."
With his career winding down and having accomplished all he can at 168 pounds, Calzaghe is looking to move up in weight to challenge Hopkins, who jumped over super middleweight and easily outpointed Antonio Tarver to win the light heavyweight title in June 2006.
Calzaghe (44-0, 32 KOs), who has fought all but two of his fights in the UK, has said he hopes to come to the United States for a major fight before his career is over. It's a good thing, because Hopkins has no plans to go to Europe to fight him.
"That's impossible. It won't happen because I don't have to go there," said Hopkins, who has fought twice outside the United States, in Ecuador and France. "He said he would fight me anywhere. I have no interest in going there. Why do I have to go? He has to bring his butt here to fight the living legend Bernard Hopkins. We know he can do well in Britain, but step out of your neighborhood."
That's fine with Calzaghe and Warren.
"Joe Calzaghe will go to the States. He will fight Mr. Hopkins in his hometown," Warren said at the postfight news conference. "He'll go to Philadelphia to fight him. He will fight him anywhere it takes to get the fight on. If Bernard Hopkins is the warrior he says he is, then make the fight. Make that fight with Joe Calzaghe."
Hopkins, notorious for tough deal-making, said he won't be an impediment to making the fight.
"This thing can be easy. No stress," Hopkins, 42, said. "We ain't got to tease the public or go back and forth. My thing is, Joe is a respectful champion and fighter, but you cannot deny that Bernard Hopkins is the guy he needs on his resume. So let's sit down and talk like we all have business sense, and we can get it done.
"If it doesn't happen, I believe the problem at the end of the day will be Frank Warren. I believe Joe wants to fight me. I believe the only person who can stop this is Frank, because he's got one bullet in the chamber, one horse to ride in Joe."
This is not the first time there has been talk about a Hopkins-Calzaghe fight. In July 2002, Hopkins, who was then with promoter Don King, was on the verge of signing a three-fight deal with Showtime, which was televising Calzaghe bouts at the time. In the second fight of the proposed deal, Hopkins would have moved up from middleweight to super middleweight to challenge Calzaghe in early 2003. But the deal imploded when Hopkins, who had initially agreed, backed out.
"That's water under the bridge, and I don't want to go back over it," Hopkins said. "This is a new time, and my thing is, his career is where it is and my career is where it is. We should fight."
I was really thrilled to hear it come from the horses mouth...or from the horses mouth through ESPN.
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Originally Posted by El Barto
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