Hopkins was offered the fight when he was reigning middleweight champ. He asked for double what was being offered.
"A teleconference was set up in my office in New York on 30th July 2002, and on the call was myself, Don King who was in the room, Frank Warren and Bernard Hopkins' lawyer, Arnold Joseph. Along with Arnold was a woman named Linda Carter, who was there on behalf of Bernard. We asked Arnold if Bernard wanted to fight Joe Calzaghe and we asked him how much money he would want if he did. The response that we got was $3million and the fight would have to take place in the US.
After a little while scratching our head, we said 'Okay, Done'. Frank Warren agreed on the spot, Don King agreed and we agreed, so as far as we were concerned we were all singing off the one hymn sheet.
Arnold excused himself with Linda and I can only assume it was to call Bernard. Either that day or the next, I'm just not certain about that particular timeframe, they came with a new demand- $6million, double the sum which had been agreed. In addition to the Calzaghe fight, we had offered him $1million to fight Morrade Hakkar, and the winner of that bout to fight Harry Simon. Then he would have had the bout with Joe but when he came back asking for six million, the deal blew up spectacularly. I thought that the Calzaghe-Hopkins was a spectacular prospect but it wasn't to be.
Bernard's pretty shrewd, he's no dummy and has done a wonderful job of self-management in his career, but he had then no desire to fight Joe Calzaghe, that much is pretty clear. Joe gets criticised sometimes for not having fought more big named Americans, but in this case the fault has never rested with him.
Jay Larkin, Showtime TV Vice President of Sports and Event Programming, in No Ordinary Joe, Brian Doogan at p197-98"
What adds to your legacy is fighting, coming back from adversity and achieving. Not sitting on the sidelines living vicariously through the victory of others. That's just goofy desperate man.
www.twitter.com/RealJoeCalzaghe
Joe Calzaghe@RealJoeCalzaghe
With Bhop unifying world titles at 49 does that mean I beat him at his peak?!
I watch the fight again and again. No way Hopkins won that fight. Bhop beat everybody before and after the Calzaghe fight. So yes it does add to his legacy. It just shows how good Joe was. Hopkins is a great fighter no doubt, but he is also the biggest cry baby bitch in boxing.
I only watched it once but I agree I dont see how hopkins won it.. it was pretty close but i think you would have to do some creative scoring to have bernard winning..
Although I thought b-hop was better in the first half of the fight and started to fade , I think if he was a couple of years younger(strange saying that based on what he is doing now :S) he would have won it .. Two pretty evenly matched guys I think , b-hop has ended up with the better career in my opinion .
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