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Calzaghe nicks round one

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The fight may be dubbed 'The Uncivil War', but with one embrace the mischievous Enzo Calzaghe deflated all the promotional guff.

Enzo, father and trainer of Joe Calzaghe, had interrupted the traditional press conference face-off with a finger-wagging verbal attack on Bernard Hopkins, who was rendered speechless for the first time in probably 40-odd years.

Joe looked a touch embarrassed, as if his old man had just marched into his playground to remonstrate with the high school bully. Hopkins let Enzo have his say before turning to the cameras and beaming: "I’m more afraid of him than I am Joe!"

The three men dissolved into laughter, Enzo put his arm round Bernard and the façade of antipathy was ripped aside to reveal only generous dollops of mutual respect.

Things are certain to heat up as the fight between Wales’ super-middleweight king, Calzaghe, and American legend Hopkins on 19 April draws nearer.

But at the first official head-to-head at Planet Hollywood in London’s Leicester Square, a smile was never far from either man’s lips.

Of course, the beef flew in all directions when the two fighters crossed paths ahead of Ricky Hatton’s clash with Floyd Mayweather last December, with Hopkins spewing out the rather unfortunate line: "I would never let a white boy beat me."

But the screaming and shouting has achieved its aim, the fight is in the can and both men appeared more than happy with the arrangement and somewhat subdued.

That said, Hopkins, with the delivery of a Baptist preacher, was in typically beguiling mood on Thursday – and a cryptic one too.

When asked if he regretted his now infamous "white boy" comment, he replied: “People that know me, know me. I said what I said and it’s up to Joe to prove I’m a liar. This ain’t the Hillary Clinton and Barack show." Well, not quite.

When it was pointed out that he had never fought in the UK, just as Calzaghe had never fought in the States, Hopkins shot back: "No, but I fought next door in Paris. At least I fought close to London – it’s just an hour-and-a-half on a boat."

But little nuggets of gold can be panned from his lengthy streams of consciousness. "I am an old man – I just happen to be an old man that can fight."

And: "Fighting like a poor man, even though I’m rich, gives me the edge over anyone I’ve fought."

Although, of course, not everyone. Hopkins, 43, has lost four times in a career spanning 54 fights and almost 20 years, including to the great Roy Jones in 1993 and Jermain Taylor, twice, in 2005.

Calzaghe, meanwhile, has not lost in 44 professional encounters, which might explain why he was happy for the most part to "sit back and enjoy listening to the big man talk".

“I know what’s going to happen,” he added. “This will be Bernard Hopkins’ last fight. I’m going to be a legend after this fight.
You’re going to see an awesome performance – honest. This is the buzz that’s been missing in some of my fights. It’s beautiful, I love it."

It has been said that the great Willie Pep once won a round without throwing a punch.

Similarly, while Hopkins’ mouth made most of the running in the opening round of the phoney war, Calzaghe, playing it cagey and slipping the blows, may well have done enough to nick it.

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comment by mrireland (U1811815)

posted Feb 22, 2008

Sure the fight with Joe and Hopkins is a farce and only by luck could a fading star like Hopkins deserve the opportunity to rob the gullible half wits who support this crap.
A past it Hopkins pathetically trying to create interest with tired racial slurs that any respectable authority would punish with fines etc shows the degenerate state of the sport.
I wont pay a dime to watch this bucket of horse manure.

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comment by modernavatar7 (U9176573)

posted Feb 24, 2008

These so called names that bernard as fought.
A blown up welterweightODH, a blown up welterweight felix trinidad, a blown up light middleweight winky right. A weight drained tarver. he lost twice to taylor who as been soundly beaten twice by pavlick, and roy jones walked him! So basically the names mean jack shit! He as won mostly by spoiling and tieing people up roughhouse tactics, which although affective are crap to watch. So how can anyone with any knowledge of boxing say that hopkins is in a different leauge to Jo. Basically your talking outa ya backside!

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comment by MUFC_RED_ARMY (U10077104)

posted Feb 24, 2008

comment by alphaMankk
posted 4 Days Ago

The fight between JC/BH is going to go the way Hatton & Fineboy went.......................................................................

Mayweather calls himself "Pretty Boy" (he mustn't have mirrors in his house), not "Fineboy", so get your facts right before you come on here trying to start an argument about Calzaghe by comparing his fight with Mary Popkins to the way The Hitman didn't perform to his potential against Mayweather...

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comment by MUFC_RED_ARMY (U10077104)

posted Feb 24, 2008

left_jab_jay,
The whole thing is a farce between two of the most conceited and over-hyped fighters in the sport of boxing.....................................................................

Are you for real? This is a fight between 2 of the Top 10 Pound-For-Pound fighters in all respected boxing websites. "The Ring" has Calzaghe at #5 and Popkins at #4 while boxrec.com have Calz at #9 (What!!! He's the best for me) and Popkins at #1 (What!!! He's Top 10 but certainly not the best).

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comment by SONNYD (U4096538)

posted Feb 25, 2008

Do 'Big Name' boxers and legends only come from USA!!? typical of the yanks arrogance to think that all the top boxers are american, have they checked the list of champions lately? there seems to be a lot of Eastern Europeans and South Americans, oh yeah and a few Brits for good measure, the only American boxer I feel is justified in being called a legend is Mayweather, BHOP has been sparked,Taylor has been sparked,Tarver has been sparked and Pavlik couldn't live with Calzaghe as he's too one dimensional, not only that but Kessler would KO Pavlik, Taylor and BHOP and look what Calzaghe done to him! Americans seem to think they invented the sport!

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comment by SONNYD (U4096538)

posted Feb 25, 2008

Sorry BHOP hasn't been KOd yet, I was jumping the gun, what I meant is he WILL be KOd! He went the distance in his last fight against a welterweight and most of his fights over the last few years have gone the distance, he can't dig and yeah he will get whooped by a white boy!

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comment by jamie-jcb (U9681422)

posted Feb 25, 2008

Please people ehre that don't watch or like boxing just have a look at yourselfs.

Calzaghe has beaten everyone infront of him because that is all there was. everytime he went for a big fight the guys had just been beaten or were refusing to come to wales.

He is the champ that people were afriad to go and fight...so much so that hopkins turned down a previous fight in cardiff some years back.

hopkins is still a great fighter end of, if you don't follow boxing then you wouldn't know because he only fights in america so you can only find these results out by surfing on the net.

as for jones saying he wants to fight. look what he did to felix trinidad...true trinidad is also older but he has always been a clever boxer and not a hard hitter and u never lose the mindset and how to fight...so jones is also class.

please if you don't follow boxing then don't comment, you don't know what you're talking about.

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comment by MUFC_RED_ARMY (U10077104)

posted Feb 26, 2008

I want Joe to KTFO Popkins then finish his career by outclassing Roy Jones Jr, a modern Great. Yes, he was past his best when being sparked out by a joke of a boxer in Tarver and a journeyman like Glen Johnson, but he still oozes class, more so than Popkins I believe. After his schooling of Tito Trinidad I believe he's back in form, even though he's not the boxer he was back in '93/'94 when he gave Toney and Popkins beatings or even the boxer he was back in 2002 when he stopped Clinton Woods who I rate highly...

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comment by Joe - Blue is the colour! (U11180179)

posted Mar 12, 2008

Come on Calzaghe!!!

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comment by Mr Claret (U7919003)

posted Mar 24, 2008

In words similar to Hopkins which the BBC show im sure no blackboy could beat JC

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