http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=2678910 Hopkins puts forth challenge to Calzaghe's title Bernard Hopkins apparently has Plan B should he not be able to nail down a heavyweight title fight against Oleg Maskaev. If a fight with Maskaev does not materialize, Hopkins said he would turn his sights on Joe Calzaghe, the super middleweight champion, to prevent the Welshman from exceeding his string of title defenses. On Oct. 18, ESPN.com first reported Hopkins' desire to come out of retirement to fight Maskaev, who scored a 12th-round TKO of Hasim Rahman on Aug. 12 to claim the WBC heavyweight title. Maskaev will make his first title defense against Peter Okhello in Moscow on Dec. 10. Hopkins, a longtime middleweight champion, retired as light heavyweight champ after defeating Antonio Tarver on June 10. Four months later, he told ESPN.com of his preference to fight Maskaev over Calzaghe. "It's not that Calzaghe is not worthy of the fight. He is. He has become a major player in boxing," Hopkins said at the time. "But to me, it's going backwards. That's not a bigger fight than me beating the heavyweight champ of the world. I cannot get the satisfaction or gratification fighting Calzaghe. I would be the underdog against Maskaev, but not necessarily against Calzaghe. I just don't see that fight being as big as a Maskaev fight." Calzaghe, however, has 19 successful title defenses of his own, and is in a position to match Hopkins in the history books. Hopkins successfully defended his middleweight title a record 20 times between 1995 and 2005, before losing a pair of controversial decisions to current champion Jermain Taylor. Calzaghe held a news conference in New York on Tuesday to announce a March 3 defense of his belt against Peter Manfredo Jr. If victorious, he would equal Hopkins' tally of 20 successful defenses. "If I can't make my history, then I can stop him making his history," Hopkins said. Calzaghe had previously stated an interest in the fight, but responded differently when informed of Hopkins' challenge. "If Bernard Hopkins doesn't want me to break his title-defense record, then he should have fought me when he had the chance years ago," Calzaghe said. "There are a lot of great and exciting fights out there for me, but the only one that means anything to me right now is Peter Manfredo Jr. because there are no other fights without beating him. But I will say this, I intend to break Bernard's record, with or without him." Hopkins insisted a fight with him would enable either Calzaghe or Maskaev to make a mark on the sport. "Anyone can beat a champion," he said. "Very few can beat a legend." This would be a really fun fight to watch. I know a lot of ppl think hopkins is a boring fighter, but i love the guy. He's very crafty veteran. i think he's fun to watch....the story line would be great. an athlete coming back to try to prevent someone trying to break his record. you gotta love that.
hopkins is so much fun to watch. you cant hit the guy!!! i'll take counter punching and technique over to guys brawling any day of the week
I've been watching Hopkins since the late 90's, he used to have a great offensive arsenal but now he's slowed down quite a bit with age. He's very hard to hit because he adapted the shoulder roll used by James Toney and Floyd Mayweather which Toney learned from watching tapes of Jersey Joe Walcott, Ezzard Charles and Bob Johnson. But now Hopkins tends to throw one punch at a time for the most part. I just wish against Taylor he got started earlier, he dominated when he felt like it.
I meant to say Harold Johnson. And if you remember Bonecrusher is the nickname of the old heavyweight James "Bonecrusher" Smith. Hopkins is good but he's just not entertaining anymore I almost fell asleep during his fight against Tarver but I switched it to Cotto-Malignaggi instead.
