By William Mackay: Former WBA/WBC/WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KO’s) has once again ended speculation about him making a comeback by saying he doesn’t plan on attempting to come out of his two-year retirement to fight Bernard Hopkins (51-5-1, 32 KO’s), who Calzaghe already outpointed by a 12 round split decision in April 2008. In an article Walesonline.co.uk, Calzahge, 38, had this to say about coming back:
“I am retired, simple as that. There has been a lot of speculation about me coming back, when I said I was retiring, I meant it. I am happy retired. I would be a fool to come back now. I am 38 and I am enjoying my time with my family, my kids. That’s it definitely.“
In talking about Hopkins, Calzaghe said “He’s a 45-year-old man who doesn’t bring anything to the table, so he can keep on as he likes. I suppose he’s going to do that just because he lost.”
Hopkins has been eager to avenge his defeat to Calzaghe. At 45, Hopkins’ opportunities for big money fights seem to be narrowing as there’s few stars in the light heavyweight division for him to fight and if he wants to make a move down to the super middleweight division and try his luck against the top fighters in that division like Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell, Lucian Bute, Mikkel Kessler and Carl Froch. The problem for Hopkins is that only one of those fighters is currently available, Bute but he’s at the top of his game and very tough to beat right now.
Calzaghe would likely stand to gain very little to make a comeback fight against Hopkins at this point, because Hopkins hasn’t been brining in huge numbers for any of his recent fights. A Calzaghe-Hopkins rematch wouldn’t likely be a huge mega fight or anything approaching that, which is why if Calzaghe did comeback, he would probably be much better off fighting one of the top super middleweights or someone like Chad Dawson if he wanted to get a good payday and win respect from the hardcore boxing fans rather than fight a guy that he already beat. That would be a regressive move on Calzaghe’s part, even though we have some of the more popular fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez fighting a pointless rematch against Juan Diaz, whom he already destroyed last year, and Miguel Cotto a possibility for a rematch against Manny Pacquiao.
Calzaghe got out of boxing at the exact right time just when the talented super middleweight stars Dirrell, Ward, and Bute began to mature. If Calzaghe had stuck around, he would have found himself in great danger of getting beaten by all of them, because these guys are extra special and would have likely handled every opponent that Calzaghe fought during his career with ease.
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