By Chris Stein: Undefeated Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) survived a 1st round knockdown tonight to come back and pound out a 12-round split decision over former middleweight/light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (48-5, 32 KOs) at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Beyond the first round, there was little suspense in the fight for Hopkins, 43, quickly adopted the boring tried but true grappling/clinching style of former heavyweight champion John Ruiz, as Hopkins slowed the fight to a crawl with his two punches followed by a clinch style of fighting.

It was no match for Calzaghe’s speed and combinations, though Hopkins likely knew that he had no chance other than to take the fight into a boring wrestling match in order to have any kind of chance. The final scores of the fight were 114-113 for Hopkins, and 115-112 & 116-111 for Calzaghe. The 114-113 score was laughable, because Hopkins did little in the fight other than pot shotting and dulling up the bout, and couldn’t stand up to Calzaghe when the two stood at center ring. Te more truer score was the 116-111, but even that was being far to generous to Hopkins, who seemed to feign being hurt by low blows in the fight, as if looking for a hand out from the referee Joe Cortez, a referee noted for penalizing fighters for fouls. Read more

By Dan Ambrose: Number #3 ranked IBF cruiserweight contender Tomasz Adamek (34-1, 22 KOs) was far too fast for the former undisputed cruiserweight champion O’Neil Bell (26-4-1, 24 KOs) tonight, stopping him when the 35 year-old Bell failed to come out for the 8th round at the Spodek, in Katowice, Poland.. Bell was down in the 1st round, having been hit with a sharp left hand from Adamek. The punch appeared to have caught Bell off guard as he was coming in. However, it seemed to give an indication of how things would go for Bell, who was simply too slow to compete with the quicker, more skilled former light heavyweight champion Adamek. Read more

By Peter Kurth: If you’re all that familiar with Bernard Hopkins (48-4, 32 KOs) and know how he typically fights, you already know that this Saturday’s fight with undefeated super middleweight Joe Calzaghe (44-0, 32 KOs) is going to be bloody and filled with a certain amount of fouls. That, I’m afraid, is almost a given. The question is how many and whether the fouls will have an effect on the mindset of the 36 year-old Calzaghe. On the whole, I fully expect Calzaghe to be cut in the first three to four rounds, likely a bad cut from either a head butt or an elbow.

The cut, especially occurring so early in the fight, will put Calzaghe into a position where he will very likely have to either fight harder, as he attempts to build up a lead in order to be ahead in case the fight is stopped prematurely due to the severity of the cut or have the opposite effect, where Calzaghe backs off to try and protect the cut. Read more

By Eric Thomas: Former cruiserweight WBA/WBC/IBF cruiserweight champion O’Neil Bell (26-2-1, 24 KOs) will return to the ring tomorrow night after a year layoff to go up against former WBC light heavyweight champion Tomasz Adamek (33-1, 22 KOs) in a IBF cruiserweight title eliminator at the Spodek, in Katowice, Poland. You got to feel for Bell, 34, who lost his WBA & WBC cruiserweight titles last year in a questionable decision to Jean-Marc Mormeck in France. In watching the fight, there was no possible way that Mormeck could have won the fight, and it appeared that Bell had won the fight easily with at least two-three rounds to spare.

However, the fight was held in Mormeck’s native France, so it came to no surprise that Bell would come out short on the stick if the fight was even slightly close. It wasn’t close, yet Bell lost anyway. Now, for the second time Bell is going to tempt fate, this time by traveling to Poland where he will be fighting in the 31 year-old Polish Adamek’s back yard. Of course, the same things apply to this bout as did Bell’s previous fight, in that he’ll have to either knock Adamek out or win pretty much every round of the fight if he wants to come out on top. Read more

By Scott Gilfoid: IBF light heavyweight champion Clinton Woods (41-4-1, 24 KOs) lost a lot more than his title last Saturday night in a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision loss to challenger Antonio Tarver, he also lost a lot of respect from many fans in the boxing community along with a potential huge paying bout with the undefeated super middleweight star Joe Calzaghe, who had been discussing the idea of fighting Woods next after Calzaghe got through with his bout with Bernard Hopkins. Now, however, Woods not only loses that option but also his title to boot. At 35, Woods couldn’t have picked a worse time to put on an absolutely dreadful performance in the ring.

It was especially strange because Woods, normally an active fighter who throws lots of punches in his bouts, walked around as if he was star struck, seeming to lack to will to pull the trigger on his punches no matter how much his corner urged him to do it. As things are now, Woods finds himself in the predicament of having to work his way back into a title shot which isn’t going to happen anytime soon. None of the current light heavyweight champions have any reason to give him a shot at one of their titles, meaning that he’s going to have to bide his time for a year, possibly longer and work his way back up to a title match. Read more

By Jack Kurr: WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-1, 23 KOs) recently advised David Haye (21-1, 20 KOs) to take things slow while climbing the latter in the heavyweight division, saying to Santasports writer Spencer Fearon, “It [the heavyweight division] is not a place for kids…The people who jump up from cruiserweight to heavyweight, I will send them back.” Peter, 27, knows from what he speaks as he twice defeated James Toney, another cruiserweight who attempted to make a go at it in the heavyweight division.

Like Toney, Haye, 27, has appeared in to be in a rush since making his intentions public about wanting to move up to the heavyweight division shortly after his 2nd round TKO of Enzo Maccarinelli on March 8th. Haye, a fighter that doesn’t shy away from making bold comments in the media, immediately called out IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, saying he has “No chin” and fought in an “embarrassing” fashion in his recent title bout against then WBO heavyweight champion Sultan Ibragimov. The comments from Haye failed to initiate much of a reaction from Klitschko, who appeared mildly amused and responded that Haye was making noise in the media to bring attention to himself. Read more

By Michael Lieberman: Former two-time heavyweight champion Chris Byrd (40-4-1, 21 KOs), now campaigning as a light heavyweight, is reportedly interested in a fight with undefeated super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe according to the British Boxing News website. Byrd, 37, recently lost to heavyweight contender Alexander Povetkin by a 11th round TKO on October 27th, in the IBF heavyweight tournament to pick the mandatory challenger for IBF champion Wladimir Klitschko, who Byrd has previously lost twice to, losing his WBO and IBF heavyweight titles. Rather than attempting to work his way back up, Byrd opted to move down in weight to the 175 lb. light heavyweight division, completely skipping the cruiserweight division in the process.

Perhaps knowing that his speed isn’t what it used to be, Byrd has decided on fighting at the much smaller weight of 175, that way he wouldn’t have to deal with some of the powerful cruiserweights, some of which can punch as hard as most heavyweights. As for his hopes of a bout with the 36 year-old Calzaghe, this would seem to be a long shot, due to Calzaghe stating that he wants to wrap up his career. Read more

By Robert Cavender: Undefeated middleweight prospect Peter Quillin (18-0, 14 KOs) won a lopsided 10-round unanimous decision over three-time middleweight championship challenger Antwun Echols (31-8-4, 27 KOs) at the Hammerstein Ballrom, in New York City, New York, on Wednesday night. The final judges’ scores were 99-91, 98-92 and 98-91, all for Quillin. In an earlier bout, undefeated heavyweight prospect Chazz Witherspoon (23-0, 15 KOs), the 2nd cousin of former heavyweight champion Tim Witherspoon, defeated journeyman fighter Domonic Jenkins (13-8-1, 6 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision.

Quillin, 24, used his superior power and size to dominate the smaller, less skilled Echols in the process of pounding out a 10-round decision. In fact, Quillin dominated Echols with ease, making him seem like a much smaller and weaker puncher in the process. It was unusual seeing Echols in with a fighter with more power than him, and the effect it had on him was to pretty much shut down his offense for most of the bout. Indeed, only in rare situations did Echols reveal his power and by even then it was late in the fight when he was well behind in the scoring. Read more

There is no rest for the ‘Road Warrior’. Just a week after his controversial decision loss against Chad Dawson, the People’s Light Heavyweight Champion will travel to Bucharest, Romania to serve as color commentator for the interim WBC light heavyweight championship bout between unbeaten warriors Adrian Diaconu and Chris Henry. Read more

By Scott Gilfoid: This Saturday night unbeaten super middleweight Joe Calzaghe (44-0, 32 KOs) will meet up with ring great Bernard Hopkins (48-4-1, 32 KOs) at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada. For the most part, many of the boxing experts have been predicting that the 36 year-old Calzaghe will be able to overwhelm Hopkins with his 1000 punch per bout output, which on the surface, is a total that Hopkins can never come close to matching even in the prime of his career. Yes, and of course they’d be right about Hopkins not being able to match that kind of output with his own punches.

Strange, I’ve never seen the fight going this way. But then, maybe I’m a little more familiar with Hopkins style of fighting than many of the so-called ring experts. I think for most of the boxing experts, they can’t get away from thinking in terms of Calzaghe’s offensive style of fighting, forgetting altogether how Hopkins typical fights. Quite simply, Hopkins has never been in a bout in which he allowed a faster opponent to dominate him from the outside with flurries like Calzaghe hopes to use on him on Saturday night. On the whole, Hopkins adapts his style against speedy types like Calzaghe, taking the fight to the inside and choosing to stay there, where he grits it out with his expert infighting. Read more

By Erik Schmidt: After three years away from the boxing ring, former light welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu (31-2, 25 KOs) reportedly told the Australian Today newspaper that there’s a “40 % chance” of him returning to the ring, “for the right deal.” Obviously, this would mean a big-name start, someone like former light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton, who sent Tszyu into his three year absence from the ring with a 11th round stoppage in June 2005.

It’s doubtful, however, that Hatton would be interested in another bout with Tszyu, considering that Hatton has now become one of the most popular fighters in boxing after his recent loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and doesn’t need another fight with the 38 year-old Tszyu in order to make big money. It was perhaps a big mistake for Tszyu to walk from boxing for such a long period of time, even if he didn’t officially announce his retirement, for it probably hasn’t increased his standing among fans, since the new fans won’t have any memory of ever having seen him fight and the old ones likely have forgotten about him. Read more

By Nate Anderson: After waiting close to two years for the rematch to occur, knockout artist Edison Miranda (30-2, 26 KOs) and middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (26-0, 21 KOs) will meet to settle the score in a fight that will take place in the United States, at a weight of 166 lbs rather than the middleweight limit of 160 lbs. Their first fight, fought on September 23rd 2006, was one of the most exciting fights in memory, with both fighters trading tremendous shots and hurting each other several times in the fight. Read more

By Aaron Klein: Undefeated super middleweight Joe Calzaghe (44-0, 32 KOs) will be making his first appearance fighting in the United States on Saturday night when he takes on light heavyweight Bernard Hopkins (48-4-1, 32 KOs) at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada. This excitement for this fight has been building up for three months now and most of the comments from both fighters are getting a little stale by now, with both of them merely repeating the same old phrases that they’ve been saying for months. Hopkins, now 43, the master of psychological warfare, has made most of the more interesting comments, yet none of them have seemed to have the same effect on Calzaghe as they did in previous pre-fight trash talking with fighters like Antonio Tarver and Felix Trinidad, who seemed uncomfortable at times with Hopkins verbal attacks.

Calzaghe, however, seems to understand what Hopkins is attempting to do, knowing that he’s counting on it getting to Calzaghe and maybe throwing him off his game a bit. However, Calzaghe is a different fighter than Winky Wright, Tarver and Trinidad, in that he hasn’t learned to lose yet, while at the same time he has been the absolutely best fighter in the super middleweight division for a decade now. Read more

By Peter Kurth: This last weekend was particularly hard on former IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (29-2, 27 KOs) and former star from The Contender Alfonso Gomez (18-4-2, 8 KOs), both of which were destroyed by their opponents Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito.

Of the two, Gomez took the worse beating, but then again, he was never excepted to be very competitive in the first place, having been brought in largely for an easy payday for the WBA welterweight champion Cotto. Certainly Cotto deserved an easy fight after having fought Zab Judah and Shane Mosley in back to back fights, but there was hope by some that Gomez might have a sliver of a chance against Cotto. Read more

By Nate Anderson: After waiting for eons for WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) to show any interest in fighting Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs), it finally looks as if it’s about to come about after Antonio’s 6th round destruction of IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron. Both fighters are looking for the fight to occur on January 26th, at Madison Square Garden, in New York. However, before it can happen, Margarito, 30, may have to defend his newly won title against the #1 challenger in the IBF, Joshua Clottey. Margarito is no stranger to Clottey, having struggled to beat him by a 12-round unanimous decision in December 2006.

Obviously, this is a fight that Maragarito would prefer not to have to fight if at all possible. Clottey fought him very closely, especially in the first half of the fight where he was beating Margarito and making him look slow. According to the latest news, promoter Bob Arum is counting on Margarito giving up his IBF belt so that he could fight Cotto for his WBA welterweight belt. In doing so, Margarito could avoid what would likely be a very tough fight with Clottey, one in which there would be no guarantee of certainty that he would emerge the victor or uninjured, for that matter. Read more

HBO Sports presents a light heavyweight fight six years in the making when WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: BERNARD HOPKINS VS. JOE CALZAGHE is seen live SATURDAY, APRIL 19 (9:45 p.m. ET/6:45 p.m. PT) from The Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, exclusively on HBO. The WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING team of Jim Lampley, Max Kellerman and Emanuel Steward will be ringside for the event, which will be presented in HDTV and in Spanish on HBO Latino.

Over the course of his 20-year career, Philadelphia’s Bernard Hopkins (48-4-1, 32 KOs) has established himself as one of the premier fighters of his era and one of the greatest middleweight champions of all time. After building a reputation on stellar performances against premium competition like Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya, Hopkins cemented his legacy with a stunning victory over reigning champion Antonio Tarver in June 2006 in his first fight at light heavyweight. Following a short retirement, Hopkins returned to the ring last July, scoring a convincing victory over former 154-pound champion Ronald “Winky” Wright in his second light heavyweight bout. This bout marks the 43-year-old Hopkins’ 16th appearance on HBO. Read more

By Team Kessler: Now we know why the panther is an endangered species. A mere kitten has just chased Edison “La Pantera” Miranda up a tree. The “kitten” is former and future world super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler. To put it in boxing language, Leon Margules, head of Seminole Warriors Boxing has just informed HBO executives that he is “not interested” in having Miranda fight former WBA and WBC champion Kessler on June 21 despite the fact that Kessler readily agreed to holding the fight for the soon to be vacated WBA super middleweight title at the Warriors Arena in Hollywood, Florida. Read more

By Dan Ambrose: Former light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver (27-4, 19 KOs) had an easy time defeating IBF light heavyweight champion Clinton Woods (41-4-1, 24 KOs) by a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the St. Pete. Times Forum, in Tampa, Florida. Woods, 35, had been predicted by many ring experts to defeat the 39 year-old Tarver, who had been showing signs of slowing down in his last three fights. However, Woods seemed to chock under the bright lights of the U.S, in that he did next to nothing until he was well behind in the fight and in need of a knockout, not just points.

Woods, from England, is known for throwing lots of punches every round and generally outworking his opponents. Against Tarver, however, Woods looked terrified, as if he was afraid to let his hands go for fear that he’d get hit with something big from Tarver. It’s strange that Woods would be afraid of Tarver, since he’s not that big of a puncher and isn’t known for having tremendous power in his punches. Whatever the case, Woods ended up losing by landslide by the scores of 119-109, 117-111 and 116-112. Read more

By Eric Thomas: Undefeated WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (26-0, 17 KOs) defeated challenger Glen Johnson (47-12-2, 32 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday night, at the St. Pete Times Forum, in Tampa, Florida. The final judges’ scores were 116-112, 116-112 and 116-112. Though the 39 year-old Johnson was unhappy afterwards, feeling as if he had won the fight, it really wasn’t that close of a fight at all. I had Dawson winning quite easily nine rounds to three, beating the slow, economical-punching Johnson with ease. The Tampa crowd, clearly favoring their hometown favorite, Johnson, made it seem as if the fight was closer than it really was by screaming every time Johnson would land a punch. Read more

By Matt Yanofsky: Undefeated WBC light heavyweight champion “Bad” Chad Dawson improved to 26-0 (17 KO’s) after a hard fought unanimous decision over 2004 fighter of the year Glen Johnson 47-12-2 (32 KO’s). Dawson controlled the first two rounds by landing quick accurate shots to the head of his opponent, who only landed a few good punches in total over the first two stanzas. Dawson went right back to work until the middle of the third when Johnson began to increase his work rate which gave Dawson trouble as his high volume of punches from close range was effective. Read more