Super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe has been busily attempting to arrange a potential mega-fight with light heavyweight Bernard Hopkins, but up to this point he’s had little luck for his efforts. The two met recently in a heated exchanged in which Hopkins said “I would never let a white boy beat me.” During that discussion, however, Calzaghe, 35, lucked afraid of Hopkins, as if he were afraid that he would reach out and tag him with a big shot. I know fear when I see it, and Calzaghe looked almost petrified of Hopkins as he walked up on Calzaghe and sternly told him that he would never lose to a white boy.
For his part, Calzaghe looked both scared and at a loss for words, like he had been told off by the 42 year-old Hopkins. The closest things I’ve seen to seeing a fighter as intimidated as Calzaghe looked was when I saw Larry Holmes walk up on Gerry Cooney before their bout and give him a few choice words. Calzaghe, while he may be saying that he feels that he can beat Hopkins, he looks like he doesn’t believe his words. Hopkins seems to have already won the war of intimidation with Calzaghe after that episode, and I can’t see it being any other way in future meetings.
Before this, I felt that Calzaghe would beat Hopkins, but now that they’ve met, I see Hopkins dominating him just as easily as he did Antonio Tarver and Winky Wright. I think Hopkins already has Calzaghe afraid, and should they meet, I expect Hopkins to control how Calzaghe fights, essentially forcing him to fight on the inside where Hopkins is a master at counter punching. Should Calzaghe lose to Hopkins, I see this as a catastrophic loss for him, because of the fact that he’d be losing to a fighter in his 40s. Hopefully, Calzaghe has a change of heart and decides on another opponent because Hopkins is all wrong for him.
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