By Dave Lahr: Joe Calzaghe could possibly be looking at fighting one more time against either Bernard Hopkins, Chad Dawson or Winky Wright at the Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. According to The Telegraph, Calzaghe has “dreams” of fighting at the Millennium Stadium, presumably because he wants to fight in front of a huge audience which would likely be as large as 60,000.
His choice of opponents, according to a source from The Telegraph – Dawson, Hopkins and Wright – is pretty daring of him, because in the case of Hopkins and Dawson, they’re highly talented and could possibly beat him and ruin Calzaghe dream or retiring undefeated. Calzaghe has already defeated Hopkins, beating him by a 12-round split decision in Las Vegas on in April 19, 2008.
Getting the win was a feather in Calzaghe’s cap, but unfortunately for him, many American fans felt that Hopkins had done enough to get the win and should have rightfully been awarded the decision. The ammunition for this opinion was based Hopkins’ first round knockdown of Calzaghe and his control over the fight in the first six rounds. Understandably, Hopkins has been at Calzaghe’s heels ever since then, calling him out for a rematch.
Dawson would be the perfect opponent for Calzaghe to end his career against. However, he’s probably a lot more dangerous than either Hopkins and Wright, which makes me wonder whether Calzaghe would be willing to take this fight. Dawson is not only taller than Wright and Hopkins but also faster and more powerful. He’d be a huge test for Calzaghe and unless Joe fights at his best, he has a good chance of being blown out of the water by Dawson.
Hopkins would be a mildly interesting opponent due to his recent shocking 12-round decision win over Kelly Pavlik, but it’s doubtful that the fans would want to see Calzaghe go over old ground so soon. The previous fight was painfully boring to watch with Hopkins clinching all the time, going down at the drop of a hat for low blows and taking a ton of time to start fighting again afterwards.
Part of the reason that Calzaghe had so much trouble with him was his spoiling practices, which turned the fight into a punch and grab stalling type fight, and I see the rematch probably being much the same.
Wright, 37, isn’t quite as appealing as Dawson and Hopkins, especially when you look at the fact that Wright hasn’t fought in a year and half since losing a one-sided 12-round decision to Hopkins in July 2007.
If Calzaghe is looking to fight Hopkins’ leftovers, then, yes, this would be a fabulous fight and one probably guaranteed to bore most people foolish enough to watch it. It certainly would be a technical fight with Wright and Calzaghe both exchanging a lot of jabs with one another but it would probably leave a lot of people feeling disappointed.
Besides, Wright has a fight with Paul Williams in April and chances are Wright will lose that fight, making a fight with Calzaghe very unlikely unless Joe wants to fight someone that has been beaten twice consecutively. I wouldn’t rule that out given his choice of opponents over the course of his career, but hopefully he wouldn’t have a tin ear when it comes to the negative feedback he’d get from boxing fans should he decide on fighting Wright instead of Hopkins and Dawson.
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