By Scott Gilfoid: 46-year-old Bernard Hopkins thinks that he’s what drove former super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe to retirement in 2008 after giving Calzaghe all he could handle in a 12 round split decision loss for Hopkins in April 2008. A lot of boxing fans, including myself, saw Hopkins winning the fight based on his much cleaner shots.

The fight reminded me a lot of the Matthew Macklin vs. Felix Sturm fight, where Macklin landed a lot of weak slapping punches while Sturm drilled him with the much stronger power shots over and over. The stronger Hopkins landed the harder shots all night long and valiantly fought the younger Calzaghe tooth and nail for pride, appearing to win the fight. However, it wasn’t to be.

The three judges split in their scoring with two of them scoring it for Calzaghe by the scores of 115-112 and 116-111, and the third giving it to Hopkins by the score of 114-113. I had Hopkins winning by a comfortable margin based on his superior skills, power and speed. Yes, speed. Hopkins was the faster guy on that night, and knocked Calzaghe on his backside in the 1st round.

Here is what Hopkins said about Calzaghe at Wales Online: “Joe retired because the world wanted to see a rematch and he didn’t want want one. It was a controversial split decision. When those things happen and the media feels it’s legit, then why not fight again? Clear it up…The thought of fighting Bernard a second time was too great a weight for Joe to bear.”

I totally agree with Hopkins. I think Calzaghe got the fear in him and didn’t want anymore of what Hopkins was dishing out to him.