Pride of Whales to Fight B-Hop?

By Dave “Large” Larzelere
The Welsh super middleweight champion and all-around master of the fistic arts, Joe Calzaghe, is hinting these days that he will retire after one more big fight. Of course, it is widely believed that this fight will be a spring or summer of 2008 bout against the 42-year-old light-heavyweight lineal champion Bernard Hopkins.
Former middleweight champ Jermain Taylor and perpetual bridesmaid Winky Wright also have expressed interest in the Calzaghe sweepstakes, but the Pride of Wales has his sights set on Bhop, as evidenced by their racially inflected gabfest at the Mayweather/Hatton weigh-in circus:

I can only imagine that Calzaghe’s fixation on the Executioner stems from the fact that he’s grossly over-estimating Bernard’s drawing power here in the States. As some of you may recall (although not many of you, I would imagine) Bernard fought Winky this past July in a bout that did weak PPV numbers and essentially was forgotten about ten minutes after the final bell. Apparently alluding to a potential showdown with Winky, Calzaghe recently referred to his ugly foul-fest last October against Sakio Bika (yes, that Sakio Bika) and said, “I would prefer to give up my belts than take another fight like that.â€
So why on earth does he think a fight with Winky would be any more awkward and stylistically unpleasant than a fight with Bernard? It’s baffling to me. Bernard is the true Minister of Dirty Tricks, the most awkward, elusive, annoying guy to fight on the big-time boxing scene for the last 15 years now. Winky is a defensive specialist, no doubt, and a southpaw to boot, but he opens up and lets his hands go when he feels it’s to his advantage. His slugfest with Jermain provided ample evidence of that. For my money, Calzaghe/Wright is an infinitely better bout than Calzaghe/Hopkins, although neither of them really floats my boat. If I were Calzaghe, I would wait around for that most unfriendly ghost, Kelly Pavlik, for a fight at 168 in the summer of ’08.
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