Calzaghe tried to fight Hopkins in the early 2000's

atsch

 

I'd disagree on this. I think they both had plenty of guys who would have fought them. Its just that in the prime years they didn't fight guyw with name recognition.

I think what separates the 2 is that Hopkins, even though he was well past his prime, continued to fight, did get the marquee names in the ring and beat many of them. That is how he solidified his legacy while Calzaghe's is still in question. And he continues to fight to this day, although after Pavlik, I don't think the big challenges will be on his calendar.

 

but who was he supposed to face?

 

Hopkins couldn't draw flies at that time if he'd been covered in honey. He had ONE big payday,Tito, and even there, he had the smaller share of that purse. (Tito got $9M, Hopkins got $2.5M)

No. He was very popular in his home country and nearly unknown in the US. That doesn't translate into UNPOPULAR.





So Bernard passed up $3M dollars (a career high payday at the time) because Joe was not a worthy opponent ?

And instead, fought the world famous Mourade Hakkar ?

For $1.1M ?


You make a lot of sense.

 

What kind of ignorant lowdown question is that ?

Are you trying to force folks to come up with facts ?

 

theres no excuse for hopkins.

he could have had a career high payday in 2002 of $3m against calzaghe but he chose to fight a bum for $1m.

he knew calzaghe was big risk and he tried to squeeze extra reward.

95% of americans have been brainwahed by HBO and SHOWTIME. they don't get the real picture at all about what goes on in the 'WORLD' of boxing, they only discuss what their tv company wants them too, like guinea pigs.

5% of americans do know what goes off in the world of boxing. to those people i apologize.

 

lol. Joe had to confront Hopkins in front of the media and get racially abused for it too before Hopkins finally stepped into the ring with him.

 

Let me clarify myself. I am only talking about each fighters respective reigns at middle and supermiddle. Obviously they both went on to fight some big names but Hopkins prior to Tito couldn't even get the other title holders to fight him and same situation with Calzaghe before Lacy.

Hopkins gets accused for avoiding everyone from Toney to Jones while Calzaghe gets accused of avoiding Jones and Ottke.

I would be interested in what big names Hopkins could have fought other than Jones Jr and Calzaghe because other than that nobody else wanted to know for most of his career prior to Tito.

I agree about Calzaghe's legacy. Lacy and Kessler haven't done much since losing to Joe and Hopkins and Jones were both past their best.

 

Early 2000 it was all about Tocker Pudwil
and Calzaghe ****ed his **** up

 

That's because it's all situation based and business related, it has nothing to do with courage, if courage was in question these guys wouldn't be in this sport. The situation for Hopkins back then was far better and he had far more options than Calzaghe so he could have priced his self out for possibly easier more popular opponents for the same amount of money or slightly less or even more. That's what this is all about, it has nothing to do with 1983 or 2010. Since you care so much that's what my comment was referred to.

 

Nobody is questioning Hopkins' courage, then or since.

But the fact remains that Calzaghe would have been a better fight at the time Bernard passed on it, than the one he actually took, Hakkar for a third of what he would have made, fighting Calzaghe in Philadelphia or New York.


Same situation with Jones.

He had many opportunities to make a rematch with Jones, but he wouldn't settle for a 40-60 split, even though he needed the fight and Jones didn't, having already beaten him.

Not courage. Greed.

Either way, It was Bernard's fault that he didn't fight a prime Jones and a prime Calzaghe when he himself was in his prime.

 

Was this apart of the Showtime deal or a single fight ?

 

Fact is Hopkins agreed to the fight for 3mil, then backed out by demanding double the money. He then took a fight for a fraction of that price (300k or something). It wasn't a big fight or a high-paying fight. Bottom line is that Hopkins would have gotten way more credibility, money, and exposure for fighting Calzaghe, but he chose to fight a nobody and get almost nothing rather than risk a loss. Hopkins didn't take the fight because he didn't want to lose to a guy nobody had ever heard of. Simple as that. It's good business, but if that isn't ducking then I don't know what is.

Calzaghe spent 1997-2006 calling out Ottke, Beyer, Lucas, etc. He couldn't get any of the fights he wanted, so he took to beating up his mandatories (and especially guys who had just recently challenged one of the titleholders) nd hoping people would notice.

The ONLY fighter you can say Calzaghe might have ducked was Glen Johnson, and that's still a pretty shaky allegation. It was a Williams vs. Pavlik type of situation--Calzaghe repeatedly delayed the fight due to injuries, and Johnson got pissed off and decided to look elsewhere.

Bottom line--the people that say Calzaghe spent his career hiding and ducking are either uninformed or just being stupid. The people who say Hopkins is a legend who wasn't afraid of anyone are likewise incorrect. Let's be fair to these guys--they're great fighters who could have fought better opposition but didn't, due to a combination of factors that they may not have had a lot of control over. I respect them for their abilities, not simply their resumes.

 

You might want to edit that to "Calzaghe".

If there was no greed and money involved in this sport these guys would find another profession.

 

Nonsense. Hopkins was the one that provoked him by constantly bringing him up and calling him out at the time, Calzaghe just did the same because they knew a fight could finally be negotiated. Hopkins was the one who mentioned Calzaghe immediately after defeatng Wright and he was the one to send his people to start negotiations to make this fight.