Calzaghe blasts Hopkins offer

JOE Calzaghe last night revealed why he turned down a dream date with Bernard Hopkins.

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The Welsh hero has received a firm offer to make his American debut against boxing superstar Hopkins – but Calzaghe has rejected the bid from Golden Boy Promotions, owned by boxing icon Oscar De La Hoya, as it didn’t make ‘business sense’.

Calzaghe claims Hopkins’ offer was less than his £2m career-high payday from defeating Mikkel Kessler to become undisputed super-middleweight king in Cardiff last month.

But world No 1 Floyd Mayweather has told Calzaghe to accept the Hopkins challenge at any price as the Welshman is the one that needs to build a reputation in big-bucks America, not Hopkins.

Unbeaten Calzaghe admitted: “I’ve had an offer from Golden Boy to fight Hopkins.

“But, to be honest, the offer wasn’t as much as I got for the Kessler fight so from a business point of view the deal doesn’t make sense for me. Hopkins must really convince me with hard cash that he really wants this fight because I’m not sure he does.”

Golden Boy chief De La Hoya himself acknowledged: “We all know that Calzaghe is a great and tremendous champion.”

American Mayweather – regarded as the world’s top pound-for-pound fighter – has however warned Calzaghe that he needs 42-year-old Hopkins in the lucrative American market more than the established ‘Executioner’ needs Calzaghe.

“Both Hopkins and Calzaghe are great fighters,” said Mayweather, preparing for his own transatlantic tear-up with Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas on Saturday.

“But Calzaghe and the British boxing fans want to see it more than Hopkins and the American fans. So for that reason Calzaghe should facilitate Hopkins at any cost. It would be a great match-up, another UK versus the US contest, and I’m sure both guys will want to bring their best.”

Hopkins’ offer to the world’s longest reigning world champion was for a summer showdown, probably in July, at light-heavyweight but Calzaghe’s promoter Frank Warren is still locked in talks with Golden Boy hoping to negotiate a ‘fair deal’ for his client.

“I am negotiating very hard and I believe the fight will happen,” said Warren, who will step aside to enable Golden Boy solely to promote any Hopkins v Calzaghe show.

“The price must be right. Boxing is a business as well as a sport.”

Calzaghe is understandably confident that mega-rich American TV giants will back such a super-fight as his two unification scraps in this country against Jeff Lacy last year and Kessler have been screened live in the United States.

“Hopkins and I are two of the biggest names in boxing at the moment,” says Welsh-Italian Calzaghe.

“Hopkins is my No 1 target but the numbers must add up before I agree anything.

“I’m very optimistic it’ll happen because while Hopkins is a big name, he has nowhere else to go but fight me.

“Frank said he’s more than happy to pay Hopkins the same as he offered me to come fight over here, but he’s a home-boy and won’t leave America, so that’s a non-starter.

“I’d love to fight Hopkins in New York, at the Yankee Stadium or Madison Square Gardens, and with the number of British ex-pats and Italian Americans in New York I’d attract more fans than Hopkins – he’ll be the enemy in his own country.”

Warren will meet with Calzaghe this week to discuss the future but the promoter dismissed a Battle of Britain against IBF light-heavyweight champion Clinton Woods as “a flier.”

And Calzaghe himself admits: “While Clinton has a title, he is not a big name and will not get American TV excited – and I want to keep them happy as that’s where the money is.”

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