F***-off

perhaps RJJ wasn't so sure about that as you are, since he avoided Joe in his prime years.

 

:good
True..is a shame really.

 

You can't make excuses for one and not the other. Joe tried to get the big fight with Hopkins, Hopkins didn't want it. And Joe was so highly regarded as a world champion that almost everyone picked Lacy to bury him. Joe was not a lucrative fight for any of the top fighters either. Lacy was his breakout fight and he then went on to beat Kessler his only rival at 168 to leave no questions and finally got the big paydays vs Hopkins and Jones.

You say Martinez is now willing to fight anyone, that's not true. He's said he doesn't want to fight Pirog, and instead of going up to fight the Bute's, he's calling out smaller fighters because they offer more money. Why is that any different than what Calzaghe did? Quit the double standards.

 

ok granting without accepting that jones ducked joe....do you really see joe's style outboxing rjj??? only way joe winning against a prime rjj is a knockout...and joe doesnt have that power nor the style to ko a prime jones.....

 

Joe wanted Hopkins and Jones to come to the UK to fight him. How a not-so lucrative fighter (like you say) can demand two highly regarded P4P to come to his backyard, I do not know. If you want the big fights, you go out and chase them. You do what Hatton, Khan and Froch have done. Instead, Joe had this fear of flying, and was branded by Showtime (or HBO?) as "No Show Joe" for his repuatation of pulling out of fights (Glen Johnson I think). He only got them big fights with Jones and Hopkins because there was less risk involve at that time - even admitting himself that Jones was beyond shot.

And I wasn't aware of Martinez refusing Pirog. I always thought this was in the pipe-line.

 

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Calzaghe and Warren agreed to fight Hopkins in the USA back in 02 ,in fact it was one of Hopkins stipulations that was agreed to on the sport according to the late Jay larkin (RIP) .

 

Are you sure?

I thought the deal-breaker was Hopkins demanding too much money. This was because he was having to come to the UK. This is the first I've heard of Joe wanting to go to the US for Hopkins. The fight was always intended to be in the UK. I'll have to look this up again.

 

Very sure Rico , Hopkins agent insisted that the fight take place in The USA , Larkin agreed,Warren agreed and Calzaghe agreed on the spot , that wasn't the prob though, the prob was Hopkins wanting double the agreed purse the day after .


"A teleconference was set up in my office in New York for July 30th, 2002, and on the call was myself, Don King who was in the room, Frank Warren and Bernard Hopkins' lawyer, Arnold Joseph. Along with Arnold was a woman named Linda Carter, who was there on behalf of Bernard. We asked Arnold if Bernard wanted to fight Joe Calzaghe and we asked him how much money would he want if he did. The response we got was $3million and the fight would have to take place in the United States. After a little scratching of the head, we said 'Okay, done.' Frank Warren agreed on the spot, Don King agreed and we agreed so as far as we were concerned all parties were singing off the one hymm sheet. Arnold excused himself with Linda and I can only assume it was to call Bernard. Either that day or the next day, they came with a new demand: $6million, double the sum that had been agreed, the deal blew up.....he had then and still has no desire to fight Joe Calzaghe, that much is pretty clear.

Joe gets criticised sometimes for not having fought the big-name Americans, but in this case the fault has never rested with him."

- Jay Larkin, then Showtime TV Network's Senior Vice-President of Sports and Event Programming.

 

Thanks for that!

Here's me, all this time, attributing the blame on Calzaghe for not fighting Hopkins sooner. With Jay Larkin saying that, I guess I have to change my opinion in this case.

 

He wasn't the only one to price a fight out either J Taylor done likewise .

They did shell out Approx $10,000,000 eventually but they gave it to Palle and Kessler in a unification fight , they offered to fight Kessler in Copenhagen for less but Palle gave away that advantage for Kessler for about another $1,000,000

http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/45455-taylor-wants-fistful-of-dollars

 

But that was to come to the UK, right?

 

Correct Rico the Taylor offer was to fight in the UK , but they agreed to fight Hopkins in The USA in 2002 and Winky in 2006 @ St'Pete's ,Florida ,USA , Winky wanted revenge over Calzaghe for battering his friend Jeff Lacy but chose to fight his other old friend Ike Quartey instead .

 

I remember the Winky one. That was never too serious though and I never saw that taking place.

 

Why wouldn't it take place Rico ? Winky was that serious contracts were agreed and drawn up but he was the one who failed to sign it Calzaghe agreed and signed it ,instead Winky had second thoughts and fought Ike in Dec 2006 and Calzaghe fought Bika in the October of that year . the point is Hopkins ducked out of fighting Calzaghe in the USA in 2002 . Calzaghe fought in Scandinavia and Kraut land , he was willing to fight anywhere at the very start of his career inc the USA .