Calzaghe Speaks 4-2-08

Joe Calzaghe Speaks Out!

April 2, 2008

By Craig Watt


On April 19th unbeaten WBO, WBC and WBA Super-middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe crosses the Atlantic for the first time in his career to take on Bernard Hopkins. Calzaghe (44-0, 32 KO's), from Newbridge, Wales is world boxing's longest-reigning world champion with a division-best 21 consecutive successful title defences since winning the WBO title from Chris Eubank in 1997. After ten years of dominance at 168 pounds he challenges light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (48-4-1, 32 KO's), from Philadelphia, at the Thomas and Mack Center, Las Vegas.

Today, the unbeaten champion gave some insights into his final thoughts and preparations as we get close to the fight between arguably the two best fighters at 160 and 168 pounds in the last ten years. Joe Calzaghe gave his input on the key aspects of the fight four days before he flies to the USA for final preparations.

When will you go to Vegas?

I will land in Las Vegas on Saturday and that will give me two full weeks to acclimatize to the weather and conditions. I will bring with me Bradley Pryce to help me spar in the final couple of weeks. I have a base outside the strip and won't be staying in a hotel. We have somewhere I can keep myself to myself and concentrate on the task ahead. I am hoping the weather will be better than in South Wales as I am sick of training in the pissing rain and cold in the UK.

Have you made any transitions in moving from 168 to 175 pounds for this fight?

It has made no difference at all to my training and preparation. I must admit making 168 pounds was getting hard and the last two pounds or so were very tough. I made this weight for ten years and towards the end I did feel it drained my punching power a little. I have not done any specific weights, no specific training, probably the best things was just not having to starve myself to make 168 pounds. I walk around about 190 pounds so it has helped my strength not having to lose that extra eight pounds. I am looking to having maximum punching power as a consequence come April 19th.

Hopkins has fought twice at 175 pounds – does this give him an advantage as a full light heavyweight?

You have to remember that other than against Tarver and Winky Wright he fought most of his career at 160 pounds. He spend ten years as a middleweight and I spent ten years as a super-middleweight. I could argue that it is Joe Calzaghe that is the most suited to 175 pounds and I am more the stronger light heavyweight than Hopkins.

Do you see the fight as a close and even match?

Lets be honest here – Hopkins is an old man at 42 years and has lost four fights. I am undefeated in eighteen years and I have the same believe and motivation I had for the Jeff Lacy fight and the Mikkel Kessler fights. I don't see this being close. He has never faced anyone like me – not with my style and my speed and the volume of punches I throw. I know I have the style and motivation to defeat the old man Hopkins. I don't think this will be a close fight at all.

Hopkins has mastered the southpaw styles in his fights against Tarver and Winky Wright. Does this worry you?

I will turn that around. He has faced some ten or eleven southpaws in his career and has beaten them. Lets turn that the other way round – I have beaten 37 right hand fighters. Does that make me better than him? Winky Wright was a blown up light-middleweight and it does not phase me that Hopkins has defeated his last two southpaw opponents.

Will you go after Hopkins who is noted as a defensive fighter?

I am not a fighter with specific strategies and against Hopkins I will box when I need to and fight when I need to. I will dictate the fight rather than let Hopkins fight his fight. If he goes into his shell and drops the pace I will be straight infront of him firing on all cylinders. Whatever Hopkins has, Joe Calzaghe is quicker, stronger and a better boxer.

Are you happy with Joe Cortez as the referee?

Ironically it was Joe Cortez who was the referee when I won the WBO super-middleweight title from Chris Eubank in 1997. He has a wealth of experience in world title fights and I know Hopkins has been described as a dirty fighter. He likes to use his elbows, head and has been known to hit low on occasions. I know that Joe Cortez will take no **** in the ring and force us to fight within the rules. I have piece of mind that Joe Cortez is the man in the middle of the ring.

Hopkins has said you are a pretty boy and he will give you a facelift-what do you say about that?

Well that's ripe coming from Hopkins. One thing is for sure I couldn't make Hopkins any uglier than he already is. For such a defensive fighter he must have had some beatings before he took up boxing to be as ugly as him. He makes me laugh about these petty comments. That make no impact on me and I will just let my fists and boxing skills do the talking. I don't need the trash talk – it doesn't interest me. It was like the comments about not losing his title to a "white guy"-this was a stupid comment when he has Freddy Roach in his corner as his trainer. I will do my own thing and let Hopkins do his own thing. All I know is that I will beat him easily on April 19th and then he can talk and talk then if he wants.

What are your plans after the Hopkins fight?

I will have just one more fight and then call it a day, probably by the end of 2008. I don't want to look past this fight and we have not discussed any possible opponents. At this point Bernard Hopkins has my total 100% attention.

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Overall this is an intriguing match up of experienced long term champions which will be shown live in the US on HBO and Setanta Sports in the UK.