By Mark Vester
Undisputed super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe, in a recent interview with the BBC, took a parting shot at Bernard Hopkins. He also retterated his retirement plans by once again stating that his next appearance in the ring would be the finale of his career. Talks are still ongoing, but he hopes Roy Jones Jr. ends up in that final slot. Calzaghe has always viewed Jones as the perfect opponent to cap off his long career.
“I have been cut twice in the last 16 months out of 25 years of boxing, so I think that is telling me something," Calzaghe said. “I think my next fight is going to be my last fight. I want to retire undefeated and that’s something fighters don’t do.
“You can keep getting tempted to fight for money, but I understand I am 36 now and to go out undefeated would be amazing. The fight is going to be in the winter and I am hoping to fight Roy Jones, Jr who is a former four-weight world champion, so that would be a great way to finish off.”
Calzaghe made his American debut in April, when he won a close split-decision over Hopkins in Las Vegas. He is still not happy with the performance, blaming Hopkins for the bad showing and the lack of interest from fans as the ticket sales were slow. He said Hopkins has no star power in the states when it comes to ticket sales.
“I won the fight but it wasn’t my best performance,” Calzaghe said. “It is hard to fight against somebody who just wants to hug you all night. When you win a fight you want a performance and you want to look good for the fans. I wanted to smash his head in.
“14000 tickets were sold for the fight and 12000 were from Britain. So that tells you what a pr*ck Bernard Hopkins is and how disliked he is. When you can’t even sell a ticket in your own place, it’s a problem.”
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