By Mark Vester
According to a report in IC Wales , undisputed super middleweight champ Joe Calzaghe claims that Golden Boy Promotions offered him a fight with recognized light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins, which he turned down because the offer was "less" than what he made for his November unification clash with Mikkel Kessler.
Calzaghe's promoter, Frank Warren, is working around the clock to put the fight together. He thinks it will happen, in America, and is even willing to step aside and let Golden Boy Promotions be the sole promoter of the event.
Warren said the reports of Calzaghe fighting IBF light heavyweight champ Clinton Woods are false. They don't view Woods as a frontrunner for a future fight.
“I’ve had an offer from Golden Boy to fight Hopkins," Calzaghe told IC Wales. “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. Hopkins and I are two of the biggest names in boxing at the moment. 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.”
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