By John Hively (Photo by HBO)
Last Saturday night, WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe disposed of reality star Peter Manfredo. Most fans thought the fight would not last the distance and it didn’t. The referee stopped the one-sided match during the third round, which was unfair to Manfredo since he didn’t appear to be hurt, and was avoiding some of the punches coming his way.
On the other hand, he lost every second of the first two and a half rounds. The gap in skills was enormous, but Manfredo is a game kid, and he might have made it more competitive had the bout not been prematurely stopped.
Many fighters start out slowly, lose lots of early rounds and still come back to win.
Think about the Mike Weaver and John Tate fight in 1980. Weaver lost most of the early rounds. It was such a one-sided bout that I turned it off after ten heats. Why bother watching more of the same? Tate was way out in front. I stopped at a bar twenty minutes later and discovered that I had just missed one of the great comebacks of all time. Weaver stopped Tate late in the fifteenth round.
You don’t need to look that far back to see similar endings. Shannon Briggs came from behind to flatten Sergei Liakhovich late in the twelfth round to win the WBO heavyweight title last November.
Nonetheless, Manfredo's chances looked terribly slim by the second round. Calzaghe looked impressive no matter what you can say about the premature stoppage. It would be interesting to see Joe fight some of the better American fighters, and this isn't to suggest that Manfredo is anything less than a good boxer.
A Calzaghe bout with Bernard Hopkins might be a humdinger, but first Bernard has to get by Winky Wright in July, and that is far from a foregone conclusion.
Hopkins recently restated that he was willing to fight Calzaghe, but he stipulated that the Italian-Welshman needs to come to the United States for this bout to materialize.
You can’t blame Bernard for making this demand after witnessing the premature stoppage of Manfredo. Joe also benefited from an ever so slightly premature stoppage of Byron Mitchell several years ago.
Calzaghe has been calling out Hopkins for years and years and years and Bernard has always turned a deaf ear to a potentially lucrative payday. It looked as though Hopkins had been ducking the Welshman. But maybe not.
If Joe really wants to enter the squared circle against the former middleweight champion, he should make the journey to the states. Otherwise, it is Joe who looks like he really isn’t interested in fighting Hopkins; he’s just puffing out his chest and blowing a lot of hot air and creating a smokescreen of false bravado. Maybe it is Joe who is doing the ducking and Bernard has just been cautious about going over there.
It’s true that many great American boxers have ventured to Europe to take on the best that continent has to offer: Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Mickey Walker and Marvin Hagler come to mind. And it’s just as true that many great U.S. pugilists never made the trip; Rocky Marciano and Joe Louis failed to venture from these shores. So don’t blame Bernard if he has decided that the trip is not worth making. He’s in pretty good company.
For decades, many good and even great European fighters have ventured to the U.S. in search of greater glory: Georges Carpentier, Ted Kid Lewis, Marcel Cerdan, and the Klitschkos’ are just a few. The reason they came here is simple. This is the land of milk and honey for good and great fighters alike.
There are millions of reasons for the Welshman to make the journey to these shores. A bout between Hopkins and Calzaghe would be a pay-for-view bonanza in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Money isn’t the only reason for Joe to make this bout happen. Hopkins is ancient by boxing standards, but he is still formidable. Therefore, a win over Bernard would enhance Calzaghe’s stature, as well as give him his biggest payday ever. Likewise, a Hopkins victory over the Welshman would enhance his all-time standing, especially if it came this late in his career.
So Joe, come visit the United States. You’ll establish a greater legacy and earn more money and respect by fighting and defeating Hopkins, Wright or Jermain Taylor than you’ll ever get beating guys like Manfredo in your home country. So how ‘bout it Joe? Wha’cha waiting for?
John Hively is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to BoxingScene.com. His articles on politics, economics and entertainment have been published numerous times in the Business Journal and elsewhere. His first book, The Rigged Game: Corporate America and a People Betrayed was released last June and is currently selling in eleven nations on four continents.