By Mark Vester
Tensions have been high among boxing fans over a comment made last weekend in Las Vegas by light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins. Hopkins and his next likely opponent, super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe, met face-to-face and had two verbal battles during the long Floyd Mayweather Jr-Ricky Hatton weekend at the MGM Grand.
One comment by Hopkins in particular, declaring that he would never lose to a "white boy," caused an uproar from boxing fans of all colors. Hopkins, probably made the comment as a joke, but many took offense and the media has run with statement. Calzaghe's promoter, Frank Warren, is still enraged over the skin color knock on his fighter.
"I've heard some disgusting trash talk in my 30 years in boxing but that's the lowest of the lows. If Joe said 'I'd never lose to a black man' - which he would never dream of saying - he would be nicked by the race relations people, and rightly so. There's no need for racial slurs and to say those derogatory things is diabolical. He should know better and his comments show a lack of class," Warren told The Daily Mirror .
Negotiations are ongoing for a Hopkins-Calzaghe bout. The fighters have already agreed on the monetary terms of a 50-50 split.
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