By John Hively
Photo © Chris Cozzone/FightWireImages.com
A few months ago, both Joe Calzaghe and Bernard Hopkins were talking about engaging in a high octane fight against each other. Such a conflict would have been Joe’s twentieth defense of his super middleweight title. Hopkins sounded as if he might be on a quasi-religious crusade when he declared that he did not want the Welshman to tie his record for title defenses.
Bernard said that he would bravely step forward against the super-fast Calzaghe, protect his dubious non-existent record, and thrash the upstart Welshman (Joe Louis holds the record for championship defenses with twenty-five, which is significantly different and historically more important than alphabet title defenses).
Alas, Hopkins turned tail and ran from what might have been a monumental night of fisticuffs, and he instead chose to engage in a likely slow waltz with lots of hugging against Winky Wright in July.
Hopkins' coming battle with the naturally smaller Wright may be even more unappetizing to fight fans than the two excessively boring slow dances Hopkins engaged in with Jermain Taylor.
What fight fans in their right minds want to watch Hopkins take on Wright in a bout in which each may be lucky to land five punches a round? And maybe not even throw that many.
This isn’t intended to cast aspersions on the skills of these two worthy warriors. There isn’t even a tiny sliver of doubt that Hopkins and Wright are among the top ten pound-for-pound-pugilists of today, and that’s really amazing considering that Bernard is over forty years old and Winky is no longer a spring chicken. Nonetheless, these two great warriors should not do battle with other in spite of their achievements.
During the 1920s and the 1930s, light heavyweight champions Tommy Loughran and Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, two fighters often rated among the top ten in the all-time category of their respective weight classes, entered the squared circle a combined 451 times. They barred no one from middleweight to heavyweight and engaged in fourteen to twenty-five contests during most years—but they never fought each other. The reason is simple. Fans would not have forked over enough money to watch these two stylists dance around the ring and try to out-clever each other.
Geez, the above description describes the potential inaction of a sleep inducing Hopkins/Wright fight, although people may find it difficult to call such a chess match a fight. Still, many insomniacs may be thrilled the two are planning to duke it out because these fans can watch the waltz just to get some shut eye.
I can see it now. Hopkins will wait for Wright to throw a jab to his face so that he can return fire with a counter. Knowing this, Winky will attempt ten or fifteen feints before throwing a shot to Bernard’s body. Hopkins will block the punch and Winky will avoid his counter. Long periods of inaction may ensue before someone risks throwing the next blow. Fans in the front row may begin to boo their displeasure as early as the second round. There will be an advantage to this; the loud boos will keep huge numbers of fans from falling asleep and possibly drowning in their beer cups.
A Hopkins fight with Calzaghe, on the other hand, might actually be worth watching if only because Joe is a speedy and aggressive boxer-puncher and Hopkins is one of history’s most skillful counter punchers.
A person can rightfully wonder if Hopkins saw Calzaghe’s total domination of Jeff Lacy and decided to avoid this highly consummate opponent. In the Lacy bout, the Welshman looked overly speedy of hand and foot and reminded people of a prime Roy Jones, only Joe is all natural all the time. Calzaghe is far more fundamentally sound than Jones ever was, and although he doesn’t punch as hard, well, like I said above, Joe is all natural all the time, which is something we know Roy never was.
Calzaghe stayed within Lacy’s reach, dared him to land a blow, and utterly out boxed his foe. Joe’s abilities to avoid punches by inches on the inside was extremely impressive, and radically different than Jones, who preferred to move into his opponents, flurry, and then move out of harms way before his adversaries had ample opportunities to counter. Jones often threw wild punches from left field; the Welshman throws them short, crisp and clean.
Unlike Jones, Calzaghe has a chin made of shiny stainless steel. Lacy couldn’t dent the Welshman’s chops even when he did cleanly land his awesome left hook. Jones' chin was caved in and his lights were turned out when he was hit on the button by Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson. Although they are reasonably good bangers, Tarver and Johnson are not Tyson-like punchers, even for their weight class.
I can envision a fight between Calzaghe and Hopkins. It would be a thinking man’s bout, but lots of punches would be thrown during each round because the Welshman is very aggressive. Hopkins would skillfully counterpunch, but they would need to come in bunches since Calzaghe throws so many himself. The pace would be terrific and I think Joe would likely stop the gracefully aging former middleweight champion simply because he is too busy, too aggressive and too fast of hand and foot.
Perhaps for this reason, Hopkins decided a bout with Calzaghe was too great of risk to his fistic health. The Welshman has repeatedly challenged Hopkins for roughly a decade and Hopkins has seemingly always found ways to avoid the danger. So have many other American fighters, like Jones.
On the other hand, it is possible that Hopkins isn’t ducking Calzaghe at all. It could be that he is seeking psychological redemption. Many people thought Wright defeated Jermain Taylor although the bout was called a draw. Bernard lost a disputed decision in his first slow dance with Taylor, and then he lost a close verdict in their second waltz. Hopkins thought he won both times.
If Hopkins defeats Wright, then perhaps in his mind, beating the naturally smaller man will prove to him that he is better and always was better than Taylor. Maybe that’s what makes this likely very boring waltz worth dancing, at least to Hopkins.
As for the rest of us, we would rather see an action packed fight than a slow dance. If Hopkins really wants to engage in something worth while for the fans and for historical purposes, he should stop ducking Joe Calzaghe and take him on in what could be a potential fight of the year candidate.