Why did Hopkins duck Calzaghe in 2002?

1st of all, let me just say a quick thank you to the thousands of well wishing PM's i've received since i joined the forum a couple of days ago. i realise my reputation precedes me and that i am widely regarded as one of the most respected boxing analysts in internet history but i am here to educate and just be one of the guys which leads me to my 1st topic "A teleconference was set up in my office in New York for July 30th, 2002, and on the call was myself, Don King who was in the room, Frank Warren and Bernard Hopkins' lawyer, Arnold Joseph. Along with Arnold was a woman named Linda Carter, who was there on behalf of Bernard. We asked Arnold if Bernard wanted to fight Joe Calzaghe and we asked him how much money would he want if he did. The response we got was $3million and the fight would have to take place in the United States. After a little scratching of the head, we said 'Okay, done.' Frank Warren agreed on the spot, Don King agreed and we agreed so as far as we were concerned all parties were singing off the one hymm sheet. Arnold excused himself with Linda and I can only assume it was to call Bernard. Either that day or the next day, they came with a new demand: $6million, double the sum that had been agreed, the deal blew up.....he had then and still has no desire to fight Joe Calzaghe, that much is pretty clear. Joe gets criticised sometimes for not having fought the big-name Americans, but in this case the fault has never rested with him." - Jay Larkin, then Showtime TV Network's Senior Vice-President of Sports and Event Programming. its 2002 and hopkins had beat trinidad 10 months before and then beat carl daniels 5 months ago. Having cleared out one of the worst middleweight era's in living memory, hopkins received a career high payday offer of $3m to fight joe calzaghe at 168. Hopkins then deliberately prices himself out of the fight with calzaghe and instead goes on to fight 3 mediocre opponents in hakkar, joppy, and robert allan. for those 3 fights combined, hopkins earnt less than he would have earnt for one single fight with joe calzaghe. the positive aspects for hopkins to fight calzaghe were - a career high payday - becoming the man in 2 weight divisions - the fight would be in america - the fact that bernard could easily adjust to the weight seen as hopkins fought 20 of his first 21 fights above the middleweight limit of 160 i'm trying to work out why hopkins ducked calzaghe in 2002, can any of you shed any light on what put bernard off fighting joe calzaghe?

Comments (20)

Actually, the fact of the matter is Bernard in 2007 was at his prime. Bernard has accomplished more in his 40`s, than he did in his 30`s. After losing to Joe Calzaghe, Bernard went on to win against Jean Pascal and Kelly Pavlik. 2 Big Wins. Calzaghe beat a prime Hopkins and years earlier probably would have KO`d Bernard. Bernard reached his prime in 2007. Haha, you have to be kidding. Hopkins in his prime in 07? When he was 42......lol. Hopkins prime was around 1997 until 2003 imo. You would know that if you have actually watched Hopkins earlier in his career. A prime Hopkins wouldn't of had two close fights with Jermain Taylor i assure you. One last lol at your Calzaghe kos Hopkin years earlier comment also. Delusional or what. Nice try in trying to make out beating Hopkins at 43 is better than what it actually is.

14y ago

daggum

Hi Head, great post. Check your PMs mate! head case stop making alts so it looks like people agree with your lies. calzaghe was never coming to the usa in 2002 and hopkins was getting 0 percent of the gate/ppv which warren estimated to be over 5 million. why would the top fighter in the sport go to someone else's country and accept such a terrible deal? your lies have been exposed.

14y ago

46and0

Hi Head, great post. Check your PMs mate!

14y ago

oaklandstephen

because bhop waned to get 20 defenses.

14y ago

daggum

guess i shut down this thread with my facts. frank warren in sworn testimony said the fight was going to take place in wales and calzaghe would make more from the gate than hopkins if hopkins took the entire purse! anyone want to keep saying calzaghe was coming over to the usa for the fight or that hopkins wanting more money was unwarranted? any calzaghe defenders left..............

14y ago

daggum

All I did was ask you to back up your claim that Calzaghe said he was scared to fly. You failed. Good day sir. it's their job to report on what calzaghe says. they said calzaghe was scared of flying. why would they lie? isn't that libelous? couldn't calzaghe sue them all for making him look like a coward? yet no he never did. he didn't beacause he said it! your love for calzaghe is unbelievable. are you seriously using the everyone else is wrong but i'm right defense? come back to reality. it's all bull anyway. we know he wasn't scared of flying. the bigger issue is he was scared of fighting top competition so he used that as an excuse to duck everyone. he wasn't afraid to take plane trips to go on holiday or go to germany. only to go to the usa. the guy was a fraud how can you like him?

14y ago

Dirk_Diggler_UK

so it was all a conspiracy to say calzaghe was scared of flying? all the interviews, all the features done on him, even his own promoter said he was scared of flying when he really wasn't? all because there isn't a direct quote of him saying it yet the people who did the stories on him and talked to him all said it was true. pure delusion. All I did was ask you to back up your claim that Calzaghe said he was scared to fly. You failed. Good day sir.

14y ago

HEADBANGER

You'd think you'd be able to find at least one quote where Calzaghe says it seeing how often you talk about it. Again....weird. correct and calzaghe still flew to america and kicked hopkins ass at a new weight, with 3 american judges, a corupt ref, sandwiched inbetween hopkins best run of victories - tarver, wright, pavlik, pascal.

14y ago

daggum

You'd think you'd be able to find at least one quote where Calzaghe says it seeing how often you talk about it. Again....weird. so it was all a conspiracy to say calzaghe was scared of flying? all the interviews, all the features done on him, even his own promoter said he was scared of flying when he really wasn't? all because there isn't a direct quote of him saying it yet the people who did the stories on him and talked to him all said it was true. pure delusion.

14y ago

Dirk_Diggler_UK

yes that's how an interview in a paper works. they don't just use back and forth question and answer formats. that's boring. he said he was scared of flying and the reporter reported on it. i'm sorry they didn't use a direct quote but they probably did that so he wouldn't look like such a wimp. You'd think you'd be able to find at least one quote where Calzaghe says it seeing how often you talk about it. Again....weird.

14y ago

daggum

But you said Calzaghe said it? Weird. yes that's how an interview in a paper works. they don't just use back and forth question and answer formats. that's boring. he said he was scared of flying and the reporter reported on it. i'm sorry they didn't use a direct quote but they probably did that so he wouldn't look like such a wimp. the fact is he said he was scared of flying or something to that effect and that's why he couldn't fight in the usa. are you saying the people saying this are all liars?

14y ago

Dirk_Diggler_UK

i just did. those are interviews and features on calzaghe that say he was scared of flying. why would you do an interview with calzaghe and say he is scared of flying if he didn't say it? they might not have used a direct "i am scared of flying quote" but that's because they put things in their own words. it's called journalism and there are way too many stories to just discount it as some sort of error. But you said Calzaghe said it? Weird.

14y ago

daggum

Once again.....show me where he said that please. i just did. those are interviews and features on calzaghe that say he was scared of flying. why would you do an interview with calzaghe and say he is scared of flying if he didn't say it? they might not have used a direct "i am scared of flying quote" but that's because they put things in their own words. it's called journalism and there are way too many stories to just discount it as some sort of error.

14y ago

Dirk_Diggler_UK

these calzaghe guys keep setting themselves up it's almost too easy "He wouldn't get on a plane. He said he had a fear of flying. Yet I can remember after one fight he flew to the West Indies for a holiday! http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009...ing-mike-tyson Woody Allen would invariably raise a titter by saying it was not the actual flying he was afraid of, it was the crashing. Until recently that joke would barely have raised a wan smile from Joe Calzaghe whose long-delayed US debut is partially a result of his deep-rooted fear of flying. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/oth...o-America.html Calzaghe’s shyness is what has held him back; that and his fear of flying, which is one of the reasons for his reluctance to test himself in the US. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...icle600557.ece there's many more but here's a sampling. all after 2002 when the fake fight against hopkins in the usa was supposed to happen. maybe he was misquoted in his own interviews? yep misquoted over and over again that must be it. keep defending the ducker. Once again.....show me where he said that please.

14y ago

daggum

Show me where he said that please? these calzaghe guys keep setting themselves up it's almost too easy "He wouldn't get on a plane. He said he had a fear of flying. Yet I can remember after one fight he flew to the West Indies for a holiday! http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009...ing-mike-tyson Woody Allen would invariably raise a titter by saying it was not the actual flying he was afraid of, it was the crashing. Until recently that joke would barely have raised a wan smile from Joe Calzaghe whose long-delayed US debut is partially a result of his deep-rooted fear of flying. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/oth...o-America.html Calzaghe’s shyness is what has held him back; that and his fear of flying, which is one of the reasons for his reluctance to test himself in the US. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...icle600557.ece there's many more but here's a sampling. all after 2002 when the fake fight against hopkins in the usa was supposed to happen. maybe he was misquoted in his own interviews? yep misquoted over and over again that must be it. keep defending the ducker.

14y ago

HEADBANGER

who exactly did calzaghe need to fly to, to fight? the only person was hopkins and hopkins turned it down because he wanted to clean out the welterweight division instead of taking on a real challenge. where did the hopkins v calzaghe fight actually take place?

14y ago

Dirk_Diggler_UK

yes in many interviews. go search in the forums for the epic laughter. everyone is laughing their asses off at the ducker but of course dirk diggler defends a guy who says he was too scared to fly. Show me where he said that please?

14y ago

BTL

If he said that then there is no way you could defend that, I'm still a Joe fan cuz I liked his Selye but him saying that is a weenie move... Thats like refusing to take a blood test.

14y ago

daggum

I'm a Joe fan... Did he really say he was afraid to fly back then?.. Not cool at all. yes in many interviews. go search in the forums for the epic laughter. everyone is laughing their asses off at the ducker but of course dirk diggler defends a guy who says he was too scared to fly.

14y ago

daggum

more testimony of the liar saying the fight was gonna be in wales I believed if we could have got -- if that fight had happened, we would have put it on in a place called Cardiff in Wales. I think we would have around 30 to 40,000 people there, so we probably would have taken 2 million pounds on the gate, maybe more. I don't know what the dollar rate was at the time. There was British TV at that time, I believe a pay-per-view show, Sky TV were the broadcasters I worked with in the U.K. That would have gone out in prime time because Showtime did say that they would take it on a delayed basis like they had done - I can't remember what the exchange rate was at the time, it's a bit more favorable now, but I think around that time you are probably looking around maybe 5, maybe $5 million, something like that. Q. In addition to the gate? A. No, inclusive. Q. So $5 million, dollars for the gate and for the ancillary rights? A. Correct. so calzaghe was gonna take 5 million! haha! how could calzaghe get so much more than hopkins? you getting the picture yet? these were not serious negotiations.

14y ago