Calzaghe Turns Down Hopkins Fight Offer

[Jim Jeffries]

Hopkins clearly offered 60/40 (which is reasonable). Joe C. is Ducking him! It's official.

40/60 for a 3 belt world champ with 21 successful title defences to fight a washed up 43 year old has been with NO world belts, yeah that's reasonable.

[shawn_]

Hopkins is not a draw. He has never been a draw. Calzaghe isn't a draw, but he will become a draw.

This is the kind of fight where promotion is important. It wont sell itself because neither fighter is the draw.

Bernard is kidding himself. Lets take a look back at his recent big fights.

Fight - Draw
Hopkins v Trinidad - Trinidad
Hopkins v De La Hoya - De La Hoya
Hopkins v Tarver - Tarver

Despite what everyone would like to believe, Hopkins has not had an epic career. In retrospect, his fight with Roy Jones was significant, but at the time, they were two young prospects fighting for a vacant world title.

When Hopkins fought Trinidad in 2001, he received the biggest pay day of his career, a measly $300,000. His 16th title defense and his biggest purse was $300,000. Bernard is not a draw.

It does make sense that he is trying to get as much money as he can for every fight. After all, he is making up for lost time. What Bernard fails to realize is that he is driving such a hard bargain that he will end up without ANYONE to fight, and no money in his pocket.

[Ray*]

40/60 for a 3 belt world champ with 21 successful title defences to fight a washed up 43 year old has been with NO world belts, yeah that's reasonable.

Forget the belts The fighter makes the belts not the other way round, JC needs Bhops name thats the problem in this scenario, he can decide not to fight B-hop but B-hop is the bigger name in this case, B-hop doesnt need JC but its all part of negotiation and i expect them to come to a conclusion soon.

[Ray*]

Hopkins is not a draw. He has never been a draw. Calzaghe isn't a draw, but he will become a draw.

This is the kind of fight where promotion is important. It wont sell itself because neither fighter is the draw.

Bernard is kidding himself. Lets take a look back at his recent big fights.

Fight - Draw
Hopkins v Trinidad - Trinidad
Hopkins v De La Hoya - De La Hoya
Hopkins v Tarver - Tarver

Despite what everyone would like to believe, Hopkins has not had an epic career. In retrospect, his fight with Roy Jones was significant, but at the time, they were two young prospects fighting for a vacant world title.

When Hopkins fought Trinidad in 2001, he received the biggest pay day of his career, a measly $300,000. His 16th title defense and his biggest purse was $300,000. Bernard is not a draw.

It does make sense that he is trying to get as much money as he can for every fight. After all, he is making up for lost time. What Bernard fails to realize is that he is driving such a hard bargain that he will end up without ANYONE to fight, and no money in his pocket.

I actually hope he retires, But he is a name and JC need that NAME....its difficult to blame any fighter at this stage of negotiation..nobody knows the full detail of each offer so we should jump the gun here.

[kayjay]

I can't blame him he deserves to get MORE money than he did facing Kessler.

GBP had to lowball him; I love Oscar but he's got to give Joe his due in this one. It's Joe who can give Hopkins credibility at the moment, not vice versa.

[Jim Jeffries]

Forget the belts The fighter makes the belts not the other way round, JC needs Bhops name thats the problem in this scenario, he can decide not to fight B-hop but B-hop is the bigger name in this case, B-hop doesnt need JC but its all part of negotiation and i expect them to come to a conclusion soon.

I disagree, Hopkins is running out of time and what other opponent could he make more money than Joe, with the [i]possible[/b] exception of RJJ? I agree though, I think this fight WILL be made, and there are always compromises to be made and details to be worked out.

[Shanus]

Hopkins asking for more money is ridiculous, if Hopkins wants Joe to go into his territory and take the smaller portion of the purse, he's alot more cenile than I thought.

If Hopkins is "the draw" and puts more asses into seats in the US, why doesn't this fight take place in the Millenium? Because Calzaghe is 10x the draw over here than Hopkins has EVER been in the states, and if this fight did indeed take place in Cardiff, 65,000 people would attend.. easily.

That's a record for an indoor arena.

[THe TRiNiTY]

from what i remember of the Hopkins/Wright fight, the crowd was dissapointing. i know bhop stans dont want to realize this, but did isnt the draw he thinks he is.

HOWEVER, Hopkins doesn't need Calzaghe. Calzaghe needs him. Hopkins can retire, complete. Calzaghe, even IF he beat Hopkins, still might have something to prove.

[xxjace]

Hopkins clearly offered 60/40 (which is reasonable). Joe C. is Ducking him! It's official.

this is true.60/40 is more than fair.

[SHB]

This whole "who's the draw" thing is a bit ****** because when you look at it, you need two fighters to sell a fight. Calzaghe is a huge star over in Britain, and he drew like, 35,000 people for his fight with Peter Manfredo, which shows you how popular he is. However against a guy like Hopkins, it'd be a HUGE fight based on who Hopkins is.

Whether or not Hopkins can sell tickets by himself is irelevant, because this fight will be bigger than all for the simple fact that Hopkins is the opponent, and is the most established fighter Joe has seen, and probably will ever see. So basicaly, Calz doesn't need B-Hop to sell tickets, but the MORE tickets sold for this fight will be because of Hopkins.

That's pretty screwed up logic.

This whole sorry episode shows why Calzaghe has never fought in the US. Nobody has made a serious offer to get him over there. Who in all seriousness makes an offer of less to bring him to the US than he would get at home? Nobody was expecting the likes of Hopkins and Taylor to go to Europe for anything less than double his usual purse.