Why did Hopkins turn down $3m to face Calzaghe?

[P4P Opinion]

Yes, of course. I forget the Calzaghe scoring criteria places a a strong emphasis of ineffective aggression.

This topic is not about the Calzaghe-Hopkins fight, it is about the proposed fight that Hopkins turned down. Do you have anything to say on the subject, or do you just want to talk about something you are comfortable with?

[crold1]

"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.

Career high payday to face Joe Calzaghe in the United States with the potential of winning a world title in higher division....Why did Nard make the fight an impossibility by demanded $6m when he knew he would never get it after Warren had said he could have the $3m he originally asked for?

All the haters who say Calzaghe stayed in his comfort zone not wanting the big fights have to realise it simply isnt true.
The fact is the fight was agreed only for Hopkins to stop it from happening..why?

That was part of a deal to which would have covered a mando and also a fight with Harry Simon. Altogether about 10 mill.

Hopkins chose to wait out the rest of his King contract and chase Oscar...which was worth 10 on its own and a (FAR FAR) easier fight then Simon or Cal.

Easy business.

[True Guru]

Obviously he was scared and wanted to wait until he was 42 to fight him.

Calzaghe slapped away at him to a SD "win". Just imagine what he would have done to a 36 year old Hopkins since that was back when Calzaghe had his mythical power.

Yes, of course. I forget the Calzaghe scoring criteria places a a strong emphasis of ineffective aggression.

Why did he turn down £3m to face Hakkar for $200k?
No ones talking about when they did fight,Most people assume Calzaghe wanted none of Hopkins when he was younger..this is obviously not true.
It was the other way round.

[General Zod]

Why did he turn down £3m to face Hakkar for $200k?
No ones talking about when they did fight,Most people assume Calzaghe wanted none of Hopkins when he was younger..this is obviously not true.
It was the other way round.

Calzaghe style is all wrong for Hopkins his handspeed, combination punching and workrate would of been a nightmare for Hopkins, who wants to lay back and play counterpuncher. It was a high risk/high reward scenario and Hopkins prefers low risk/high reward scenarios, which is why he like to fight the big name little guys.

[True Guru]

That was part of a deal to which would have covered a mando and also a fight with Harry Simon. Altogether about 10 mill.

Hopkins chose to wait out the rest of his King contract and chase Oscar...which was worth 10 on its own and a (FAR FAR) easier fight then Simon or Cal.

Easy business.

So it was better wasting two years fighting Hakkar,Joppy and Allen for $200k a fight when he could have made an easy $3m facing Calzaghe?

[S A M U R A I]

I wonder how much he made fighting Morrade Hakkar in his next fight after these negotiations

I think it was something like 1.5 mil? I posted the figures ages ago. Can't remember exactly how much, but it was about half as much as he would have made if he'd fought Joe C.



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[True Guru]

Calzaghe style is all wrong for Hopkins his handspeed, combination punching and workrate would of been a nightmare for Hopkins, who wants to lay back and play counterpuncher. It was a high risk/high reward scenario and Hopkins prefers low risk/high reward scenarios, which is why he like to fight the big name little guys.

I agree.
The thing is this thread wasnt intended to be a Nard hate thread or anything like that.
Its simply showing that Calzaghe DID want to fight the big names in the States a long time before he finally did.
He wasnt happy with staying at home fighting lesser guys,sadly he just couldnt get the big fights until late in his career.

[S A M U R A I]

I agree.
The thing is this thread wasnt intended to be a Nard hate thread or anything like that.
Its simply showing that Calzaghe DID want to fight the big names in the States a long time before he finally did.
He wasnt happy with staying at home fighting lesser guys,sadly he just couldnt get the big fights until late in his career.

And let's not forget all the offers that were made to Roy Jones as far back as 2000/2001.

We can debate all day about it, and people will come up with reasons why they think Jones did the right thing by not fighting him, the main one being that Calzaghe wasn't a big name, but whatever the reason it's still not really fair how Joe is criticized for apparently not wanting to fight Jones. It's bull****. Joe wanted the fight. Again, I posted ****loads of articles from the UK press from around the time this was all going on.



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[General Zod]

I agree.
The thing is this thread wasnt intended to be a Nard hate thread or anything like that.
Its simply showing that Calzaghe DID want to fight the big names in the States a long time before he finally did.
He wasnt happy with staying at home fighting lesser guys,sadly he just couldnt get the big fights until late in his career.

People hate on Calzaghe because he is a Euro fighter and they will make up anything to bad mouth him. Especially now that he has beat Mr Hopkins

[General Zod]

I think it was something like 1.5 mil? I posted the figures ages ago. Can't remember exactly how much, but it was about half as much as he would have made if he'd fought Joe C.

I dont think Hopkins was making that much back then, he has said himself on Beyond the Glory that he was making 200k-300k for his title defences. Alot of his fights were also in partially filled venues as well, he has never been a big draw