Why did Hopkins duck Calzaghe in 2002?

[HEADBANGER]

A better question would be "Why did Calzaghe duck ALL of the prime boxers outside of the UK during his career?"

Joe could have faced Hopkins, Jones, Toney, Griffin, when they were all prime and game.

Instead he waited for them to age. Boxing apparently has a soft spot for certain so-called "greats" who have done that like Lennox Lewis and Manny Pacquiao.

when do you think calzaghe ducked the fighters you named?

he clearly offered hopkins a career high payday in 2002 which hopkins turned down to fight hakkar, joppy, and allan for less money combined than he would have received for fighting calzaghe.

multiple steroid cheat toney was fighting at cruiserweight when calzaghe became champion at 168, so how could that match possibly be made?

drug cheat jones was possible but i think calzaghe wanted to make some money first defending his belt.

griffin was never really an option.

you seem to be making plenty up without any real facts to back your case.

[Dirk Diggler UK]

He had bigger fish to fry.

Like Carl Daniels and Morrade Hakkar.

[cupocity303]

drug cheat jones was possible but i think calzaghe wanted to make some money first defending his belt.

.

And there might be your answer, right there dimwit.

Hopkins wanted to defend his title some more, and make money in the process. Plus he knew about Oscar's plans to move up to 160, to fight him, which would have been a guaranteed career high purse, on top of what he would make from PPV revenue.

[raffine]

Don King vs. Bernard Hopkins...The Courtroom Transcripts
18 Hopkins for fights out of his weight class?
19 A. No. All he told me is he had to pay
20 him a lot of money.
21 Q. As I understand it then, you were not
22 doing this deal on a 50-50 basis with Mr. King
23 because Mr. King was going to keep all the
24 Showtime money?
25 A. No. He told -- he said that the money
2473
1 F. Warren-Cross
2 was going direct to Bernard Hopkins.
3 Q. His side of the table was keeping all
4 of the Showtime money?
5 A. That's correct, yes.
6 Q. You would estimate the site fees and
7 the foreign fees and your end was going to amount
8 to what? What was your best take on what your
9 end was going to be?
10 A. I believed if we could have got -- if
11 that fight had happened, we would have put it on
12 in a place called Cardiff in Wales. I think we
13 would have around 30 to 40,000 people there, so
14 we probably would have taken 2 million pounds on
15 the gate, maybe more. I don't know what the
16 dollar rate was at the time.
17 There was British TV at that time, I
18 believe a pay-per-view show, Sky TV were the
19 broadcasters I worked with in the U.K. That
20 would have gone out in prime time because
21 Showtime did say that they would take it on a
22 delayed basis like they had done

$3m vs £2m AT 2002 RATES!!!!!.....TOO BAD......TYPICAL FRANK WARREN......HOPKINS WAS MORE THAN HAPPY TO FIGHT IN WALES......CALZAGHE COULD KEEP ALL THE TV MONEY + GATE RECEIPTS........BOTH WARREN + THAT COWARD JOE CALZAGHE NEVER HAD ANY INTENTION OF MAKING THE FIGHT HAPPEN......JOE CALZAGHE WAS A BUM....ONLY FACED HAS-BEENS

[HEADBANGER]

And there might be your answer, right there dimwit.

Hopkins wanted to defend his title some more, and make money in the process. Plus he knew about Oscar's plans to move up to 160, to fight him, which would have been a guaranteed career high purse, on top of what he would make from PPV revenue.

hopkins had cleared out the worst middleweight division in history, so why did he want to defend it more against such poor competition?

if hopkins wanted to make money, then why not take a career high payday and fight calzaghe when he would get better paid for calzaghe than his next 3 fights combined?

the oscar fight didn't come around for 2 years and 2 months after he ducked calzaghe in 2002. so why not fight calzaghe for all that money at 168 (baring in mind that 20 of hopkins first 21 fights were above the 160 middleweight limit) and then come back to 160 for odly. 2 years was easily enough time for hopkins to adjust back to the weight.

hopkins seemed like he was much more interested in fighting welterweights like trinidad and odlh than taking a real challenge like calzaghe. hell, hopkins even called out mosley after the oscar fight lol

[Jack Napier]

Hopkins was controlling 160 while Joe was at 168
no way Hopkins could duck him based on that alone
fighters not obligated to move up for a fight
and this topic is old hat
they fought, nobody really won

[HEADBANGER]

btw, i'm not really sure why some of you have got so touchy about this thread, it is a genuine question and i thought some of you hopkins fans might be able to justify it.

i know if calzaghe turned down home advantage and a career high pay day to fight another fighter, i would want to know why calzaghe ducked that fighter.

my own theory is that hopkins wanted easy paydays against welterweights and wasn't interested in taking on a real challenge, especially against a fast 2 handed fighter (the kind he's always had trouble with). remember there has been 8 times when hopkins has got into that ring and not been good enough to win the fight, maybe he knew that calzaghe's style was all wrong for him?

[HEADBANGER]

Hopkins was controlling 160 while Joe was at 168
no way Hopkins could duck him based on that alone
fighters not obligated to move up for a fight
and this topic is old hat
they fought, nobody really won

c'mon, we know hopkins loves them career high paydays. but he chose to fight hakkar, joppy, and allan instead for peanuts.

hopkins fought 20 out of his first 21 fights above 160, he would have had no trouble filling out to 168, hopkins didn't want the challenge, he just wanted to keep fighting welterweights in the worst middleweight era ever.

yeah they fought 6 years later but b-hop didn't know they would eventually fight years down the line when he 1st ducked calzaghe.

when they did eventually fight, it was calzaghe who made all the concessions

- fighting in america
- fighting at the weight hopkins wanted
- having cheating cortez as the referee
- 3 american judges

seems like the bottom line for bernard, is that he was never good enough to beat a 'Grade A' fighter at a fair weight.

[raffine]

PUERTO RICO HERALD

Trinidad Unmoved By Hopkins' Taunts

By Gabrielle Paese
"Tell Papa Trinidad to make the fight happen," Hopkins told the crowd of about 5,000. "I'm going to give him an opportunity to redeem himself whenever he wants but it's gotta be soon."

Don King, sounding as desperate as Hopkins, joined in the plea.

"Papa we need you. Papa please give Tito one last chance. Do it for Puerto Rico. Bernard has signed, let Tito sign too. We don't have to look for Bernard he's right here. Everything is ready for you guys."

Trinidad Sr., however, reiterated again that it will never happen.

While his son was absent, Trinidad Sr. was in the corner of his boxer, Alberto DeJesus Trinidad, who TKOd Catano's Rafael Sierra in the undercard.

"Tito's not coming out of retirement. That's not going to happen, no matter how much money he offers," said Trinidad Sr.

"The rematch is not going to happen," Trinidad Sr. told Hopkins after the fights. "You proved you're the super champion and the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. We wish you the best. We'll never look back. We have to be firm and not let Puerto Rico down."

The fight, by the way, took a backseat to the Don King-Bernard Hopkins-Roy Jones Jr. drama going on on the sidelines (Hopkins was also at the fight to beg Roy Jones Jr. to fight him).

According to both King and Hopkins, the two worked out an agreement for Hopkins' next fight, no small accomplishment considering Hopkins spurned a $10.5 million three-fight Showtime offer made earlier this year that would have sent him into the ring to fight Morrade Hakkar, Joe Calzaghe and Harry Simon.

"He's desperate for a fight and he needs to fight me because he messed up his deal with Showtime," Jones Jr. said in the dressing room prior to Saturday's main event.

AGREED

HOPKINS WAS CHASING A SUPERFIGHT WITH ROY JONES IN 2002, AND LATER DE LA HOYA IN 2003.....WHY SHOULD HE FIGHT 3 BUMS IN HAKKAR (MANDATORY), HARRY SIMON + JOE CALZAGHE FOR JUST $10.5m.......HE WOULD LIKELY TOP $30m FOR JONES + DE LA HOYA IN '02-03.

[Ray*]

Because he lives in puerto rico??? Lol