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?
"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?
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