Fans will likely remember what all-time great Bernard Hopkins said in the lead-up to his 2008 fight with Joe Calzaghe. “The Executioner” really ruffled some feathers when he said “I would never let a white boy beat me,” as he approached his Ring Magazine light-heavyweight title fight with the unbeaten southpaw from Wales. Called a racist for his comments, Hopkins was suddenly the bad guy.
It turned out to be a very close fight, a split decision in favour of Calzaghe, with Hopkins scoring a knockdown in the opening round. All these years later, and Hopkins still insists he should have got the win that night. And, as a recent guest on the All The Smoke podcast, Hopkins said that he believes his big mouth cost him the victory over “The Pride of Wales.”
Hopkins says the judges punished him for his controversial pre-fight remark
“Yeah [I believe I beat Joe Calzaghe]. I think my words, my mouth, took that from me. They had three judges. The referee [has] got to get the slip from each judge. Dwayne Ford gave his slip and left his chair. Very unusual to give the slip and leave the post,” Hopkins said. “He left after giving his slip and that’s the one that gave Joe Calzaghe a split decision, even though I knocked him down in the first round. That statement (‘I would never let a white boy beat me’), I believe, cost me the fight.”
Still debated: Did Hopkins deserve the decision, or did Calzaghe earn it late?
Again, it was a very close fight between Calzaghe and Hopkins, and plenty of fans and experts were left discussing whether the right man was awarded the decision on the night. Hopkins started strong, but Calzaghe came on in the second half of the fight, with Hopkins, who was 43 at the time, to Calzaghe’s 36, showing clear signs of fatigue.
In the end, the scores read 116-111 and 115-112 for Calzaghe, and 114-113 for Hopkins. It’s interesting what Hopkins has had to say with regards to judge Ford’s “very unusual” actions, but never before has there been any suggestion of impropriety taking place that night in April of 2008.
A return fight between Calzaghe and Hopkins would certainly have been very interesting. But Joe called it quits after just one more fight, this a wide decision win over Roy Jones Jr.
How did you score the Calzaghe-Hopkins fight?
