By Vitali Shaposhnikov: After dominating Jean Pascal (26-2-1), Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2) has been the center of attention in boxing. Due to his astounding achievement at the age of 46, his stock has skyrocketed, and many fighters are trying to do anything and everything possible just to step inside the ring against a legend like Hopkins. Before leaving the ring on the night of the Pascal fight, the question of “Who is next?” was echoing throughout the media and boxing fan populations. A few obvious names were mentioned, while an out of sight former foe was being pecked at for a comeback.
I watched this interview a few weeks ago (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxXTONTrTcc&feature=player_embedded#at=44), but never wrote anything about it, as it seemed not only irrelevant, but more importantly without any indication of reason. Now, after Hopkins made a very powerful statement, I can believe this to be plausible.
I am talking about Joe Calzaghe (46-0-0) of course. In the above mentioned interview, Calzaghe talks about his retirement, and the fact that a lump sum of £10,000,000 would definitely bring him back into boxing.
Today, that sum equates to $16,307,951.93 and despite the fact that it seems to be way out of range for a fight such as Hopkins vs. Calzaghe II, I believe there is money to be made. The British would swarm any venue showing that fight, and the PPV sales would come back to be very impressive.
We all know how much Hopkins likes revenge, as we have seen him chase Roy Jones Jr. down for over a decade. If proposed, I believe Hopkins would show no hesitation in taking a rematch with Calzaghe. Of course everything would have to be on Hopkins’s terms, but I doubt much would come in the way of the fight. Since their first bout in April of 2008, people have been discussing this fight and trying to push their point of view as far as who should have won that fight.
So what do you say? Would this fight be possible to realize? Is the sum of money Calzaghe talks about doable?