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Calzaghe cool on Hopkins fight

24/07/2007

Super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe is in no rush to answer the challenge issued by American fighter Bernard Hopkins to face him stateside.

Hopkins belied his 42 years to score a unanimous points decision over Winky Wirght early on Sunday morning and in his post-fight interview called out Calzaghe as his next opponent.

But the WBO belt-holder is reluctant to leave behind the partisan support and bumper ticket revenue that a fight in his native Wales would ensure.

"Why should I go to America when if we do the fight in the UK we can make far more money in front of a bigger crowd?" he asked.

"Hopkins and Wright are supposed to be two of the top pound-for-pound fighters yet their fight didn't even sell out the Mandalay Bay, it drew something like 9,000 people."

Calzaghe already faces a stern test when he takes on Danish WBC and WBA king Mikkel Kessler in Cardiff on November 3rd in a bid to unify the division's titles.

Should Calzaghe succeed in front of a possible 70,000-strong crowd at the Millennium Stadium, he may decide it an appropriate point at which to hang up his gloves.

But at the moment the 35-year-old maintains that he could be convinced to cross the Atlantic once he has dispatched Kessler.

"Once that [his fight with Kessler] is done I'm willing to go to the States if that is where the best deal is," he said.

"I will look at Ol' Popkins, but judging by his performance against Wright there isn't much competition there for me anyway."

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