Plenty of fallout to discuss from Saturday’s big fight: press conference smack talk, future match-ups in the works, Ray-J singing our national anthem and more.
- Calzaghe’s legacy. Joe Calzaghe has already proved himself the best super middleweight (168 lbs.) ever and a certain Hall of Famer. With his defeat of Bernard Hopkins at light heavyweight (175 lbs.), he has the biggest name on his resume. So, what’s left to prove? I think Calzaghe could, should he fight another year or two, go a long ways toward climbing up the list of greatest British boxers of all time. Should he take on Roy Jones, Jr. and win, he would give it a minor bump, but a 2009 fight with Kelly Pavlik — if he won — would greatly boost it. He’s arguably top 10 now.
- Hopkins’ complaints. Hopkins has had numerous goofy things to say in his life, and he added to that ledger after the fight. I’ll start with his claim that the the harmless-seeming low blow that sent him into unbelievable histrionics in the 10th somehow dislodged his “privates outside [his] cup.” Cute. If it was so debilitating, I wonder how he was able to finish the round so strong? He also said he won “pretty easy,” calling it an “old-school execution” and saying “the fans know who really won.” Strange. I haven’t seen a single scorecard that gave Hopkins the fight by more than one point. The majority I’ve seen gave it to Calzaghe narrowly or widely. I’m not saying volume of opinion equals quality of opinion, or else Mariah Carey is right on the verge of becoming the best musician EVER. But both trained and untrained eye had a tough time seeing this as a Hopkins win.
- Calzaghe’s heart. One thing I failed to give Calzaghe credit for that I should’ve was his fighting heart. He got knocked down and was getting out-boxed early, and clearly was frustrated. But he gathered himself by the middle rounds and fought smartly and passionately, perhaps inspired by his father and trainer, Enzo, who encouraged him never to let up. Hopkins doesn’t lack for heart, but Calzaghe’s stood out.
- Hopkins’ trepidation. Let’s say you spend the whole time leading up to a big bout telling your opponent to “say goodbye to your babies.” And let’s say you have said opponent down in round one and slightly dazed. Wouldn’t you at least try to see if you could knock him out? Yet Hopkins took not one chance, not one, going for the knockout after Calzaghe got back up.
- In another time. I am not trying to diminish Calzaghe’s win in any way, because there’s nothing to diminish; he beat a guy who, even at age 43, still was in my view one of the five best fighters today. But, upon reflection, I don’t see Calzaghe in his prime beating Hopkins in his prime. Prime Hopkins was just as crafty and hard to hit, but he was faster on his feet and hit with real power. Prime Calzaghe, really, might be now. His wins over Jeff Lacy and Mikkel Kessler both proved he was better than anyone other than his hardcore fans realized, but I think they forced him to grow into the boxer he is.
- Crazy scorecards. Just to give you a sense of how difficult some of these rounds were to score, here are the rounds where one member of my unofficial three-judge panel at home differed from the other two: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12. None of us are trained judges, of course, but when three at-home viewers only agree on three rounds unanimously, it gives you a sense of the ambiguity of it all. I wish there was some way to solve what accounts for the greatest discrepancy you see in scorecards in most fights: That is, do you favor more blows landed or the better blows, even if they are significantly fewer in number? My scoring hinged on the fact that Calzaghe was out-landing Hopkins by about two to one, and two punches from “Slappy Joe” equaled the strength of one punch from the crisper Hopkins. When Calzaghe threw in a few punches that helped him enhance his side of the equation, say, a straight left that rated about a 1.5 instead of a 1 to Hopkins’ 2, I favored Calzaghe. When Hopkins’ punches were lacking steam, as they were in some of the later rounds, maybe I downgraded them mentally to a 1.5. But it wasn’t easy math. There were a great many rounds where I more or less flipped a coin in my head.
- Calzaghe’s plans. Jones says he plans to voyage to Cardiff, Wales, to battle Calzaghe on his home turf, and that there’s talk of a deal for Nov. 15. First off, good for Jones for finally being willing to go overseas. Second off, I have no gripe with Calzaghe returning to Wales for the rest of his career. If he can draw 30,000 people against a guy like Peter Manfredo, I say keep doing it; there’s more money in it for everyone. My gripe with him having not fought in America is, I think a fighter has to prove himself at least once in a big fight on foreign turf, or else an air of home cooking will hover like a cloud over their whole careers (as when the referee prematurely stopped the fight in Calzaghe’s favor when Manfredo wasn’t badly hurt, and other instances where Calzaghe’s received the benefit of the doubt). In beating Hopkins in the United States, Calzaghe scored a win over a guy whose fights are tough to score and he still came out on top. Point proven. From here on out, Calzaghe should fight where it makes the most sense monetarily. His promoter is discussing a Pavlik fight as a possibility some time in Calzaghe’s career, and maybe that makes more dough in New York, maybe it doesn’t. But the fact that the Hopkins fight apparently wasn’t a huge draw now means the impetus is on his opponents to prove Calzaghe should come to America, and Calzaghe is the bigger international draw.
- Hopkins’ plans. Hopkins, as I expected, isn’t talking retirement as definitively anymore. Word is that Don King has reached out to Hopkins to see about a rematch with Felix Trinidad. Make no mistake, that’s little more than a chance for Hopkins to pick up another decent-sized paycheck and end his career with a win. Both men are older now, but it is Hopkins who is still an elite fighter, and Trinidad who’s not even close, so you have to imagine Hopkins wins again. Maybe if Hopkins keeps hanging around the elite level with wins over Trinidad and maybe a young gun like Chad Dawson he convinces Calzaghe to do a rematch, but after Trinidad, it’s hard to imagine what’s left out there for Hopkins to prove. Other than a Calzaghe rematch, I also don’t see any reason for him not to hang around and build up his bank account; he appears to be in no danger of getting badly hurt, what with his defensive skills and iron jaw.
- Our national anthem and other important matters. Say, does anyone have a clue how the U.S. keeps getting screwed on its home turf in “choice of who sings the national anthems?” Wales gets Tom Jones, a legendary if not slightly campy performer, for its anthem, just as the U.K. got Jones in the December Ricky Hatton-Floyd Mayweather, Jr. fight. What’d we get in December? Tyrese. What’d we get Saturday night? Ray-J. That’s right, Ray-J. A dude who’s really only famous for being the cousin of an actual singing talent, Brandy, and for co-starring in the Kim Kardashian sex tape. (Even then, he’s arguably got third billing, if you catch my drift.) [And this time, we don’t even get the moral high ground, because the British fans didn’t boo our anthem like they did in December.] Also, ring announcer Michael Buffer sounded great after surgery to remove some cancerous tumors from his throat and nec, plus he dropped that dumb self-promotional line calling “Let’s get ready to rumble!” “the most famous phrase in boxing history.” Buffer scores twice!
- Shout-outs. Deadspin.com, everyone’s favorite sports blog, has given mentions to Ring Report two weekends in a row. Please visit the link above or the individual ones here and here, as my own modest way of returning the favor.
