Nothing left to prove for Hopkins after bout

LAS VEGAS – There is rarely such a thing as an easy fight with Bernard Hopkins. They're not easy to fight, they're not easy to score and, often, they're not easy to watch.

And Saturday's light heavyweight title bout at the Thomas & Mack Center with Joe Calzaghe was a little bit of those at different times.

Hopkins kept dropping a right hand on Calzaghe throughout the fight, knocking him down with a shot to the nose in the first. But the fight was characterized as much by the grappling and wrestling on the inside as it was by clean punches landed.

And that made it extraordinarily difficult to score, as the varied opinion of judges Ted Gimza, Chuck Giampa and Adalaide Byrd proved.

Byrd saw it as a 114-113 victory for Hopkins, the same score as Yahoo! Sports. Gimza had it 115-112 and Giampa had it 116-111 for Calzaghe, giving him the split decision victory and a place atop both the super middleweight and light heavyweight divisions.

"To be honest, I didn't box as well as I could have boxed, and it was a bit of a messy fight," Calzaghe said afterward. "I expected a lot of dirty play, dirty tactics. He's very difficult to look good against. I expected him to be defensive, to move, (but) he couldn't handle the same work rate."

Hopkins, though, saw it quite differently. After Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer joked that Hopkins was shooting a GQ cover before arriving at the post-fight news conference, Hopkins arrived and began pleading his case by showing his unmarked face.

"I got beaten tonight, but it wasn't by Joe Calzaghe," Hopkins said.

Hopkins fought his usual defensive style, countering Calzaghe's offerings with a short right hand on the inside. He also frequently tied Calzaghe and bulled him into the ropes.

But the judges clearly liked Calzaghe's work rate – his 707 punches to Hopkins' 468 and he outlanded the Philadelphian 232-127 – and gave him most of the close rounds.

The bout may have ended Hopkins' illustrious career, one that will land him in the International Boxing Hall of Fame on the first day he's eligible. There are no significant fights out there for him, particularly when Calzaghe said he wouldn't give him a rematch.

And with his health intact, a luxurious new home to enjoy and a busy career promoting fights for Golden Boy, Hopkins has no need to get back into the ring.

He returned after back-to-back losses to Jermain Taylor in 2005, largely because he didn't want to end his career with that sting fresh in his mind. But he also pocketed a cool $20 million for post-Taylor fights against Antonio Tarver, Winky Wright and Calzaghe.

"I got an extra $20-something million in these last three fights, so I'm cool, man," Hopkins said. "If you keep on giving me $10 million, go ahead and keep on robbing me."

As Hopkins moaned about the call in a lengthy tirade after saying he wouldn't do it, Calzaghe's father/trainer, Enzo, stood up and put his hands in the shape of an L, to signify he felt Hopkins was a loser.

Much of the crowd of 14,213 – most of whom were passionately for Calzaghe – would have agreed with the elder Calzaghe.

But Calzaghe conceded that Hopkins' style made it difficult for him to fight the free-flowing, offensive style that had led him to 44 consecutive victories and a reign of more than 11 years as a world champion.

The fight started as poorly as he could have imagined, as Hopkins came out and landed a number of hard punches early and then decked him for only the third time in his career with a jab followed by a crackling straight right.

Calzaghe protested that it was a slip but conceded Hopkins set him up brilliantly for it.

"I knew Bernard Hopkins was a good counter puncher and I knew he had a good right hand and I fell straight into the trap," Calzaghe said. "I didn't see the punch."

Hopkins made a critical mistake by showing an extreme amount of patience when the fight resumed. Calzaghe was not 100 percent when the bout resumed, but Hopkins strangely didn't go for the kill.

Rather, he was cautious as Calzaghe picked up the attack.

"He caught him with a good shot," Hopkins' trainer Freddie Roach said. "It was a flash knockdown, and I don't think he was hurt really badly, but Bernard should have jumped on him."

Instead, what Hopkins did was to back away and circle, which was what he did much of the night. And that left the impression in the minds of the judges that it was Calzaghe trying to make the fight and Hopkins looking to avoid the action.

Hopkins is a brilliant counter puncher and he's masterful at luring an opponent inside, where he frequently mauls them. But Calzaghe was never forced to prove he could fight going backward.

"No way he should have let him come forward so much like he did," said Roach, who said he felt Hopkins deserved the win.

Roach said he'd recommend that Hopkins should retire, given that there's little more to prove. And there's little more for Calzaghe to prove, either.

A Nov. 15 fight against Roy Jones Jr. is likely in Wales, though no deals have been signed, but then there are no logical opponents who would draw big money. WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson isn't particularly known and would be a difficult task. IBF champion Antonio Tarver couldn't even draw 10,000 in his hometown and Top Rank wants to allow middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik to rack up a few defenses before moving up to fight at a higher weight.

So, Calzaghe will be gone before long, too.

But Calzaghe was clearly pleased Saturday and not worrying too much about the future. He had taken a ton of pre-fight abuse from Hopkins, starting back in December when Hopkins launched into a vitriolic tirade against him in the media center at the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Ricky Hatton fight in Las Vegas.

Calzaghe had to listen to months of taunts and then wrestled as much as he boxed Saturday. Clearly, he was feeling good about what had happened. And so he couldn't resist taking a jab at Hopkins when he was asked if Hopkins had said anything to him before leaving the ring.

"He didn't say much," Calzaghe said, grinning devilishly, "because he'd just gotten his ass kicked by a white guy."