By: Jim Amato

The big fight between Bernard Hopkins and undefeated Joe Calzaghe is coming up in April. I can’t wait for this one. As dominant as Hopkins was at middleweight I’ve either under rated him or I just did not appriciate him. I stiil don’t rate him among the twenty best middleweights of all time. He’s pretty darn close though. I feel he may have moved to light heavyweight a couple of years too late. He struggled against Jermain Taylor twice in his last two middleweight contests. Against Antonio Tarver at 175 pounds he looked great. He beat Winky Wright after that. It was not pretty but Winky has a way of making his opponent look like he is struggling. Joe Calzaghe has won a lot of ights but a many of his opponents were of little recognition here in the States.

I thught for sure that Jeff Lacy would whip Joe and expose the imposter. It didn’t quite work out that way. I was a big supporter of Lacy but either I overrated him or I underestimated Calzaghe. Joe pitched a classic shutout. Then Calzaghe took on his top contender at 168, Mikkel Kessler. Joe showed that he was for real by defeating his worthy foe. I know Bernard has better credentials then Kessler but he has a lot of miles on him. It’s amazing that he is still on top at his age. They say a fighters legs are the first to go. That is not good for Bernard. Calzaghe is fairly mobile. He has great hand speed and has a high work rate. On top of that he’s a southpaw. I think with all that going for him, Bernard may be in for a very long night. I’m picking Calzaghe by a couple of points in taking a twelve round decision….