Calzaghe “Super” Against Hopkins!
"Executioner” Claims Victory in Calzaghe Defeat!

By Victor Perea and Andreas Hale at ringside
Photography by Chris Cozzone
- FightWireImages.com

Welshman Joe “Pride of Wales” Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) must have felt right at home outside of his native Wales and fighting for the first time in the United States on Saturday night inside of the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, NV. Calzaghe, the reigning WBC/WBA/WBO super middleweight champion made his stateside debut a successful one by defeating the legendary former world champion Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins (48-5-1, 32 KOs) by a twelve round split decision in a closely contested light heavyweight contest.

Calzaghe quite possibly scored the biggest victory of his career recording his forty-fifth consecutive victory without a loss by scores of 116-111 and 115-112 for Calzaghe, and 114-113 in favor of Hopkins. The Calzaghe-Hopkins fight was co-promoted by Golden Boy Promotions and Frank Warren’s Sports Network.

In front of a capacity crowd of 14,213 fans, the vocal majority of which sang, chanted, and hooted for Calzaghe as he embarked on his journey against the toughest opponent he has ever had to face at the age of 36. “Super-Super Joe Calzaghe” as his fans cheered, took his show on the road not only outside of Wales but all the way outside the safe confines of Europe across the pond and into the fight capital on the world. With very little left to prove in his storied career Bernard Hopkins at age 43 gave his usual rough and tumble performance this time however with negative results.

As many pugilist experts had predicted, Hopkins looked to control the contest by taking away the striking advantage of Calzaghe by fighting on the inside to tie up his opponent. For a brief moment early in the contest, Hopkins took the breath away from the Welsh half of the arena when after just 61 seconds into the first round he floored Calzaghe with a right hand. The pro Calzaghe crowd which before the stoppage chanted “Super-Super-Joe Calzaghe” stood stunned as their fighter picked himself off the canvas.

If Calzaghe was going to win, he was going to have to come from behind. Hopkins made catching up even harder by tying up Calzaghe at every possible moment and managed to cut “Super Joe” on the bridge of the nose. A brilliant game plan was executed by Hopkins during the early rounds. He lured Calzaghe in and tied him up which enabled him to find his mark from the inside. Hopkins controlled the pace constantly circling around the ring with his back to the rope as Calzaghe stood center ring and followed him round the ring like the hand on a clock.

During a tangle in the second round a Calzaghe punch unintentionally went astray and time was stopped for Hopkins to recover from a low blow. After a few seconds Hopkins was good to continue. After three successful rounds of tying up Calzaghe and giving referee Joe Cortez a great tricep work out from separating the two fighters, Hopkins began to slow down.

Listening to his corner Calzaghe began to figure out a successful counter attack to the game plan of his opponent. He began to flurry when Hopkins tried to tie him up by pushing him back and enabling him to keep his distance.

Continuous clinching caused primarily by Hopkins forced Joe Cortez to call time and warned both fighters to keep the fight clean. Calzaghe confident from finding his mark relaxed and dropped his hands. Double right jab-left hand and back, Calzaghe made it work. A left hook and Hopkins tried to again tie up Calzaghe.

Midway through the contest, Hopkins still circled the ring with his back to the ropes hoping to continue to have the undefeated fighter come his way. Calzaghe worked hard to land punches. He landed accurate strikes from a distance before Hopkins could grab him and clinch. Hopkins complained to referee Joe Cortez about being hit in the back of the head, while at the same time he drove his forehead into the face of Calzaghe at every opportunity.

A heated exchange to end the sixth found Cortez having to wedge himself in between the fighters to stop the action and Calzaghe slipped to the floor in the process. As the rounds wore on, the accuracy of Calzaghe continued to improve as he continued to dominate the fight.

Hopkins continued to lose his composure as the fight wore on. Opening the tenth round, he swung and missed on a haymaker. After tangling up with his opponent, Hopkins grabbed for his groin in pain as Joe Cortez called time to give him time to recover.

A frustrated Calzaghe stood in his corner and raised his hands to the crowd raising the decibel level in the arena. A replay showed Calzaghe’s glove grazed the upper part of Hopkins’ cup, a low blow by definition but certainly it did not appear to justify the several minutes Hopkins took to recover.

After restarting the two legendary fighters continued their ugly fight into the eleventh round. After sneaking in two low blows of his own opposite Joe Cortez, Hopkins complained of receiving another from Calzaghe.

This time Cortez would not oblige the veteran and called for the action to restart. The two exploded in a mad flurry for position, shortly after getting more than giving Hopkins again clinched and finished the round.

To a standing arena the two fighters finished the contest just how they started. “Super” Joe Calzaghe centered in the ring, followed, and tried to engage Hopkins while “The Executioner” attempted to clinch as the final bell sounded.

After the scores were tallied Michael Buffer announced scores of 114-113 for Hopkins, 115-112 and 116-111 for Calzaghe. Upon learning of the decision, Hopkins looked down on the HBO broadcast crew in disbelief.

“I was a bit rusty at the start” said Calzaghe afterwards. “I was only hurt once,” alluding to the first round knockdown.

“I knew this wouldn’t look pretty. It wasn’t my best fight, but I won,” added Calzaghe who landed 33% of his punches for a total of 232, the most ever landed by any opponent against Hopkins.

“I wasn’t slowing down, I was pacing myself,” said Hopkins of his decreasing pace midway through the bout.

“Freddie told me to pace myself and take him into deep water. I think I made him do exactly that. I think it was old school execution. I don’t think he was actually landing. He was missing a lot of his shots,” added Hopkins.

“I feel like I made him looks amateurish tonight. I think I made him fight my fight. I feel like I took this guy to school,” when asked if this would be the last time we would see “The Executioner” in the ring Hopkins eluded stating he would speak with his Golden Boy Promotions team and wife. – Victor Perea

Harrison TKOs Barnett in Fifth!

In the evening’s co feature, London’s Audley Harrison stopped Jason Barnett in a snoozer of a heavyweight matchup. Losing three of his last five fights, Harrison needed to show something but left the crowd disenchanted the entire fight.

The 2000 Olympic gold medalist Harrison plodded along against a seemingly disengaged James Barnett, who fought a mere 14 days prior. Neither fighter looked ready to throw a punch.

Barnett made an attempt to start a fight early in round two but Harrison and his 30 pound size advantage seemed to discourage the smaller Barnett from putting together anything notable.

A smattering of boos rang out during round two while “Super Joe” chants sprouted on other ends of the arena due to the severe lack of action. Still, neither fighter would do much more than stand in front of each other with Harrison tossing the occasional jab to win rounds.

By round three the smattering erupted in full blown disgust as the two mounted nothing more than a dance session. Finally, a hard right hand by Barnett work up the crowd and Harrison as it seemed possible that an actual fight could happen.

Apparently, the excitement was ill conceived as the lumbering southpaw quickly landed a hard left-right combination to the body of Barnett sinking him to a knee.

Barnett would slowly rise at the count of 9 but referee Russell Mora called the fight to a halt at 1:48 in round five. Harrison improves to (22-3, 17 KOs) while Barnett drops to (10-7, 4 KOs). – Andreas Hale

Lopez leaves Davis Bloody, Battered and Beaten!

Middleweights David “The Destroyer” Lopez and Ryan “Dangerous” Davis squared off in a ten round non title bout before a half full arena. Davis of Granite City, Il gave up an unbelievable 8 inches in height and 6 inches in reach to the WBC #5 ranked middleweight from Nogales, Mexico.

After a dull first round Lopez took control of the action cutting off the ring and dictating the pace of the bout. Lopez allowed Davis to attack in avoidable spurts and then countered high with solid left hands. After a small tangle Davis stumbled to the ground as referee Vic Drakulich recognized the slip.

The third round saw Lopez picking up the tempo as he kept a constant jab in the face of Davis which slowly but surely broke his will. Lopez picked Davis apart rearranging his nose and opening up a cut via punch under the left eye of his opponent.

Lopez beat on the game Davis who could do nothing to avoid the long reach of his adversary. After eating some punches Davis paused for a moment untouched as he sidestepped around Lopez and hit the floor.

Referee Vic Drakulich ruled the meeting of Davis with the canvas a slip although the argument could have been made that it was an accumulation of punches coupled with gravity that brought Davis to the ground. Nevertheless Lopez stayed clearly in control as he pummeled Davis who sucked it up and finished the round standing.

With the same busted nose and bloody left eye Davis shot out of the corner for the fourth round apparently thinking he was Prince Naseem Hamed. Moving, shaking, dancing and taunting his opponent, Davis changed up his strategy and attempted to play with Lopez.

Unfortunately after less than a minute of the showboating a few stiff left hands from Lopez brought Davis back to reality, doubling up on the left hook and finishing it off with a right. Lopez stretched the gap between any hope for Davis to last the full ten rounds.

Lopez continued his dominance into the fifth where Davis hung as tough as he could before willingly succumbing to a plethora of punches from Lopez as Vic Drakulich stopped the beating at 1:56 of the fifth round.

Predictably, Lopez (34-12, 22 KOs) defeated his outclassed opponent while Davis (20-8, 8 KOs) almost lasted half the distance with a world ranked fighter. – Victor Perea

Cleverly Decisions Baker!

With the still swelling contingency of British fight fans as they made their way into the Thomas & Mack Center, they were treated to Wales own Nathan Cleverly as he easily displayed his boxing skills against Antonio Baker winning the fight via an eight round unanimous decision in a light heavyweight bout.

As Joe Calzaghe sat ringside to gather a look at Wales’ other budding prospect, Cleverly breezed to a shutout decision 80-72 on all three cards and improved his undefeated record to (12-0, 3 KOs).

A sustained body attack found constant success as Baker provided nothing more but a sparring partner for Cleverly. A small chant from a few early arriving Brits backed the young fighter as brutal hooks to the body constantly found their mark. Baker, whose record falls to (6-10-1) was dropped by a low blow in the second round as the crowd showed their distaste in referee Jay Nady’s ruling.

As the rounds went on, the attack by Cleverly never let up and Baker found himself in a permanent defensive posture. Looking for one punch, Baker would never find get an opening and found Cleverly’s leather constantly making a home on Baker’s torso.

By round seven the fight was in the bag as Joe Calzaghe exited to a bevy of cheers in order to prepare for his match. The Wales prospect continued to impress by shoe shining Baker and throwing heavy double left hooks to the head and body.

Baker did try to turn up the heat in round eight and landed a spirited combination to Cleverly’s head. Cleverly however smiled and shrugged of Baker’s assault to the cheers of those present.

An excellent exhibition for the young fighter to put his skills on display in front of those from his hometown as well as the boxing pundits who were curious of the prospect. –Andreas Hale

Garcia Dispatches Diaz in One!

Philadelphia’s undefeated junior welterweight Danny Garcia needed just 1:53 to earn a TKO victory over Guadalupe Diaz of Michoacan, Mexico.

In the opening seconds Garcia hurt Diaz who flailed onto the ropes and nearly hit the ground. The flailing did not stop there as Diaz demonstrated some of the sloppiest boxing I’ve ever seen in a professional bout.

In the short bout Diaz managed to throw two punches on one foot and send a slow motion right uppercut reminiscent of Casey at the bat. Garcia needed just single flurry to send Diaz scrambling backwards dazed and confused forcing referee Tony Weeks to stop the bout at 1:53.

Garcia (5-0, 5 KOs) earned his fifth knockout victory in as many bouts while who Diaz dropped to (4-3-1, 1 KO) left ringside observers wondering how and who he beat. – Victor Perea

Jacobs Too Much for Sims!

The first of two middleweight bouts of the night featured Brooklyn’s undefeated Daniel Jacobs looking for his fifth win against Temecula, California’s Leshon Sims.

The taller lanky Sims pushed the pace in the first two rounds using his reach advantage to find a home for his straight right behind his jab. Jacobs appeared to be waiting too long to find his spot, although when he threw it was harder than Sims’ best punch.

Jacobs picked up the pace in the third round and began to punish Sims with solid hooks downstairs and upstairs with straight hands right down the middle. Back peddling with his hands up Sims tried his hardest to weather the storm but Jacob sent a straight right hand smashing through his gloves sending Sims into the ropes on onto the canvas. He recovered only to be met by a barrage of punches from Jacobs who nearly had his opponent out on his feet as the round closed.

Jacobs easily finished off what he started in the fourth and final round dropping Sims once more this time with a left hand. After beating the count Sims was allowed to continue and a short exchange later referee Vic Drakulich saved Sims from further punishment at 2:31 of the fourth round.

Jacobs improved to (5-0, 5 KOs) with this fourth round TKO victory over Leshon Sims (5-8, 3 KOs). – Victor Perea

Williams Jr. Successful in Pro Debut!

Hylon Williams Jr. (1-0) made his professional debut a successful one by defeating Marco Mendias (0-2) via shutout unanimous decision in an action packed four round fight.

Williams Jr. showcased brilliant hand speed early as he tagged Mendias with multiple combinations to the head and body. Mendias showed that he could take a punch and tried to maul his way through Williams Jr. attack.

By the second, Williams Jr. whipped three left hooks to the body and seemed to slow down Medias, but an accidental clash of heads caused a cut over the left eye of Williams Jr. and changed the dynamic of the fight. Facing adversity, Williams Jr. would be tested to see how he would react at the site of his own blood.

Williams Jr. was on his bicycle for much of round three but would bait Medias into stellar three and four punch combinations.

By round four Mendias would make a valiant attempt to mug the young fighter and stifle his speed but to no avail. Yet another butt of heads mid-round would find Williams Jr. wincing once again but found the gall to stand his ground and shoot lead rights to the face of his opponent.

Both fighters looked weary but pushed to finish a fight that was much more entertaining than the scorecards revealed as all three judges saw the fight 40-36 in favor of Williams Jr. – Andreas Hale

Charlo Stops Villareal!

Golden Boy Promotion’s young prospect, Jermell Charlo, defeated a game but severely outclassed Jesus Villareal via a third round TKO of their welterweight bout.

Charlo who improved to (2-0, 1 KO) peppered Villareal (2-4-1, 1 KO) with his jab early and used hard counter right hands to knock down Villareal in the second round.

Although his opponent was on shaky legs, Charlo couldn’t finish the job.

By round three however another dosage of short counter rights found their home and put Villareal down for good as referee Tony Weeks called a halt to the bout at 1:30 of the third. – Andreas Hale

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