Jeff Powell of the Daily Mail reports that the retired Joe Calzaghe, who attended this weekend's Mayweather-Mosley fight with Ricky Hatton (apparently, he's overcome his old crippling fear of flying), is in talks to stage a rematch against 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins this fall.
Ugh.
Double ugh.
Calzaghe appears tempted by the chance to replenish his bank account, after two costly domestic separations and an expensive legal action, and held talks here with Richard Schaefer, the chief executive of Golden Boy promotions.
Schaefer reports: 'Joe has expressed interest and so has Bernard. We will try to make it happen in the autumn.'
Consider me Ryan O'Neal in Tough Guys Don't Dance:
There are some things we just don't need to see twice. I know a lot of people feel Hopkins deserved the duke the first time around, but I'd rather let sleeping dogs lie or let Bernard complain forever than have to sit through this mess again.
Look, it was an important fight the first time. That would not be the case this time. Hopkins, 45, bombed out and lost a lot of appeal in his last, awful rematch with Roy Jones Jr., a fight that almost nobody bought and received nothing but criticism. The first Calzaghe-Hopkins fight was also a pretty ugly fight to watch, and I can't imagine the slowed-down Hopkins and the rusty Calzaghe would put up much more by way of highlights a second time around.
Calzaghe, 37, hasn't fought since his flop PPV against Jones in 2008. He never did become a star in the States, perhaps because he waited too long and once he did come here, resentment had built up over time and his fights with Hopkins and Jones were never going to be seen as anything more than cherry-picking old dudes by too many people.
For the money they'll each demand, this fight could not be on pay-per-view. It won't get bought. It almost has to be on HBO, like their first fight, who may well show enough interest, but may also lowball the fight with their offer, seeing as how the first one did poor ratings and neither are hot commodities right now.
I mean, it's no guarantee this will happen, but Bernard would relish the chance to get revenge on Calzaghe, and Joe apparently could use the cash. Those are couple of pretty good ingredients to make a fight.