No heavyweight dinner, Hopkins moves on
Rick Reeno / BoxingScene.com
Posted: 6 days ago
The "Cinderella Man" of the new millennium, WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev, had a golden opportunity to make some big bucks against a fighter who is fully capable of still making the middleweight limit if he tried hard enough.
The dream of moving to the heavyweight division to capture the biggest prize in boxing is not going to happen for recent retiree Bernard Hopkins.
According to Golden Boy Promotions, Maskaev turned down an offer to fight Hopkins for his WBC heavyweight championship.
[...]
"We made an offer to them for the fight, and they did not accept our offer. There was a brief window of time for him to put in for another fight," Schaefer said. "Now he is mandated to defend his title against Samuel Peter. If I were Oleg Maskaev I would have taken the fight. We had the time to do it, but they did not accept our offer and now he must fight Peter."
At least for the moment, Hopkins has decided to abandon his mission of cleaning up the heavyweight division in order to focus on other lucrative fights. The plan has been laid out for Hopkins' ring return on July 21, on an HBO pay-per-view card. According to Schaefer, Roy Jones Jr. and Joe Calzaghe are both in the running to face Hopkins on the July date.
"Originally the date was July 14, but it was changed to July 21 because the 14th became a HBO World Championship Boxing show. There are discussions for Bernard to face Roy Jones and Calzaghe. We are going to pursue both avenues and get the best deal that we can. A fight against Roy Jones Jr. or Joe Calzaghe are very big fights."
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I'd like to see a Hopkins/Calzaghe fight. Hope they can get it done...
Rick Reeno / BoxingScene.com
Posted: 6 days ago
The "Cinderella Man" of the new millennium, WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev, had a golden opportunity to make some big bucks against a fighter who is fully capable of still making the middleweight limit if he tried hard enough.
The dream of moving to the heavyweight division to capture the biggest prize in boxing is not going to happen for recent retiree Bernard Hopkins.
According to Golden Boy Promotions, Maskaev turned down an offer to fight Hopkins for his WBC heavyweight championship.
[...]
"We made an offer to them for the fight, and they did not accept our offer. There was a brief window of time for him to put in for another fight," Schaefer said. "Now he is mandated to defend his title against Samuel Peter. If I were Oleg Maskaev I would have taken the fight. We had the time to do it, but they did not accept our offer and now he must fight Peter."
At least for the moment, Hopkins has decided to abandon his mission of cleaning up the heavyweight division in order to focus on other lucrative fights. The plan has been laid out for Hopkins' ring return on July 21, on an HBO pay-per-view card. According to Schaefer, Roy Jones Jr. and Joe Calzaghe are both in the running to face Hopkins on the July date.
"Originally the date was July 14, but it was changed to July 21 because the 14th became a HBO World Championship Boxing show. There are discussions for Bernard to face Roy Jones and Calzaghe. We are going to pursue both avenues and get the best deal that we can. A fight against Roy Jones Jr. or Joe Calzaghe are very big fights."
________
I'd like to see a Hopkins/Calzaghe fight. Hope they can get it done...
