Well that’s an hour of my life I won’t be getting back, at least it was recorded so I could fast forward through much of it. The reason for this being such a dire spectacle rests squarely with Hopkins, you can’t blame the guy for going in to the ring with the intention of not getting smacked about, and he had flagged his approach all through the build up, so it’s now down to promoters not to put up the big money purses for fights involving Hopkins, and there are many others like him, for the third man in the ring to exercise the control that is going to ensure that the holding and headwork that was prevalent last night attracts the appropriate punishments which will render such tactics ineffectual in obtaining a result. And lastly for the pay-per-view customers to stop putting their hands in their pockets and paying for such dross because whilst they continue to do so they will keep getting this crud served up to them and boxing will remain a niche sport.

Whilst I don’t blame Calzaghe for the lack of spectacle, is this the sort of fight that he really needs? He has been quite open about wanting to hang them up in the not too distant future and as someone who is still underrated, even in this country let alone the U.S. this sort of fight is not going to address his relative anonymity. After watching the fight I heard Steve Bunce on Five Live suggest that a rematch at the Millennium Stadium was on the cards for later in the year. Nooooooooooo! And not Roy Jones either. The man they should be perusing, to fight over here or in the U.S. is Kelly Pavlik, there would be a lot of horse trading to be done about the weight the match would be made at but their styles would be the perfect antidote to the Hopkins yawn fest. Now there’s a pay-per-view bout I would cough up for.