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Bernard Hopkins could fight Carl Froch - Jeff Powell

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The legendary Bernard Hopkins is offering Carl Froch the incentive of a super-fight in Britain if he gains his revenge over Mikkel Kessler in their world super-middleweight title battle later this month.

Hopkins, at a phenomenally fit 48 the oldest world champion in boxing history, is willing to concede the Nottingham Cobra home advantage for what he describes as ‘a truly massive fight.’

In Las Vegas, where he watched Floyd Mayweather’s masterful world welterweight title victory over Robert Guerrero, Hopkins said: ‘Froch is top of my wish list. I have great respect for him as a fighter. He is very exciting and our styles would make for a great fight.

On the cards: Bernard Hopkins (left) is open to taking on Carl Froch if he beats Mikkel Kessler later this month

    More from Jeff Powell...   JEFF POWELL: Vorsprung durch technique (and speed, strength, fitness) - how the German super-athlete came to rule the football world... but what can Rooney and Co learn? 30/05/13   JEFF POWELL: Brutal Froch-Kessler fight has given a face-lift to the battered image of this hard old game 27/05/13   Jeff Powell's ten greatest British battlers... but where does Froch rank on the list? 26/05/13   Warhorse Froch eyes another charge at King Ward after heroic victory over Kessler 26/05/13   Best of British: Froch-Kessler could become one of the best - but what were the others? 24/05/13   Bring on the Gladiators - Froch v Kessler II could go down as one of the greatest fights in boxing history 24/05/13   Jeff Powell on Friday: Scholes and Co bowed out in typically understated fashion (unlike you-know-who), the bland new England shirt will cost parents a fortune... and City owners will have a conflict of interests in New York 23/05/13   Jeff Powell: Forget Beckham's millions, Manny and Money Mayweather show the hard old game is still a real box-office hit 20/05/13   Jeff Powell: Beckham transformed a reasonable talent into immense wealth and fame... for that, I have nothing but admiration 16/05/13   VIEW FULL ARCHIVE  

‘I will happily go over to the UK to make it happen but of course Carl will have to beat Kessler first. I am rooting for him to do it and I think he will win this time.’

Hopkins will have to fulfil a similar obligation himself when he defends his IBF world light-heavyweight title against Karo Murat in New York on July 27   -  but he is the favourite to defeat his mandatory challenger.

Nathan Cleverly, the Welsh holder of the WBO light-heavy belt, is hoping for a championship unification fight with Hopkins in Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium and Hopkins says: ‘Cleverly is a possibility for later this year but Froch is my preference if we can get it made.’

Froch is reluctant to move up a division but Hopkins The Executioner says: ‘While we could fight for my light-heavy title, there is the option of doing it at a catch-weight we are both comfortable with. A fight of this magnitude matters more in its own right than the belt.’

Froch reacted with fascination when I relayed that message to him, saying: ‘Hopkins and me would be a huge money fight. First I have to focus on beating Kessler but I admire Bernard. He keeps in fantastic condition and would present a very awkward challenge.’

The economics of a Froch-Hopkins clash are boosted by Sky lifting their moratorium on pay-per-view broadcasts for the Cobra’s re-match with Kessler at London’s sold-out O2 Arena on May 25.

Froch will go into that fight as a proud father for a second time. His glamour model girlfriend Rachael gave birth to an 8lbs 6oz girl, Natalia, on Friday evening.

Mother and daughter are well and at their new home in Nottingham with Carl and their son, Rocco. 

 

Fight promoters are not traditionally renowned for their benevolence but Dennis Hobson is risking a small fortune this Saturday to give Jamie McDonnell his best possible opportunity of becoming a world champion.

McDonnell will become the first Doncaster boxer to hold a world title if he can find a way to survive the knock-out power of Julio Ceja and then outpoint the young Mexican for the vacant IBF belt.

It is a daunting task but Hobson is personally bankrolling the cost of giving McDonnell home advantage at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium.

When he pitched to bring Ceja across the Atlantic this promoter hoped to receive British television backing, only to be turned down by every channel.

Big chance: Jamie McDonnell (left) faces Julio Ceja for the vacant IBF world title on Saturday

Still, rather than send McDonnell to his fate in Mexico and at altitude, Hobson is going it alone.

In addition to hiring the stadium, Hobson is funding his own TV broadcast by hiring a Primetime platform.

He says: ‘On top of all the other expenses I am renting the airtime and meeting the production costs and that is really expensive. I’s a big punt. I stand to lose a helluva lot of money if Jamie doesn’t win the title.

‘But I didn’t want him to fight his heart out but risk being on the wrong end of a home-town decision in Mexico.’

Dobson did find one ally willing to help him promote the event as vigorously as possible. Rival promoter Frank Maloney volunteered to give the benefit of all the experience he gained in piloting Lennox Lewis to the world heavyweight title, a feat he is now striving to repeat with David Price.

Maloney is pushing the pay-per-view telecast which should help defray some of Dobson’s expenses.

McDonnell needs to keep his focus on what is going to happen in the ring. The 20-year-old Ceja is undefeated having stopped 22 of his 24 opponents, 15 of them inside three rounds.

Stage is set: Doncaster's Keepmoat Stadium will play host to McDonnell's world title fight

The Mexican says: ‘I have watched tapes of McDonnell and respect him as a boxer but he will not be able to take my power. I expect another knockout.'

Ceja is fighting outside his country for the first time but appears unfazed. He says: ‘I am looking forward to the experience and to getting wider recognition of my skills.’

Dobson, who is hoping for a crowd in excess of 7,000, says: ‘This could be the fight of the year and the atmosphere will be fantastic.’

This is one occasion when the British boxing public should be wishing not only a brave fellow countryman all the luck in the world but also a promoter.

Ceja-McDonnell will be live, pay-per-view on Primetime via Sky Channel 498. For tickets call 08443245590.

 

Another promoter showing remarkable faith in one of his stable is Frank Warren, albeit that it requires a huge leap of faith.

A reluctant Dereck Chisora had to be coaxed out of the dressing room at Wembley last month and then plodded through the motions in a manner so desultory that many of us at ringside were checking what time the car park would close.

The mind-numbing poverty of that performance is believed to have cost Chisora the chance of a career-redeeming fight with Deontay Wilder, the new American heavyweight hope who has just ended Audley Harrison’s career.

Labouring: Dereck Chisora (left) returns next month after looking unimpressive at Wembley Arena

Even so, Warren is likely to put Chisora at the top of a multi-title bill next month which will also include a British and Commonwealth championship battle between Frankie Gavin and Denton Vassell.

Warren’s loyalty may not be misplaced. The last time Chisora fought that badly he came back immediately to comprehensively defeat European champion Robert Hellenius in the eyes of virtually everyone except the judges at ringside.

There is never any telling which Chisora will climb through the ropes on any given night but Warren has to be fervently hoping that this time it will be the dangerous puncher he is still backing to mount another world title challenge.

 

The last time Ricky Burns climbed into a boxing ring with a Puerto Rican he found himself on the canvas.

Burns, of course, recovered from that first round knock-down by Roman Martinez in 2010 and win the world lightweight title.

On Saturday he faces a more ferocious puncher who is coming to Scotland to avenge his countryman’s defeat.

The undefeated Jose Gonzalez has knocked out 17 of his 22 opponents in the course of establishing himself as the mandatory challenger for Burns’ WBO title.

Raring to go: Ricky Burns (above) defends his world title against Jose Gonzalez (below) in Glasgow

Burns is unconcerned. He says: ‘The only film we could find of Gonzalez are clips of him knocking people out. But I’ve never been much of a one for watching tapes of opponents. I prefer to work them out in the first couple of rounds.’

It is to be hoped the Sky cameras keep running on Saturday because it promises to be an exciting night at Glasgow’s new Emirates Arena.

Gonzalez believes he can add the pride of Scotland to his catalogue of fallen victims.

But Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn shares his Burns’ confidence and is beginning to plan ahead to big-time world title unification fights later this year.

Burns-Gonzalez will be live Saturday night on Sky Sports 1 HD.

 

It passes sorry commentary on crass modern culture that a foul-mouthed, woman-demeaning row between Paulie Malignaggi and Adrian Broner is beginning to go viral on the internet.

Italian New Yorker Malignaggi is a world welterweight champion. Broner, a lightweight title holder and one of the most exciting young fighters in the world, is moving up two divisions to challenge Malignaggi in his home city on June 22.

Heated: Paulie Malignaggi (left) and Adrien Broner face off ahead of their world title clash next month

They advertised that fight in Las Vegas on the morning of Floyd Mayweather’s routing of Robert Guerrero, at a press conference littered with four letter words and the humiliation of an allegedly mutual girlfriend by mocking her sex life.

This went well beyond the usual trash talk. Champions should know better.

  More... Hopkins: I want to take the Cleverly challenge... he's a threat to any light heavyweight in the world Record-breaking Hopkins defies odds to win world title at age of 48 Kessler believes Froch would have lost to Calzaghe... and plans to go toe-to-toe with him at the O2 Forget the training, diet and sparring... Froch's success is all down to his mum!








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