Calzaghe Hopkins will be a snooze

This is one pay-per-view I'm not likely to buy, unless the boxing landscape is so inactive that I'm starving for a fight. This one has little potential for excitement. Calzaghe is forthcoming in the recent Ring excerpts from his book that he's a fan of the sweet science of hitting without being hit and that he doesn't need to prove his manhood by being carried out on a stretcher or going to war to please the fans. That's all well and good, but then don't schedule a fight with a defensive boxer who is so similarly unconcerned with pleasing the fans that it took him 10 title defenses to even get noticed by hardcore fans. Both of these guys have always been happy to let it go to the cards...which frankly is the only thing that makes it have any potential at all. To wit, with Hopkins aging and being an intelligent fighter, obsessive trainer and skilled tactician, it seems quite possible that he'll understand that he won't be able to keep up with the relatively fresh volume puncher Calzaghe...so he'll go after him. Maybe draw him in, turn him, turn him and bring his hands down with body blows, then batter him about. I think that's the one hope for a fight that all too likely is a tactical snooze fest with neither fighter letting his hands go while he's in the pocket. Hopkins smothers. Calzaghe enters, slaps and retreats. Repeat.

This one so likely goes to the cards for Calzaghe that it doesn't bear watching. Frankly, I don't feel so confident in that prediction that I'd bet on it...and it's tough to bet against Hopkins since he was still very legitimate at the elite level the last time out. But age catches us all and against a crafty volume puncher like Calzaghe with another gear in his arsenal, it's all too likely that Hopkins' age will show for the first time. Age erodes our reflexes every one and while Hopkins' game isn't based on his reflexes as much as his craft, against Calzaghe time will all too likely tell. Calzaghe by decision.