Joe Calzaghe feels that he is ready to fight Bernard Hopkins in America after his vicious world title bout with Sakio Bika. On Saturday night he made the 19th defence of his super middleweight titles against the Cameroonian in Manchester. And is now only one short of Hopkins’ record of 20 defences at middleweight.

Calzaghe’s Promoter Frank Warren established he is preparing a date for Calzaghe in the States in either February or March. “People think I’m a home boy, but I’ll fight Bernard Hopkins in his own garden,” the Welshman said. “Hopkins is the sort of fighter I’d get up for. I need those big name fights to bring out the best in me.” Nevertheless, with the 41-year-old Hopkins talking about challenging WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev, Denmark’s Mikkel Kessler would show to be a more sensible option.Kessler bulldozed Germany’s Markus Beyer inside three rounds in Copenhagen on Saturday night to add the WBC crown to his WBA belt. And with Calzaghe as the holder of the IBF and WBO titles, a fight between the two of them would be a rare four-belt unification bout (read more…)