The Neutral Corner

BY MIKE ROSE

The Associated Press is reporting that the long-awaited fight between Bernard Hopkins and Joe Calzaghe will take place on April 19 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Hopkins' Ring magazine light heavyweight title will be at stake.

Interestingly, it will be Calzaghe's first fight as a light heavyweight after 21 straight world title defenses as a super-middleweight. Remember when Hopkins made 21 straight title defenses when he was middleweight champion?

Calzaghe, 35, is 44-0 and unified the three titles by winning the WBA and WBC belts with his win over Mikkel Kessler in November. Yet Calzaghe is not a well-known fighter, especially in this country.

So he's clearly moving up in weight to get the biggest fight against the biggest name that he can.

Makes sense. I just hope he's prepared.

Hopkins, who is an amazing 43 and still going pretty strong, comes up big in big fights. He's clearly not the fighter he once was, but he is still very good at finding ways to win.

Anyhow, this is one of the fights I hoped to see in 2008. It's happening and it should be a good one.