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Hopkins promises to punish light-heavyweight champ

Light-heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins, left, and undisputed super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe pose during a press conference in New York on Tuesday. PHOTO: AP

Bernard Hopkins isn't going to apologize to anybody.

Not to all those fighters from the UK who he claims are inferior to their counterparts from the US. And certainly not for making that racially tinged comment toward Joe Calzaghe when the two famously stepped toe-to-toe last December in Las Vegas.

"It's his job to prove I was wrong," Hopkins said, "and I'm going to prove I was right."

The cagey American takes on the unbeaten Welshman in a much-anticipated light-heavyweight bout on April 19 in Las Vegas, the site of their first explosive confrontation. That was when Hopkins and Calzaghe traded barbs in the press room and again on the weigh-in stage before Floyd Mayweather's fight against Britain's Ricky Hatton.

Hopkins provided the last word, saying: "I will never let a white boy beat me. Never."

During a press conference at Planet Hollywood on Tuesday, the longtime middleweight champion cut off a reporter who was about to ask Hopkins to elaborate on the remark.

"To stay competitive, I have to be a person that some people won't like. If I take that away from me, then I'm not being me. Trust me, I mean every damn thing I say," said Hopkins, whose string of 20 title defenses was stopped by the first of two close losses to Jermain Taylor in 2005.

"See, that's the scary part to some. This ain't a promotion. I mean everything I say," he said.

Calzaghe, who's defended the super-middleweight title 21 times over the past decade, mostly laughed off the insults lobbed by the American.

He considers them mind games -- merely another way for the unorthodox counterpuncher to throw the pride of Wales off his game.

"Was I offended? No, I laughed," said Calzaghe, who is coming off a stirring unanimous decision over Mikkel Kessler, by far his most decorated opponent, that unified the 168-pound (76kg) division.

"I don't care if it's a black guy, white guy, green guy, any colored guy, I'm not going to lose. So if he feels he has to make that comment, that's up to him," he said.

British promoter Frank Warren said Hopkins' comment wasn't malicious.
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