Britain’s Joe Calzaghe recovered from a first-round knockdown to defeat Bernard Hopkins by split decision in a light-heavyweight bout in Las Vegas on Saturday. In a closely fought battle, the 36-year-old Calzaghe showed little of his famed prodigious punch output in the first two rounds as Hopkins gained the early initiative.
Within minutes of touching down at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas after an 11-hour flight from London, Joe Calzaghe roused his small entourage, went into the desert and did something he doesn’t do even at home in Newbridge, south Wales: he ran for seven miles.
At an age when he could be forgiven for slipping on his favourite pair of slippers, relaxing in a fireside armchair and re-watching any one of the 500 or more world-title fights he has promoted, Don King refuses to fade away. The stentorian voice still booms as it has since the days of Muhammad Ali’s Rumble in the Jungle.