Boxing’s next mega fight will be on April 19′th in Las Vegas, Nevada when two legends clash for the Light Heavyweight Championship of the World. It will be Bernard Hopkins (48-4-1, 32 KO’s) vs Joe Calzaghe (44-0, 32 KO’s) in what many observers believe will be a career defining fight for both participants.

Oddly, many fight fans including the media have seemingly written Hopkins off. Most feel that at the age of 43, the man known as the “Executioner” no longer possesses the physical attributes needed to be victorious. Chuckboxing questions this synopsis. If you watched Hopkins last PPV fight vs Winky Wright the word “snoozefest” might come to mind. However, I was impressed with the effort because Winky is a very crafty fighter that has never been overwhelmed throughout his Hall of Fame career spanning 17 years and 56 pro fights. It would have been very foolish of B-Hop to force an all out assault against such a talented and defensive minded fighter like Winky. Instead, Bernard intelligently used his classic veteran tactics to simply outbox Wright in order to preserve the win.

Before that Hopkins beat Antonio Tarver by landing nearly 40% of his power punches which resulted in a 5′th round knockdown (*note Tarver had not been knocked down in his 3 previous fights against Roy Jones Jr). Also, you can”t forget the fact that both Wright and Tarver are awkward south paw fighters that present problems for almost all orthodox styled opponents.

Hopkins literally relishes playing the role of underdog. Against Felix Trinidad and Antonio Tarver the Philadelphia fighter found himself not being favored. Even when he was picked against Oscar DelaHoya many observers secretly believed B-Hop was not going to beat the Golden Boy. In all 3 instances Hopkins passed these challenges with flying colors.

Calzaghe known as “The Pride of Wales” is considered by most to be Hopkin’s most difficult task by far. And please understand, I’m not telling you to take Bernard Hopkins to win this fight. All I’m saying is be very careful, because betting against “the Executioner” has been proven before to be a fatal mistake!