Hopkins feels that after this impressive victory, he should be thrust into a new category of fighter – Icon.
“What I’m ready to pull off April 19 with another undefeated fighter – remember I destroyed three known Hall of Famer undefeated fighters. Come April 19 people going to have to put me in a whole new different category. Maybe that Icon type thing. The Icon is really special to me. Legend, already got that. Icon is – that’s the climax, you can’t get any higher than that.”

But there is a reason that boxing pundits have found Calzaghe the favorite against the cagy veteran from Philly. The one thing that makes this fight a difficult one for Hopkins is simple – activity.

Calzaghe is known to throw punches in bunches while Hopkins always seems to pace himself like the old man in the park contemplating his next chess move. But Hopkins sees Calzaghe and his quick hands as a welcoming invite to Hopkins putting on yet another impressive display.

“If he throws 1000 punches he’s opening himself up to get hit 1000 times,” Hopkins jests.

“I love a guy that punches because now I don’t have to do too much work like a Winky Wright fight. I gotta get the turtle to stick his head out the shell. This guy likes to fire. He has a high punch output. I love that,” he boasts. “It’s a great opportunity…The more he punches the greater the opportunity and that’s what I like and that’s why I say this is no comparison to fighting a Winky Wright, where you got to figure out the puzzle and try to trick him to punch.”

While many pick this as Hopkins' defining moment, the former middleweight champion hearkens back to September as the fight that he had the most to prove.

“It was tense a moment, but also it was a moment of standing out amongst any possible thing that I can dream of accomplishing on the most important fight, the most important year of my legacy,” he says when reflecting on his domination against then undefeated Felix “Tito” Trinidad. “So it was a thing that I had to fight through adversity. I had to fight through was humanly was normal for anybody to have a letdown. I rose. I (rose) up at the worst case scenario.”

Because of this, Hopkins feels that Calzaghe will be up against something that he’s never dealt with before. It’s that adversity Hopkins was up against with Trinidad that took him out of his comfort zone. But Hopkins overcame the adversity and that is something that he doesn’t think Calzaghe will be able to do.
“It’s going to be totally different (for him when he faces me) and when it becomes different to him the fights over.”

But we’ve all heard the “retirement” stories before. Every athlete claims that there is nothing else to prove, yet finds themselves back in action before you know it. Hopkins claims that his situation is different.
“When I get past Joe Calzaghe I will really, really will have to make a big, big announcement,” Hopkins reveals, alluding to the tearful announcement that the Packers’ #4 made recently. “I ran out of opponents. And when you go look for a fight it’s like being in the neighborhood you normally pick on the person that you shouldn’t have picked on? I’m not going to be in that position because now I’m looking for a fight then having something to fight for. There’s a big difference. And so, you know, whether I want to retire or not I think I’m force to retire because I ran out of opponents.”

Just when those words begin to sink into the psyche, Hopkins slips in. “If I wanted to, I could fight another three or four more years.”

Touche.