The Pride of Wales... and Sardinia

Jesus it’s quiet. With the country in the grip of an election – of which the outcome seems to be a forgone conclusion – there seems very little to write about if you’re not interested in Italian politics.

Here in Wales though adopted Welshman Joe Calzaghe - born in London with a Sardinian dad (tenuous links I shit ‘em!) – will take on American Bernard Hopkins in Las Vegas this weekend.

Hopkins is, unsurprisingly given his chosen profession, a bit of a hard bastard. Known as ‘The Executioner’, according to the good burghers at Wikkipedia by the age of thirteen he was mugging people for a living and at seventeen had entered the penal system. There he witnessed the rape and murder of a fellow inmate over a packet of cigarettes. It was also where he discovered his passion for boxing.

Calzaghe claims Hopkins is a ‘dirty fighter’ who will probably resort to using the ‘elbow and headbutt’, and indeed one major boxing site boxingscene.com is already running a readers poll on its forums entitled ‘How Many Headbutts In Hopkins vs. Calzaghe?’

More than 20 apparently!

Many - Hopkins included – believe this will be among the biggest tests of Calzaghe’s career. It’s his first fight in the United States and the first time he will have fought as a light heavyweight. It’s also one of the few times that Calzaghe has been drawn into pre-fight verbal spats.

When Hopkins boasted that he "would never let a white boy beat me", Calzaghe retorted, “If he tries to slap me I'll drop the f****** head on the guy, Sardinian style!”

That's good enough for me!