Calzaghe to get down and dirty

Boxing : Joe Calzaghe's father and trainer Enzo insists his son is "no angel" and will beat Bernard Hopkins at his own game if the American tries to drag tomorrow's light-heavyweight super-fight into the trenches.

Much has been made of Hopkins' assertion that his fantastic defensive tactics will provide the perfect foil to Calzaghe's lightning-fast hands and intelligent come-forward style.

But Calzaghe senior said: "Joe has fought just as dirty as the dirty fighters he's faced. Hopkins is not meeting an angel in that ring. He might look like an angel but he is a dirty fighter if need be."

Calzaghe senior went on to mock Hopkins' self-proclaimed status as a legend, and accused him of running scared of the kind of toe-to-toe tear-up which will excite the Thomas & Mack Center crowd.

The trainer already had a fractious relationship with Hopkins after the American mocked his ability to put coaching duties ahead of paternal instinct during the head-to-head press conference.

But Calzaghe got his own back today, insisting: "All this stuff Hopkins is saying suggests to me he has low self-esteem. The guy's got no guts and no faith in himself. It smacks of cowardice.

"He always says 'I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that', but he's a guy who never comes to fight and has never excited me in any way, shape or form. He's a stealer and a smotherer and that's all.

"He talks about being a legend but now the world wants to see that legend. If he turns out to be a legend, I'll be the first person to hold my hands up and admit that he's a great fighter.

"But the world wants to see him in a proper fight. Joe will live up to those expectations and perform like a true champion. We want Hopkins to fight the way he should fight. But deep down Hopkins knows he cannot win."

Hopkins himself has evoked comparisons with everyone from Tiger Woods to Gandhi this week and he continues to insist his own record places him a cut above the unbeaten Calzaghe.

His decade-long streak as world middleweight champion featured wins over the
likes of Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad and Hopkins says Calzaghe's dismissal of his record shows a lack of respect.

"Everybody knows what I've accomplished in my game and when Joe says I'm not really this or that, he's really lost it," said Hopkins. "That's just like saying Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan wasn't great.

"When you start saying things with a serious conviction of my track record, to me that's disrespectful of all the people who put me in that category."