The Sydney Morning Herald
Australian cruiserweight champion Danny Green has ratcheted up the pressure on Bernard ‘‘The Executioner’’ Hopkins by calling the American great out on US TV.
Green, who shocked the boxing world by knocking out Roy Jones Jr earlier this month, was in the crowd at California’s Agua Caliente Casino on Saturday to cheer on Sydney’s Vic Darchinyan in a world-title fight.
After Darchinyan’s ferocious second round knockout win over Mexican Tomas Rojas the US TV broadcaster of the fight, Showtime, crossed to Green in the stands for an interview.
‘‘I took down one legend - the legendary Roy Jones Jr,’’ Green told an audience of millions of American boxing fans.
‘‘If I can get Bernard Hopkins to come to Australia or I’ll come here and fight him.
‘‘I don’t care.
‘‘I’ve fought all over the world.
‘‘To get two legends in the ring and to try and defeat them would be a dream come true.’’
Before Green knocked Jones Jr out in the first round in Sydney on December 2, Hopkins, who was set to fight Jones Jr in a huge payday bout, painted the Perth-born fighter as a nobody, but that seems to have changed.
Green’s camp appears to have 44-year-old Hopkins’ attention by offering him a cash windfall to fight in Australia greater than what he could earn against any other opponent, including light heavyweight Chad Dawson.
‘‘Danny Green is who he is over there (Australia),’’ Hopkins told US boxing website Boxden.com.
‘‘He fills the place up and they have the budget to satisfy me.’’
Green told Showtime he hoped to fight Hopkins ‘‘in the first quarter of 2010’’.
Asked about possibly fighting another US light heavyweight champion, Antonio Tarver, who knocked out Jones Jr in 2004, Green said Tarver was not the number one target.
Tarver declined to fight Green three years ago, instead looking for bigger paydays with other boxers.
‘‘He had his chance in 2007 and he messed us around pretty big so we’ll wait and see,’’ Green said.
AAP
Source: smh.com.au
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