BOXING:Bernard Hopkins has set his sights on a showdown with WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe after defeating Winky Wright in Las Vegas.
The 42-year-old retained his IBO light heavyweight title by a unanimous decision at the Mandalay Bay and then threw out a challenge to 168 pounds champion Calzaghe, who meets Mikkel Kessler in Wales on November 3 to unify the division.
"I want Calzaghe," said Hopkins. "Tell him to come over here." Hopkins (48-4-1, 32 KOs) has won his last two fights at this weight after inflicting a first defeat since December 1999 on Wright and winning a decision against Antonio Tarver in June 2006.
"It was a tough fight, a very close fight," Hopkins said.
"Winky is tough, and he kept coming." Judges Dave Moretti and Glenn Trowbridge scored the fight, 117-111, while judge Glenn Hamada had it 116-112 for the winner.
A headbutt by Hopkins in the third round left a significant cut over the left eye of Wright, whose wound began to bleed at a significant rate. And afterwards Wright accused his opponent of dirty tactics.
"I won," Wright said.
"It was a dirty fight. He was headbutting all day. I have deep gashes from headbutts on top of my head.
"We came to fight and that's what we did. He fought well. I still want to fight the best. I thought I won the fight, but it was a close one. It was a headbutt, that's it."
The referee briefly stopped the match and warned Hopkins as Wright was treated by the ringside doctor. Hopkins, however, insisted the incident was an accident.
"He was coming towards me, and I was going under," he said. "It definitely was an accidental headbutt."
In the marquee undercard match, Jorge Linares (24-0, 15 KOs) remained unbeaten by winning the WBC interim featherweight title with a 10th-round technical knock-out of Oscar Larios (59-6-1). Golf
Key players and officials say a drugs-testing policy is urgently needed in golf, according to World Anti-Doping Agency chairman Dick Pound.
"I don't know how widespread it is, as there is no testing at the moment," said Pound.
"But key players and officials are telling me we need a policy in place before we have a major public problem."
Player, a three-times British Open champion, estimated at least 10 players were using performance-enhancing drugs, quite possibly more.
Pound backed the 71-year-old South African, saying: "That comes from one of the icons of golf, who has no particular axe to grind out there now, other than to try and maintain the integrity of the sport."
Open organisers, the Royal and Ancient, said plans for a worldwide, co-ordinated drugs-testing system were at an advanced stage but would not say when it would be implemented.
