Past their prime

So many pro atheletes stick around way too damn long. I know its hard for them to let go of the sport they love, but its painful for us sports fans to watch their skills dwindle and then have memories of their latter years. Michael Jordan. George Foreman. Ricky Henderson. Mohammed Ali. Joe Montana. Roy Jones Jr.... the list goes on and it is loaded with boxers. But a guy that caught my attention this weekend was 43 year old Bernard Hopkins. Hopkins was an incredible middleweight champ for a long time and scored some surprising wins in light heavyweight to grab that title as well. Hopkins plays a stellar mind game on his opponents as big time trash talker. I've always though B-Hop was a solid bad ass. Then comes along an undefeated fighter from Wales named Joe Calzaghe, who was 44-0 and had a few titles of his own. I knew about the fight but didn't give much thought to it until I saw the result and what Hopkins had said before the fight. "I will never let a white boy beat me. Never." Ouch. I like that Calzaghe laughed it off and then let his fists do the talking. But who would have won if they both fought this fight in their prime? Now Roy Jones Jr. wants to fight this Welshman and I won't be surprises when RJJ goes down too. It sucks to see our favorite athletes hang on too long and then we have images like this burned in our minds forever...