Calzaghe shuns bright lights

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While Vegas lover Ricky Hatton relished his three trips to Nevada last year, Calzaghe still has to be persuaded to accept that having his face glowing down from the giant neon billboards is really much to write home about.

And Hopkins said: "Calzaghe is probably a God in Europe but he is not a Ricky Hatton. Hatton showed a lot of balls a long time ago by coming over here and fighting. Joe had the opportunity when he was 32 or 33, not 36."

Calzaghe insists he is far too focused on extending his unbeaten record and becoming a two-weight world champion to bother much about the historic setting for his showdown with middleweight great Hopkins.

But the Welshman maintains he has been willing to cross the Atlantic for years and has proved his point by accepting the challenge of Hopkins instead of seeing out his career in front of 50,000 fans in the Millennium Stadium.

Speaking in the Planet Hollywood resort where his presence is promoted on everything from TV screens to room key cards, Calzaghe said: "It's cool seeing my name in lights but I don't think about it much.

"At the end of the day I wanted to come here because Hopkins wouldn't come to Wales and I wanted to prove what I'm about. I didn't need to come to Vegas. I could have filled the Millennium Stadium with voluntary defences.

"I never really thought about fighting here when I was younger. I suppose it would have been a little bit disappointing if I had never got my chance to come to Las Vegas and fight.

"Maybe after my career is finished I will reflect on my 11 years as champion and the whole Vegas thing and maybe I'll appreciate it more. But for now a ring's a ring and it doesn't matter where it is."