Jones meeting brings back some hard memories

It is well known that Bernard Hopkins faces Roy Jones Jr and Joe Calzaghe. But another man to have shared a ring with both was Richie Woodhall, the former WBC super-middleweight champion, who now works as a trainer and a commentator with Setanta, who are screening Saturday night's big fight, and the BBC.

Woodhall had the final bout of his professional career when he was stopped in ten rounds by Calzaghe at Sheffield Arena in 2000. Twelve years earlier, he had the biggest bout of his amateur career when he shared the ring with Jones in the Olympic light-middleweight semi-final in Seoul.

"At the time, we didn't really know who he was, he was just an up-and-coming kid," Woodhall said. "Kevin Hickey (the Great Britain coach) said that he had heard he was a bit special, so I would have to be in and out very quickly when I faced him.

"But he was so naturally gifted. He would hold his hands low and just invite you to go after him. I actually took the second round, the score was 59-58 five times (rounds were scored on a 20-point must system). But in the third round he really stepped it up. He had very, very fast hands."