It has been billed as a clash between Britain and America but Bernard Hopkins claims that his light-heavyweight fight against Joe Calzaghe is a matter of race. "It's always a race issue when its black versus white," he said. Hopkins likes to talk - and, mostly, everyone likes to listen - but this was dangerous territory.

Hopkins had previously caused controversy by claiming that he "would never lose to a white person". As he confronted the issue again ahead of tomorrow's bout in Las Vegas, it became clear that the object of his anger was not Calzaghe but the residual racism which he claims is still out there, particularly in his own country of America.

Turning on his interrogators, he asked how race could not be an issue in boxing when so many journalists continued to use phrases like "the great white hope".

"A great white hope - what is that? Why has it been so important to see a white (heavyweight) champion if race doesn't play a part in everything from sport to politics?

"I'm up for this fight for a lot of personal reasons. To me it's a cultural fight. Ask some black athletes about culture, about competition. Don't ask the guy in the suburbs, don't ask the black guy who lives up there where his father is a lawyer or a judge, because he's out of touch. Go to Martin Luther King Boulevard - they've got one in every American city - and there's guys like me living there. Ask them what B-Hop said, and what he means.

"I'm just letting you know about where I come from and what goes on in the gym when one walks through that door wanting to be a fighter. The reason you came here is because you wouldn't be accepted anywhere else.

"I'm not saying it's right, but it is what it is. When Venus Williams plays any other ethnic group, it's a huge story. And believe me there's a lot here rooting that she loses and a lot here rooting that she wins. The American people still have problems with certain things they just can't get over with.

"Are y'all idiots, man, or do you just want me to say it? I have something that was given to me on the day of my birth: courage to say what others won't say. Martin Luther King had that, Marcus Garvey had that, Gandhi had that."

If Hopkins fights like he talks, Calzaghe is in for a real test in his first fight on American soil. Hopkins also reflected on his prison past, having served time for robbery, although his background received short shrift from the Welshman. "'I've been to prison,' Hopkins says. Big deal. Bernard had to go to prison to make him hard. I was born hard," Calzaghe said.

The Calzaghe camp's response to the endless stream of fight-talk coming from Hopkins was for Enzo Calzaghe, Joe's father and trainer, to present their opponent with a walking stick in recognition of the American's age of 43. "I'll put it with the rocking chair I got from Antonio Tarver," Hopkins responded. Clearly the only way to shut him is to beat him.

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