Cortez to referee Calzaghe vs Hopkins

Joe Cortez will be the third man in the ring for the huge Joe Calzaghe-Bernard Hopkins showdown in the Planet Hollywood Ring on April 19 in Las Vegas.The top American referee, famous for his catch line: "I'm fair but I'm firm", has handled 138 world title contests and recently oversaw Ricky Hatton's fight with Floyd Mayweather which saw Cortez controversially deduct a point from the Brit for hitting behind the head.Cortez's last Calzaghe fight was in October 1997 when the Welshman won the WBO World Super-Middleweight title against Chris Eubank. He has only worked one Hopkins fight and that was against Robert Allen in April 2004. Unbeaten Calzaghe is happy with the decision to have Cortez officiate his light-heavyweight super-fight in his US debut and says that the referee won't have to work too hard on the night.Calzaghe said: "I'm delighted that an experienced and well respected referee like Joe Cortez is in charge of our fight but he's going to have very little to do apart from give Hopkins a count to ten,"" I don't do holding and mauling, I come to fight, and Joe is aware of that so I'm sure he will let me get on with my job,"" When Hopkins is getting beat up and his dream team of trainers fuss over who will throw in the towel, at least he knows that Joe will step in and save him."