After a weekend of intensive (care?) talks with Don King in New York, Frank Warren reports to me that the Bernard Hopkins fight is now very much on and that the Millennium Stadium, sometime in early to mid-2003, is the likely venue.

For something that's been on and off more often than Jordan's top, this is good news as I am starting to believe that my theory that Hopkins is looking for his final hurrah and payday sometime soon was close to the mark.

In the meantime, I have the little matter of a really good positive performance on December 14 to occupy my thoughts.

I think that a wake up call on that date will push things along in American eyes and that's all I'm focussing on at the moment.

Training is going really well at Cwmcarn. It's much more organised and there's no question that the facilities are far better than the ones at my old Newbridge gym.

It's turning out to be a really good investment and it's also nice to be able to entertain the Press in the manner that they are accustomed in posher locations in London.

We had a Press Day and it was nice to be able to give them sandwiches and a beer and have the space to do proper interviews.

A fantastic performance by Newcastle has to be the highlight of this week.

You just knew it was going to be a special night from the off and the sight of two linesmen doing the full hokey-cokey (right arm in, right arm out).

I think calling them assistant referees would offend the Trade Descriptions Act!

It was also a relief to see that Juventus came through in Kiev, even with a weakened team, as the nightmare scenario of Newcastle winning and still not going through surely would have brought all football into disrepute.

Every top club bleats on about how important Champions League revenue is and then they have the utter contempt to cheat the fans and the TV public by putting out second rate teams.

Someone ought to remind them that the reason why there is so much dosh on the table is that it's supposed to be the best of the best.

Can you imagine UEFA having the gall to ban Man Utd and Juve for two years and withholding their entire season's revenue?

Of course not! However, if it was written in the rules, surely it would deter the blatant rigging of fixtures which is, in essence, what is going on at the moment.

Craig Bellamy, as I have predicted all along, has it in him to become a top world footballer, mentioned in the same breath as Zidane, Vieri , etc.

How he keeps on coming back from serious injuries and hitting the top note straight away continues to amaze me and his two goals on Wednesday were just reward.

Put yourself in his position. It's the very last minute and you are out.

All his thoughts were on not the acuteness of the angle but hitting the target and the goalie's thigh did the rest.

He has the very rare ability not to let the importance of the moment get to him and simply gets the job done.

I would put him as twice the player than another big timer in Michael Owen at Liverpool and getting up to the heights of Thierry Henry but with a real killer instinct.

England's cricket performance in the Ashes was the low point of the week, an abject surrender where the players left standing seemed to be spooked by the power and reputation of the Aussies.

I see that the old fogey selectors and the powers that be are trying to justify the selection of half a squad who got delivered to Australia by air ambulance.

There's no point in us building up the Ashes if we don't send out a team that can stand up let alone play.

Stability and game plans seem to be lacking and you cannot expect players to perform on a world class stage if there is a lack of preparation.

Till next week.