TODAY I want to tell Argus readers about what is really happening in the negotiations with Bernard Hopkins' management.

Speculation has been going on since pretty much the day after I beat Dane Mikkel Kessler to unify the super middleweight division.

My promoter Frank Warren said straight after that fight that we wanted Hopkins next in a transatlantic super fight and since then it has been talked about a lot.

Indeed, the Argus reported on the Monday after I fought Kessler that HBO had already made plans to get the fight on and I said at the time it was what I really wanted.

Well, the talks with Golden Boy Promotions, Hopkins' representatives, are almost over and I've been told the fight's on April 12.

The venue is not set in stone but it does look like the fight will be in Las Vegas (rather than New York) and will be in one of the mega casinos.

Two that I have heard mentioned in discussions are the MGM Grand, which staged Floyd Mayweather v Ricky Hatton and also the Mandalay Bay resort.

I am hopeful that by this time next week, the deal will be sealed, but if it isn't it seems like it will only be a matter of time.

I think that fighting in America for the first time is the logical step for me to make, I will be 36 in March and the clock is ticking on how much longer I carry on.

I don't want people to look back at my career and say I defended my title over 20 times but I bottled the chance to make a big name for myself in the States.

I want to be remembered as someone who was always ready to take the biggest fights and biggest challenges and even at 107-years old, Hopkins is the right fight for me.

He is - even at 42 - the number one ranked light heavyweight in the world and he's given me all the incentive in the world to beat him.

I went to Las Vegas to support my mate Ricky Hatton and when I met Hopkins he got in my face and taunted me, saying he'd "never lose to a white boy."

Can you imagine if I had made comments like that?

I don't think I would have won Sports Personality, that is for sure!

Hopkins can talk all he wants but I know I will beat him, I can't wait to hear my promoter Frank Warren say that the deal is done. I think it is going to be one of the biggest fights of 2008.

Speaking of massive fights, I just want to end this column by expressing my absolute delight at David Haye and Enzo Maccarinelli signing up to fight on March 8 at the O2 Arena in London.

It seems like for the first time in years, politics are taking a back seat and the fights fans really want to see are being made.

It happened with Kessler and I, with Ricky and Mayweather and now we have the Battle of Britain' that all UK fight fans have been dreaming of.

Fair play to Haye for taking the fight, Enzo would probably have done it for peanuts if he had too; he's desperate to test himself against the best.

I probably get on so well with my stablemate because he and I share the same desire and determination to be the best and we are so close that I am going to be the Godfather to his newborn son (he made me an offer I couldn't refuse).

It's the kind of fight that will elevate Macca to a whole new level and he will be training like a monster for the next ten weeks.

It's a little too early to be making predictions, but I am tipping Enzo to knock him out!

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