WELL, it’s been an interesting couple of weeks for my former foes, with my final three opponents, Mikkel Kessler, Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins all in action with severely contrasting fortunes.

My old mate B-Hop won in Philadelphia this week, which was supposed to set up a showdown fight with Roy Jones, a rematch that many people wanted to see.

However, that looks less likely now after Jones got beaten, and brutally so, by Danny Green in Australia in a cruiserweight fight on Tuesday.

Inevitably I will be asked about my thoughts on those guys and to be honest I think they should both retire, though I have my doubts if they will.

Hopkins is 44, undoubtedly a legend and he has nothing left to prove. He’s talking about stepping up to heavyweight and maybe fighting David Haye but I can’t say I think that would be good to watch.

Haye is too big, too strong and too fast and he could seriously hurt Hopkins. It’s a giant mismatch.

As for Jones, he should definitely retire, because in my opinion, and I respect him hugely, he is only fighting for the money now.

Roy has been an incredible force in boxing but it’s time to step away. You don’t like to see guys getting hurt and he is no cruiserweight, he was pummeled in Australia and it was sad to see.

If the two did ever fight, despite the loss to Jones, I think he’d beat Hopkins.

Styles make fights at the end of the day and having been in the ring with them both, I think there are a few factors that Jones could exploit and use to his advantage against Hopkins. However, it is doubtful whether or not that fight will happen now, surely the interest is no longer as strong.

I was also surprised to see Kessler, my tip to win the Super Six super middleweight tournament, losing to American Andre Ward, not someone I know an awful lot about.

I haven’t seen the fight so can only go on what I have read, but by all accounts this was not the same Kessler who was so dominant in the super middleweight division for so long.

For the last two years he’s spent more time in court battling with his ex-promoter than he has in the ring (he’s only had two fights) and you just can’t get away with that level of inactivity and expect to remain at the same level.

I had tipped Kessler to comfortably beat Carl Froch, but now it would seem much more like a 50/50 fight, depending on whether Kessler has anything left in the tank. All credit to Ward though, apparently he boxed very intelligently and it’s a great result for him.

Elsewhere and the attention turns to this weekend with two big nights of boxing, with the first one holding much more interest for me than the second.

Tonight is the light welterweight edition of Prizefighter and my good mate and Calzaghe Promotions fighter Gavin Rees is hoping to get back into the big time by winning it.

It’s a tough competition to call, it always is, and while I can see Gavin taking the title and believe he can do it, it’s going to be tough.

Like I’ve just said about Kessler, it’s hard to be at your best after inactivity and unfortunately Gavin has had only one fight in 18 months. Ring rust could be a factor.

However, if he can shake off those cobwebs against Ted Bami (a big hitter) in the first round, I think Gavin will go all the way and win it.While the inactivity counts against him, I believe the format suits Gavin perfectly.

He’s a relentless fighter, he starts well and doesn’t let opponents settle and in a format with three-round fights, he will be difficult to contain for anyone.

In terms of pedigree, he’s head and shoulders the best fighter in it. He also has my dad in his corner and his training has gone very well.

The following night Amir Khan fights Dimitri Salita, a much-hyped fight that I just can’t get that excited about.

Salita is a nice kid and was on the card when I fought Roy Jones, but I have not really ever been that impressed with him and I see it as a pretty easy fight for Khan, who will win by stoppage or clearly on points. The big tests are yet to come for him.

Elsewhere, I would like to give a quick plug to a dinner happening in March next year, honouring my career. The entire event is in aid of the Help for Heroes campaign, something I feel very passionately about and we’re hoping to raise £500,000 for the cause. Details are on my website, joecalzaghe.com Finally, everyone knows I am a big football fan and it was a great pleasure to go to Villa Park with my son Connor last weekend for the game against Tottenham.

It was my first live game for quite a while and I thought both sides were very good, although maybe Spurs just shaded it.

The Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill is a good friend of mine and hopefully I can catch a few more games this season.

Maybe one of those sides can crack the top four as well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, just like with the World Cup draw today. Fingers crossed Italy get a nice draw!