Joe Calzaghe has stated he will "retire and never show my face in public again" if he loses to Bernard Hopkins in Las Vegas on April 19.

Calzaghe, 36, says he plans to become the first man to stop Hopkins a week on Saturday in Nevada in a fight that will be shown on Setanta Sports 1.

"I throw more punches and land more punches," Super-middleweight king Calzaghe told BBC Sport. "That's what it comes down to, that's the basics of boxing."

He added: "I've definitely noticed that I'm punching harder in the gym. I will use the speed, but I'll definitely mix things up with the power punches, I want to knock him out.

"I hope he's got the Jeff Lacy (who Calzaghe outpointed in 2006) mentality and thinks that I slap, that I don't hit hard.

"Because he's in for a big shock. Believe me he's going to be feeling the power. I'm aiming to sit a bit more on my punches to hurt him."

Calzaghe, unbeaten in 44 fights, believes he will be more effective at 175lb than he was at 168lb, and revealed that despite the step up in weight, he has not changed his training regime.

"I've not changed anything. The only difference is I'm not starving myself as much to make 12st," he continued. I honestly believe making 12st drains my punching power.

"I've always been a big puncher, but over the last few years losing those last few pounds has made me struggle.

"Until you actually fight you don't really know how things will go, but as far as I'm concerned, I'll be better at the weight, much better. I'll have the punching power and the speed will be the same, the speed's always there."

Calzaghe also made assurances that Hopkins's trash-talking would not put him off his game in the lead-up to the fight.

"I think he tries to get into opponents' heads. But believe me, he's barking up the wrong tree with me," said Calzaghe.

"The loud one in the room is not the one you want to worry about. It's the ones who are quiet that I get worried about.

"He brings nothing in the ring or outside the ring that I haven't seen before. So I'll let him carry on and keep barking and barking because on fight-night I'm going to be the bad guy, I promise that." 

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