Wales’ Joe Calzaghe finally did what he always said he wanted to do – come to the U.S. and show his stuff. When he won a split decision over Bernard Hopkins in April in Las Vegas, it was mission accomplished.
Now, Calzaghe is wimping out of a proposed super middleweight fight with middleweight champion and all-around monster, Kelly Pavlik.
“I’m not sure if Pavlik really wants to face me at the moment,” Calzaghe told a South Wales publication last week, days after Pavlik on June 7 made his first middleweight title defense with a third-round stoppage of Calzaghe’s Wales homeboy, Gary Lockett. “He would have little to gain because I believe I would definitely beat him and, with respect to Gary Lockett, I would be a step-up too far for Pavlik.”
Instead, Calzaghe said he wants to end his career by fighting 100-year-old Roy Jones Jr. Well, OK, so Jones is only 39, but he’s an old 39. He hasn’t had a significant victory since he defeated Antonio Tarver in the first of their three fights in November 2003. That was nearly five years ago.
Calzaghe, 36, also told the South Wales Argus that a bout with Jones is “the right fight for me at the moment.”
He must mean that since his next fight is supposed to be his last, Jones is a certain victory on which to retire. Bob Arum, Pavlik’s promoter, said it means something else in regard to his fighter.
“It’s obvious nonsense,” Arum said about Calzaghe’s aforementioned remarks about Pavlik (34-0, 30 KOs). “Obviously, if he thought he could beat Kelly and have an easy time with Kelly, he would grab the Pavlik fight.”
Arum then swung the bat as hard as he could and hit a long home run.
“This is what I call the Floyd Mayweather (Jr.) school of how to avoid an opponent – demean an opponent,” Arum said via telephone Tuesday. “Remember what Mayweather said about (Antonio) Margarito and (Miguel) Cotto?: ‘They are not in my class, therefore I do not deem it appropriate for me to fight them.’ Once a fighter says that, it means he’s afraid to fight him.”
Arum said he is of the understanding that Calzaghe’s promoter, Frank Warren, is not pleased with this development.
“Well, apparently Frank Warren is very upset with it and Frank Warren wants him to fight Pavlik,” Arum said. “So it’s not definite that he is going to fight Roy Jones.”
The two promoters had been in early talks about a Pavlik-Calzaghe matchup. Arum has an idea as to why Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) is suddenly singing this tune.
“After he saw Pavlik demolish Lockett – who, believe me is a much better fighter than Kelly’s dominance of him – it gave him second thoughts,” Arum said. “I mean, Kelly is an unbelievable force in the ring. We haven’t seen a middleweight like Pavlik in a long, long time, a guy with this kind of sharpshooting and tremendous punching power.
“But you can’t make Calzaghe fight him. He is under no obligation to fight him. If he doesn’t fight him, he doesn’t fight him.”
A fight between Pavlik, 26, and Calzaghe would be huge. Calzaghe is a longtime super middleweight champion. He would be coming back down from light heavyweight – where he beat Hopkins – to fight a young man who appears to be everything Arum says he is. It would be an attraction of major proportions.
Jones-Calzaghe, on the whole, could be awful. Real boxing folks would see through the hype of the promotion, and the fight itself has the potential to be a real yawner. It’s doubtufl that Jones at this point can hurt Calzaghe, and it’s quite possible he would not fight enough to really try.
If that does materialize, look for Arum to try to put Pavlik in with Arthur Abraham if he defeats Edison Miranda in their rematch Saturday in Hollywood, Fla. If that can’t be made, Arum said he might try to secure a deal for Pavlik-Hopkins.
Neither matchup would be as intriguing as Pavlik-Calzaghe, we’re sorry to say.
Up until now this particular American reporter has been as impressed as any with Calzaghe’s accomplishments in the ring. He has received high praise in this space as well as anything these hands have written for the newspaper. But does Calzaghe really think boxing experts and fans alike are going to believe him when he intimates that Pavlik is not ready for someone of his ilk?
That is downright insulting. Do we expect Calzaghe to say that he is afraid of Pavlik? No. But we don’t expect him to come up with this kind of ridiculous excuse as to why he wants to fight Jones instead of Pavlik, either.
Hey, just because Jones might be a legend in the minds of many, doesn’t mean a thing at this point. He is just not that good anymore.
Bottom line is, if Calzaghe goes through with Jones as his final fight, he will have taken a huge step backward in the hearts of most not in the United Kingdom. And who knows? The United Kingdom fans are fantatical, but that doesn’t mean they’re stupid. Even many of them may figure out this con job by their boy.
Calzaghe fighting Jones instead of Pavlik will mean one thing and one thing only, that Calzaghe knows darn well that Pavlik has an outstanding chance of beating him.
Calzaghe has two monikers: “Pride of Wales” and “Italian Dragon.” A dragon is supposed to breathe fire. Right now the “Pride of Wales” is acting more like Baby Godzilla, who blew those little smoke rings.