By Nate Anderson: Undefeated light heavyweight Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) is reportedly going to continue his boxing career after his September 20th fight with Roy Jones Jr. in Madison Square Garden, New York City, and he plans to move back down to the super middleweight division where he intends on defending his WBO title. Calzaghe, 36, has reportedly sent a fax to the President of the WBO, letting him know his intentions of defending the WBO title after he fights Jones in September.
Needless to say, this is quite extraordinary news for most boxing fans, many of who have previously thought that Calzaghe would be retiring immediately after he fights Jones. In interviews, Calzaghe has been saying that the Jones fight would be his last, and that he didn’t wish to continue fighting because he had nothing to prove. Previous to that, Calzaghe had been hinting at fighting undefeated middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, who was also quite interested in a fight with Calzaghe. It’s uncertain now, however, whether Calzaghe would be merely interested in defending his WBO title against one of the top three contenders - Mikkel Kessler, Jean Pascal and Carl Froch - or seeking out a bout with Pavlik.
To be sure, a fight with Pavlik would be the much better option of the bunch, with both a better pay day and more appeal for fans and the media than a fight against one of the top three contenders in the WBO. Calzaghe has already beaten Kessler, and he’s already said that he doesn’t wish to fight the Danish fighter again.
Pascal, a Canadian with very fast hands but terrible punching form, isn’t an appealing challenger given his unknown status among most boxing fans. As fast as his hands are, he’s very flawed as a fighter, having little defense and a problem with keeping his fists closed when punching, which causes him to slap with his shots. I can just see it now, two fighters standing toe-to-toe trying to slap each other into submission.
Everything would be fine for both of them, except that it would be a major turn off for the fans to see both fighters trading nothing but slaps all night long. With Froch, he’s unknown outside of the UK, like many of the fighters that Calzaghe has faced in his career, although he would make for an interesting opponent due to his excellent power. He undoubtedly has much more power than Calzaghe, and would be looking to knock him out as fast as possible. This is the perfect opponent for Calzaghe, who has traditionally done well against fighters that load up with their shots and try to take him out.
As far as I can tell, Froch has horrible hand speed, and fights in a rather stiff and mechanical manner, even stiffer looking than heavyweight Wladimir Klitschko. He’s the type of fighter that Calzaghe will eat up, humiliate with his faster hands and elusive style of fighting. The ideal opponent, however, is Pavlik, but it’s doubtful that he would be an option, since by what Calzaghe says in his fax to the President of the WBO, he intends on defending the WBO super middleweight title. Pavlik, a middleweight, isn’t ranked in the super middleweight division.
July 17th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
hold up i thought this red coat is really a yellow coat and some fighters r just scared like joe calzaghe.now hes showing all the doubters what us fans already know,that calzaghe is 1 of the greatest fighters of hes era and that he wont duck no 1 who is willing fight him.michael lieberman u really talk rubbish now this statement from joe is out u should really not b able 2 talk ur crap on here again.ur write ups allways get found out 2 b bull.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
nate i wrote a month ago it wouldnt be joes last fight and it will be pavlik he fights aslong as kelly (or his handlers) dont change their mind now they realise what joe was doin. the wbo would let kelly challenge its happened before. dont start coming with the excuses for pavlik to pull out now. joe wanted roy in new york and his last fight will be in cardiff defending his title against pavlik. the ref will stop both roy and kelly inside 8. your description and prediction of froch is spot on he is mechanical, stiff and trys to load up and knock people out which you quite rightly state is when joes at his best against. the stiff mechanical hevy loading knock out artist description kind of fits with another fighter doesnt it nate! cant wait for next year. Joes nickname this time next year will be The Ghostbuster.