By William MacKay: In recent boxing news, it seems as if undefeated light heavyweight Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) has finally found a home for his final bout of his career against 5-time champion Roy Jones Jr. (52-4, 38 KOs), with the bout likely taking place at New York’s Madison Square Garden on 20 September. The two had previously been considering making the fight in Las Vegas, but it appears now that it will be taking place in New York. Calzaghe, 36, has said that this will be his last fight of his career, as he doesn’t wish to continue on after this and face other more exciting fights like ones against Kelly Pavlik.
Most fans aren’t too particularly pleased with Calzaghe’s choice of fighting the 39 year-old Jones, who many feel is a faded and washed up fighter, having left his best behind him five years ago when he defeated John Ruiz for the WBA heavyweight title. It’s been pretty much a downward spiral since then, however, as Jones has frequently lost, getting beaten by Glen Johnson, and twice more by Antonio Tarver. Perhaps not wanting to experience that feeling again, Jones has lowered the level of his opposition considerably in recent years, defeating fringe light heavyweight Anthony Hanshaw in a controversial 12-round unanimous decision in July 2007, and before that beating a non-top 15 ranked Prince Badi Ajamu.
Most recently, Jones defeated former welterweight and junior welterweight champion Felix Trinidad by a 12-round unanimous decision in January. Although Jones got the decision, he looked slow, old and only showed a fraction of his once great boxing skills. His speed was still there, at least in spurts, but his work rate was still as poor as it had been in recent fights. Instead of working hard for the entire fight, like he previously did in his prime, Jones has evolved into a fighter that throws short flurries while spending the rest of the time posing in his chicken boxing stance.
I suppose he has no other choice, because he clearly doesn’t have the endurance to fight hard for 12 or even 10 rounds like he used to, but it’s painful to watch how diminished he’s become over the years. It’s still interesting to watch him fight, because he shows brief glimpses occasionally of the fighter that he used to be years ago, albeit against a much lower grade of opponent. Against Calzaghe, a fighter still at the top of his game, this will be a fight that Jones has very little chance to win. Perhaps his only chance is to catch Calzaghe coming forward, much in the same way that Bernard Hopkins did in Calzaghe’s recent fight, and possibly knock him down with a big shot.
However, Jones would have to muster up enough energy to throw a sustained flurry of shots in order to take Calzaghe out, and I’m not so certain Jones can do this for long enough to put Calzaghe away, even if he did get him in that position. Jones would likely only tire himself out and have to retreat to the ropes and lay back against them like he normally does in most of his fights nowadays. His legs are completely gone and he can no longer stand in the center of the ring for more than a minute at a time without needing time off to rest against the ropes to give his legs time to recover.
Calzaghe has taken a lot of heat for taking this fight, and ignoring the more popular fight against middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, who badly wants a fight with Calzaghe. However, after saying that he would like to fight Pavlik after first facing Jones, Calzaghe suddenly had a change of heart, and announced that the Jones fight would be his last bout in his career, and that he would be immediately retiring after the fight. As one would guess, Calzaghe has been branded a coward by many boxing fans, which see him as a sellout, looking only to make money in easy fights and avoid a tough opponent.
It hasn’t helped Calzaghe’s case that much of his career was spent fighting – and beating – largely European fighters with little ability in comparison to the much more formidable American middleweights like Jones, James Toney, Gerald McClellan, Julian Jackson and England’s Nigel Benn, to name just a few. Many people find it strange that Calzaghe never attempted to fight any of them for some reason.
It certainly didn’t hurt Calzaghe’s won loss record by not fighting them, but it made his legacy somewhat less appealing given that the best win on his record is Jeff Lacy, a fighter that wouldn’t have a chance against a prime Jones, McClellan, Jackson, Benn or Toney.
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