Joe Calzaghe vs. Roy Jones Jr. On November 8th

By Dean Harman: Undefeated Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) and Roy Jones Jr. (52-4, 38 KOs) are ready to end their boxing careers on November 8th in a 12-round mega fight scheduled at the Madison Square Garden, in New York. After the fight was previously postponed because of an injury to Calzaghe, it will finally be taking place on three months from now, barring any more injuries to the brittle hands of the 35 year-old Calzaghe. In terms of excitement, this bout is just barely more interesting in the last fight of Calzaghe’s against 43 year-old Bernard Hopkins in April, which Calzaghe won by a 12-round split decision.

Seemingly no longer concerned with taking on competitive fights against highly ranked opponents, Calzaghe is looking to take this last fight for the big money that it brings in. Like the last fight, a dull fight by most accounts, this will be a good payday for both fighters, despite Jones’s lack of success in the ring in the past four years. For many boxing fans, this fight has come about far too late in Jones’ once great career, because at 39, he’s well past his prime and no longer has the speed or boxing ability that he once possessed earlier in his career.

However, he’s built up such a big name among fans with his earlier work, he can still land big fights with big money, even though he’s no longer earning it by beating top fighters. It seems like the wrong fight for both fighters, however, because Calzaghe has been pursued aggressively by undefeated middleweight Kelly Pavlik, a hard punching fighter with heavy pressure style of fighting.

Logically, this seems like the much better fight for Calzaghe, because Pavlik can actually still fight and is at the top of his game, not four years past his prime, like in the case of Jones. For his part, Jones has Hopkins interested in a fight with him, whom he beat by a 12-round unanimous decision 15 years ago, in 1993, giving Hopkins one of the few defeats on his record. This would be a greatly appealing fight for most boxing fans, for there’s unfinished business between the two fighters, and both of them are 40ish.

Unfortunately, we get stuck watching Calzaghe get one last payday against Jones, instead of seeing him show some courage and facing Pavlik. In taking the easy money, Calzaghe seems to be unknowingly tarnishing his image in the process, creating a stain on his unbeaten record by avoiding the powerful Pavlik in order to face the greatly faded Jones. What’s even worse, however, is that the fight proves nothing whether he beats Jones or not.

Most boxing fans don’t feel that Calzaghe, as good as he was in his long career, could have come close to beating the much more talented Jones, who has won eight titles in his career. Indeed, most of Calzaghe’s opponents in his career have been rather soft, with the exception of Mikkel Kessler. Calzaghe’s win over Jeff Lacy is nothing special after seeing how limited he’s been shown to be in recent fights against low opposition, and his other big win, a 12-round unanimous decision over Chris Eubank in 1997, was also not a big deal given the fact that the fight came at the tail end of Eubank’s 12-year career, not during his prime.

Given that, Calzaghe’s career has been somewhat of a disappointment, one filled with wins over generally marginal opponents with almost no big names on his record until he faced Kessler at the end. Now, when Calzaghe finally has a chance to face an opponent with some substance in Pavlik, he chooses to duck him and instead fight the 39 year-old Jones. I don’t know about you, but this leaves a big empty feeling with me.

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