Will Calzaghe be Branded A Coward If He Retires Without Facing Pavlik?

By Boxing News - 08/11/2008 - Comments

calzaghe335333.jpgBy Michael Lieberman: Undefeated super middleweight Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) has made it no secret that he’d like to retire with his undefeated record intact, and with his boxing legacy unblemished with any ugly defeats that would mar his record. In the past several months, however, he’s been pursued steadily by unbeaten WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (34-0, 30 KOs), who has gone to great lengths in order to try and land a fight with him. Even though Pavlik is the smaller fighter, he’s willing to take the risky bout because he knows that he’ll ultimately earn more respect from the boxing public, and be rewarded by receiving even bigger paydays should he come out on the winning end of such a fight.

Calzaghe, though, has opted to take the safe route, taking a nice comfortable bout against the totally shot Roy Jones Jr. on November 8th, at the Madison Square Garden, in New York City, New York. It’ll give Calzaghe, who wants to get as much money he can before retiring from boxing, a nice payday at a minimum of risk. The drawback to that, however, is that it’s not a fight that the boxing public, in large part, want to see, with most of them preferring the try and shut the trap of Pavlik by any means necessary. By not facing Pavlik and quieting him, Calzaghe has made himself look as if he’s afraid of Pavlik, which perhaps is even worse than having fought him and lose.

At least if he fought him, people would respect Calzaghe for having been brave enough to try and fight him, rather than take his big money fight with Jones and then slink away with his small fortune. A good legacy is important, I’ll admit that, but when it’s built up at the expense of facing really tough challenges, then you have to figure they were never real in the first place.

Calzaghe may believe that he’s going to be getting out of the sport with his pristine image intact, and maybe so for boxing fans that have little clue about what goes on in the sport, but for more knowledgeable fans and writers, Calzaghe will be tarnished by him not having fought Pavlik. I know that even if he fought and beat him, there would probably be someone else that would come out of the woodwork and call him out for a fight, just as Pavlik has, and if he showed no interest in the fight, I suppose he’d be thought badly of.

However, this is a far different case, because with Pavlik, he had already previously mentioned being interested in fighting him, but then changed his mind all of a sudden around the time that he destroyed his fellow countryman Gary Lockett in three rounds. Additionally, Calzaghe is still fighting at the top of his game, having recently defeated Bernard Hopkins in a 12-round split decision in April. The fight was close, but clearly Calzaghe was the winner. After that win, the logical assumption would be for Calzaghe to first face Pavlik and depending or not if he’s successful in defeating him, Calzaghe would then end his career against Jones.

Unfortunately, Calzaghe has removed Pavlik completely from the equation, saying he now only wants Jones and then will retire from boxing. I don’t about you, but it make Calzaghe look more than a little afraid from my perspective. His image, his legacy and his undefeated record is tarnished even worse than if he was defeated, in my mind.

I see him as having been defeated now, if not in reality, at least in the minds of many of the boxing fans. When a fighter shows fear of another, causing them to avoid them, it leaves a bad taste that’s hard to wash out. For his sake, I hope he changes his mind and decides on fighting Pavlik, because this won’t sit right with the fans to see him go out in such a whimper.



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