By Michael Lieberman: With his loss on Saturday to Bernard Hopkins, Kelly Pavlik was effectively removed from future considerations for a potential bout with Joe Calzaghe. Not that Calzaghe would ever fight him anyway, mind you, because he’s said repeatedly in the past that he planned on retiring immediately following his November 8th bout against Roy Jones Jr., just as long as he performed well against him. Many boxing fans and writers, however, felt that with enough pushing, Calzaghe would eventually fight Pavlik. Now unfortunately that has been taken off the table with Pavlik’s one-sided loss to Hopkins.
After his win over Pavlik on Saturday, Hopkins stated that he’d like to fight the winner of Calzaghe vs. Jones. For his part, Calzaghe isn’t the slightest bit interested in facing Hopkins again, commenting to the BBC, “Screw Hopkins, I’m not fighting again for any amount of money, I’ve been doing this for too long.” Frankly, I’m not in the least bit surprised that Calzaghe isn’t interested in facing Hopkins, because their fight in April was incredibly close, looking to me – and to many other boxing experts – like Hopkins should have been the one awarded the ultimate decision and not Calzaghe. Keep in mind, this was Hopkins fighting not at his best. He threw few punches in every round and still looked good enough to be awarded the decision at the end. Against Pavlik, he threw many more punches, moved much better and looked like he’d improved a great deal.
Normally fighters don’t continue to make improvements in the late stages of their careers, and never when they’re beyond 40. With the way that Hopkins looked on Saturday, I would give Calzaghe very little chance in beating him. Hopkins’ fine performance couldn’t have been missed by Calzaghe, who had to have seen the fight and possibly is thinking it would he would be better off retiring rather than risking his precious legacy against a rejuvenated Hopkins.
It’s not fun to lose, and it makes it much worse when it’s in front of your home audience. Hopkins is probably willing to travel anywhere to fight Calzaghe, even to Wales if need be. Knowing that his fans want to see him fight at least one more time beyond the Jones bout, it strikes me as somewhat peculiar that Calzaghe would choose to end his career after the Jones fight rather than moving forward for a second showdown with Hopkins.
I’m wondering why Calzaghe doesn’t want to fight Hopkins. It seems only logical that Calzaghe, in light of the controversial outcome of the first fight, would want to try and clear things up once and for all by fighting Hopkins again. Understandably, Calzaghe wants to ensure that his legacy remains whole and unblemished by losses, but when you have a fight that many fans and writers alike question the outcome, it only seems natural that Calzaghe should want to try and make it right the second time out.
If Calzaghe is at all concerned about how he’s perceived in the end, he needs to change his mind and take on Hopkins again. It doesn’t matter whether or not Calzaghe loses to Jones in November, he still needs to face Hopkins one more time and try to clear things up once and for all. If Calzaghe loses, like I think he will, then at least he tried. What more can you ask for? I know, it was a tough fight for Calzaghe last time out against him, and that he didn’t look good at all in the bout.
But, that’s only because of Hopkins’ amazing talent and expertise. As he showed against Pavlik, he’s capable of making even the best fighters look bad. By the way, I think Pavlik would still beat Calzaghe if he would give him a chance. Styles make fights, and Pavlik has the perfect style to beat Calzaghe. Pavlik would have too much heart for Calzaghe and beaten him down like he’s done to all his opponents with the exception of Hopkins.
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