By Dan Ambrose: This Saturday’s mismatch between Roy Jones Jr. and Joe Calzaghe is failing to live up to expectations, as boxing fans tune out to a fight that most people give little chance for the aging 39 year-old Jones to win. From a boxing standpoint, the Jones-Calzaghe bout probably should have never been made in the first place. Sure, it would have been a great fight 10 years ago, when Jones was still fighting at his optimal best, but not now.
Most fans know that this is Calzaghe’s swan song, and that he’s looking for a big payday rather than a competitive fight, and are tuning out in droves for the bout. One look at the various boxing internet sites and it will tell you all you need to know about this fight. There’s hardly a peep about the fight from any fans, mainly because the fight is considered to be such a terrible mismatch.
It could be an interesting bout for Calzaghe fans, which will probably see a victory over Jones as warped evidence that Joe could beat him while in his prime, but seems highly unlikely to many of the boxing experts, who see Calzaghe as not nearly in the same class as a prime Jones. Who knows? Jones could win, but that seems rather doubtful looking at his recent fights.
Boxing fans don’t seem to think he has much of a chance, judging from the lack of interest in the fight. It’s too bad, because if Calzaghe had chosen someone else, say Bernard Hopkins, Chad Dawson or Mikkel Kessler, there would be a ton of interest in this fight.
However, Calzaghe has put a big stress on wanting to retire with his legacy intact, and if he were to face any of those guys, there would be a risk that his pristine record might be tarnished by losing to one of them.
True, Calzaghe beat both Kessler and Hopkins, but they were far from conclusive wins, and both left a lot of doubt about his actual abilities. With as much doubt that was left in the minds of most fans about these victories, a rematch with either fighter would likely be much more appealing to boxing fans than a mismatch against a faded, no longer relevant Jones would be.
Calzaghe has done a credible job of trying to build up Jones as a threat in the minds of some fans, yet he hasn’t been able to sell his bill of goods for enough fans judging from the lukewarm interest in this fight. For that to happen, Jones would have had to have beaten a top fighter or two in the past couple of years instead of a trio of lower ranked opponents and faded fighters like himself.
However, it’s a good thing that Calzaghe will be retiring from the sport, because at least with Kessler, who will be taking over the reign as the top super middleweight in the division after Calzaghe retires, we’ll be seeing him in some exciting fights against top super middleweights like Carl Froch instead of matches against faded fighters.
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