By Erik Schmidt: In the past week, we’ve been hearing a lot about Joe Calzaghe considering a fight with Roy Jones Jr. for his next and perhaps final fight of his career. However, I think Calaghe is forgetting an opponent that is even more deserving than Jones, and that’s Antonio Tarver, who recently defeated IBF light heavyweight champion Clinton Woods by an easy one-sided unanimous decision a couple of weeks ago.

Tarver, now 39, is at the top of his game and perhaps the best light heavyweight in the division right now, whereas Jones, also 39, has looked poor in recent years, losing twice to Tarver, once to Glen Johnson and looked mediocre against a faded Felix Trinidad. Tarver, on the other hand, looked positively superb against Woods, whom he dominated thoroughly, winning every round of the fight.

People had been saying that Tarver was over the hill going into the bout with Woods but he quickly proved all his doubters wrong. Calzaghe, who is considered to be one of the greatest of all time fighters in boxing, can’t lay claim to that title unless he beats Tarver, and one or two other champions before he’s finished. Calzaghe has had it way too easy in his career, beating easy fights against opponents like Mario Veit in the super middleweight division while at the same time staying away from more challenging fighters like Tarver, a young Roy Jones Jr., Oscar De La Hoya, Winky Wright, Felix Trinidad, and Jermain Taylor.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice that Calzaghe is considering a fight with Jones, but frankly, it’s a bit late for that now; Calzaghe, if he wanted to prove himself as a fighter, he should then have fought Jones a decade ago or at least seven years ago, when Jones was still cogent but not now he’s considered old, slow and pretty much washed up as a fighter. The fight does nothing for me and many other fans, who want to see Calzaghe prove himself against top fighters rather than older ones like Hopkins and Jones. I understand that Tarver is the same age as Jones, but he’s a young 39, and still in his prime as a fighter.

This is a fight that would be much more interesting that the Jones fight, even if it’s not quite as popular in the build up. In the end, it will make up for it by being a much more appealing fight for the fans to watch rather than seeing Calzaghe beat up on an old Jones, who at this point in his career probably can’t beat any of the top 10 light middleweights in the division, much less the number one super middleweight.

Tarver may have had his problems against Bernard Hopkins not too long but that’s quit excusable because Hopkins is considered to be one of the greatest of all time fighters. Sadly, Jones has tarnished his status as an all time great by sticking around a little too long and taking one too many defeats.

My hope is that Calzaghe will do the wise thing and turn around and fight Tarver. He needs to walk away from concentrating on just the money and go for what will be good for his legacy because if he retires now, he still leaves a lot of questions unanswered about himself due the easy opposition he has fought in his career. If not Tarver, then at least Calzaghe should fight Kelly Pavlik, the middleweight champion.