By Nate Anderson: With the fight still a long three months in the future, tickets are flying off the shelves for the Joe Calzaghe vs. Roy Jones Jr. bout at the Madison Square Garden, in New York City, New York on November 8th. World Boxing Organization/World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) perhaps was right in side-stepping around undefeated middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik to chose instead the 39 year-old Roy Jones Jr. for Calzaghe’s last fight of his great boxing career.

At this point in time, the ticket sales appear to be going extraordinarily well with the fight possibly to be a sell out by the time of the fight. It’s unclear whether the sales are being driven by Calzaghe, who isn’t well known by casual American boxing fans, or by the well known Jones. Based on the way tickets are being sold, it appears that Calzaghe was correct in choosing the better known Jones over the new middleweight sensation Kelly Pavlik. The fight might end up being more one-sided, due to Jones being only a shadow of his once great self, but it will at least do well financially. That, I think, is the most important factor for Calzaghe, who after fighting most of his career in smaller fights in Europe, has missed out on the mega-fights that commonly take place in the United States.

Pavlik, a great fighter in his own right, isn’t at the level of Jones at this early point in his career. It’s unfortunate, however, that Calzaghe has decided to get out of boxing now that he is finally making good money in fights against Bernard Hopkins and Jones. One can only imagine what will be available to Calzaghe should he defeat Jones in an impressive fashion. While he’s said that this is definitely his last fight of his boxing career, I get the feeling that he may have a change of mind if enough green stuff is waived under his trap, which may bring him to his senses and cause him to change his mind.

I’m not precisely sure how much would be needed or against which opponent, but I think he’s vulnerable to a change of mind. A perfect opponent would be someone like Oscar De La Hoya or maybe even Floyd Mayweather Jr., if he can put on some weight. I doubt, however, that Calzaghe will show any interest in a fight with Pavlik, because that’s a fight that would be a guaranteed bruiser for Calzaghe, and I don’t think he wants a match-up like that at this late stage in his career.

As for Jones, he’s looked rather average in his last three fights since losing to Antonio Tarver twice and Glen Johnson. Although Jones has continued to win since suffering those losses, he’s done it against much lower opposition than he previously was accustomed to fighting in the past. A fight against Calzaghe is a huge step up in class for Jones, who probably will find himself in way over his head.

His speed, movement and power are pretty much gone now, which will make him like a grounded bird against the Tiger-like Calzaghe. I doubt that Calzaghe will be able to take Jones out like Tarver and Johnson, but I expect an easy win for Calzaghe. After an easy win like this, I see Calzaghe wanting to stick around for at least one more fight, possibly two if they’re easy fights against soft opposition like De La Hoya.