By Jim Dower: Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) will wrap up his excellent career against Roy Jones Jr. (58-4, 38 KOs) on November 8th at New York’s Madison Square Garden, a fight that has earned Calzaghe a huge amount of criticism by many boxing fans who wanted to see him go out in style against undefeated Kelly Pavlik. Calzaghe, 35, however, is doing what Oscar De La Hoya is going, namely going after the most amount of money at the least amount of risk. He certainly deserves a easy fight or two after having a stellar career in which he defended his WBO super middleweight title countless times without losing once.

However, by ending his career in a big money fight against an opponent that some feel that is unworthy, Calzaghe is angering a lot of people and tarnishing his career in their eyes. If he does end up retiring after his fight with Jones, can Calzaghe still be considered an all time great? That’s kind of a touchy question, because Calzaghe’s choice of fighting Jones rather than Pavlik, makes it seems as if Calzaghe is avoiding the more dangerous threat against Pavlik just so that he can finish his career with his legacy and unbeaten record intact. Calzaghe didn’t help his case any by having to fight hard in his last fight, defeating a ring weary 43 year-old Bernard Hopkins by a 12-round split decision. Hopkins, however, slowed the fight to a crawl and made it an ugly fight by clinching Calzaghe, and keeping him from throwing his nonstop combinations. Boxing fans, though, don’t care about that, all they care about is that Calzaghe struggled against Hopkins and was barely able to beat him by a close decision.

By following this bout with a fight against Jones, who at 39 is also past his prime, it gives ammunition to Calzaghe’s critics, making it easy for them to attack him for avoiding a more dangerous fighter like Pavlik. Some of their ammunition may be taken away from them should Pavlik lose or also have to struggle to win against Hopkins, whom he’s fighting later this month on October 18th. However, if Pavlik looks good by stopping Hopkins or shutting him out, it’s going to put a lot of pressure on Calzaghe to face him. With an impressive record like Calzaghe’s, he can ignore Pavlik all he wants, and retire from boxing. If he does this, however, it will probably be hard for many fans to consider Calzaghe an all time great.

Sure, his own fans in Wales will probably still love and support him as one of their own, but elsewhere in the world, Calzaghe may have a hard time finding as much support as he should be getting with his unbeaten record intact. And, if Calzaghe decides to fight a rematch with Jones rather than a fight with Pavlik, then it will seem even worse for Calzaghe I’m afraid. I can just see how that will go over with the boxing fans in the numerous internet forums. For Calzaghe’s sake, he needs to consider taking the fight with Pavlik regardless of the risk. Just get it over with and face his demons.