Is Calzaghe Afraid Of Dawson?

By Boxing News - 11/11/2008 - Comments

Image: Is Calzaghe Afraid Of Dawson?By Michael Lieberman: Immediately after his easy and predicted victory over Roy Jones Jr. last Saturday night, the question was put to Joe Calzaghe as to whether or not he’d be interested in fighting unbeaten International Boxing Federation (IBF) light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson, the fighter considered by many to be far and away the best in the division, and instead of Joe agreeing that he needed to fight him, Calzaghe said “I just stepped out of the ring 15 minutes ago.

Let me enjoy the fight now before I think about another fight. What do you think I am, man, a sadist?” Since then, Calzaghe has called Dawson unproven, comparing him to previously unbeaten middleweight Kelly Pavlik, who was recently defeated by Bernard Hopkins in a one-sided decision loss. While there is a grain of truth in what Calzaghe says about Dawson being still somewhat unproven, as he’s only beaten a handful of big named opponents like Antonio Tarver, Glen Johnson, Tomasz Adamek and Eric Harding, but the same could have been said for Calzaghe up until 2006.

By that time in his career, Calzaghe had fought professionally for 13 years, beating low quality like Mario Veit and Tocker Pudwil, yet people still assumed that Calzaghe was the best in the super middleweight division despite not having proven himself against big named fighters.

Not that Calzaghe is putting the brand of unproven on Dawson, who is clearly the best fighter in the light heavyweight division and the best possible option for him, it now seems like a convenient excuse for Calzaghe to say just so that he doesn’t have to risk his precious legacy against a fighter that may end up beating him, and possibly badly.

Calzaghe proved little in beating up a washed up Jones last Saturday, yet Joe crows about the fight as if it completed him as a fighter and ensured his precious legacy. I don’t what he’s thinking, because for me, it seemed to diminish him as a fighter rather than build him up. If he were really a courageous fighter, then what is he doing fighting someone like Jones who is considered well past his prime?

If it were just for the money, then Joe should have stayed low-key about the win, because it isn’t like he defeated a prime version of Jones. Indeed, few boxing experts give Calzaghe much of a chance against a younger Jones, who was much faster, stronger and harder to hit than Calzaghe and hence would have likely beaten him without getting hit more than a couple of times in each round.

A victory over Jones now, however, is as meaningless win that you could ever think of. This is why Calzaghe needs to man up, summon up his courage and take on one of the few challenges that he has remaining in his career by facing the unbeaten Dawson. While the fight may not make nearly as much as his fight with Jones, given Dawson’s still relatively unknown status with the boxing public, but a victory over Dawson would mean a lot of Calzaghe with knowledgeable boxing fans and experts.

Certainly, a fight against Dawson is much more appealing than going over old ground and facing Bernard Hopkins and Mikkel Kessler again, something that probably wouldn’t be advisable if Calzaghe is losing interest in boxing. At least with a fight against Dawson, he’d be facing a new threat, and a fighter that is considered to be the best in the division.

At the time that Calzaghe faced Hopkins and Kessler, neither were considered to be the top fighters in their perspective weight classes. Dawson is considered the best, however, which is why it’s important that Calzaghe not make excuses about not fighting him and accept the challenge before heading off into the sunset.



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