Carl Froch believes his title winning performance against Jean Pascal last Saturday has got Joe Calzaghe running scared. Froch, who scored a points victory over Pascal to claim the vacant WBC super-middleweight title, also claims the Welshman is jealous of his new found success.

Speaking on Steve Bunce’s Boxing Hour on Setanta Sports News Froch said Calzaghe was “more worried now than when I called him out 18 months ago”. He said:

“Joe Calzaghe vacated the WBC title rather than fight me.

“He’s been offered good money; he’s been offered £5 million and the fight is genuine.

“For him to say he could stop me in three or four rounds is laughable. He doesn’t stop anybody. He fought Roy Jones Junior – that should have been a four round fight really.”

Froch added that the Welshman needed to fall in line behind the queue of boxers wanting a shot at the new champion. He said:

“My argument is not will Joe Calzaghe fight me because maybe I don’t want to fight Joe Calzaghe. I might not give him the chance.

“Kelly Pavlik is a much bigger and more exciting fight than Calzaghe. I’d relish the opportunity.”

Haye screaming out for a shot at Wladimir

British heavyweight boxer David Haye will be ringside “screaming some verbal” at Wladimir Klitschko when the hard hitting Ukrainian takes on Hasim Rahman in Mannheim in Germany this Saturday.

Speaking during Steve Bunce’s Boxing Hour on Setanta Sports News Haye warned Klitschko that Rahman would be no push over.

“I know he’s [Klitschko] going to go out there and look spectacular. I want him to look spectacular because his last few fights haven’t been the most dynamic.

“But Rahman’s going to bring it. Rahman’s going to try and land that right hand, that big right hand that KO’d the great Lennox Lewis.”

After months of confusion over whether Haye would fight Wladimir or Vitali Klitschko, it now seems as though Wladimir will be the likely opposition.

“He doesn’t have to fight [Aleksandr] Povetkin until September. He’s got a good few months to slip in a voluntary fight with a top ranked heavyweight contender like myself.

“Wladimir’s schedule is a lot clearer than Vitali’s. Vitali’s got to fight Juan Carlos Gomez in March, so he wouldn’t be able to fight over the summer.”

Ring 8 awards dinner Dec. 21 in NYC

NEW YORK (December 10, 2008) – The annual Ring 8 holiday party, featuring an awards dinner and live music, will take place Sunday, December 21 (1 PM/ET) at Tony Mazzarella’s Waterfront Crabhouse (2-03 Borden Ave.) in Long Island City, New York.

Ring 8 award winners this year include Champion of the Year: Paulie Malignaggi; Uncrowned Champion: Brian Adams; Promoter of the Decade: Cedric Kushner; Lifetime Achievement Award: Melvina Lathan, NYSAC Chairperson; Writer of the Year: Sean Sullivan; Ringside Physician Award: Dr. Richard Istrico; Kid Gavilan Humanitarian Award: Bill Tate.

GEORGE FOREMAN DID IT AT 45; CAN JAMES TONEY DO IT AT 40?

James “Lights Out” Toney is fighting mad and determined to earn one last chance at achieving his goal of becoming one of the oldest fighters to ever win the World Heavyweight Championship. Big George Foreman started his career in 1969 and ended it nicely in 1997 after losing to Jimmy Young. Ten years later, he returned to the ring in 1987. And in a spectacular moment in boxing history, he knocked out Michael Moorer in 1994 when he was 45 years old becoming the oldest Heavyweight world champion in history.

This Saturday, December 13 at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa and televised on VERSUS, James Toney (70-6-3, 43 KOs) takes that next step toward history against Fres “The Big O” Oquendo, a heavyweight with 29 victories and only 4 defeats, three of them to world champions (Evander Holyfield, Chris Byrd and John Ruiz) and the other to David Tua.

Three questions remain about the 40-year old Toney and his future:

1) His fighting shape is determined by his weight. Will he weigh-in the 220’s, 230’s or 240’s or will he come in his lightest weight since the Evander Holyfield fight (217 lbs)?

2) Is Toney the next in line of the recent Hall of Fame fighters to go down at the hands of a younger, hungrier fighter, ala Oscar De La Hoya and Roy Jones, Jr. and advised to retire?

3) Or will he emulate the performance of the “old” Bernard Hopkins against Kelly Pavlik and get a convincing victory over Oquendo and continue on his mission to the world heavyweight championship targeting champions Wladimir and his brother Vitali Klitschko, along with Nicolai Valuev?

You make the call on whether or not James Toney can beat Oquendo, and move forward and compete against any of the reigning champions on this Saturday’s broadcast on VERSUS starting at 9 PM ET/6 PM PT. On the same day, the Wladimir Klitschko vs. Hasim Rahman world championship bout telecast on HBO starts at 4:45 PM ET/1:45 PM PT. The following week Valuev defends his title against Holyfield.
Is it “Lights Out” for Toney, or will he make history?