By Scott Gilfoid: Near the end of his career, the unbeaten WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe fought twice in the U.S., fighting first Bernard Hopkins and then Roy Jones Jr. in 2008. However, neither fight was hugely successful in terms of ratings or PPV buys with boxing fans, and it made me wonder what the difference was between the UK audiences, which would have lapped up this fight like hungry dogs, and the U.S. audiences which could care less about seeing Calzaghe fight two 40-year-old boxing stars.

What was the missing ingredient? Calzaghe was able to make a star of himself in the UK fighting opponents like Mario Veit, Kabary Salem, Mger Mkrtchyan, Tocker Pudwill, Miguel Angel Jimenez and many other fighters like them.

How is it that the UK boxing fans were able to stomach these fights without turning their backs on Calzaghe the way that the American public did when Calzaghe came to the U.S. with his inflated 44-0 record to fight the aged Jones and Hopkins. Maybe it was because Calzaghe came over with a reputation of having a padded record? Could that be it?

Or maybe the U.S. audiences didn’t see it as an interesting fight to see Calzaghe fighting Hopkins and Jones near the end of their careers. It also could be that the fans were wondering why Calzaghe was facing older fighters rather than a young, top flight fighter like Chad Dawson or Kelly Pavlik.

Back then, Pavlik had yet to be beaten by Hopkins, but in watching him Pavlik sure looked like the real deal at the time, and the American public was interested in seeing Calzaghe fight Pavlik.

But Calzaghe didn’t, and went after the 43-year-old Hopkins first and then the 39 about to turn 40, Roy Jones Jr. Maybe if Calzaghe had fought Dawson and Pavlik, the American public would have been interested in watching Calzaghe fight and would have possibly purchased his PPV bouts with them. But Calzaghe didn’t fight them.

I wonder why? In Calzaghe’s fight with Hopkins, Calzaghe was knocked down in the first round and tagged often by Hopkins. It sure looked like Hopkins won. He ended up losing by a 12-round split decision, but I had Bernard winning easily by two to three rounds based on the more effective punching.

While Hopkins was drilling Calzaghe all night with hard right hands, Calzaghe could only fire back with a lot of slaps. Calzaghe could have helped make himself a star in America by giving Hopkins a rematch, but he didn’t. I wonder why?

Calzaghe sure should have, since the decision was an unpopular one because many boxing fans and writers felt that Hopkins had won. That was a mistake for Calzaghe to not give Hopkins a rematch. I know Calzaghe doesn’t give rematches, right?

At least he doesn’t give fighters a rematch unless it’s someone like Mario Veit. So with talented fighters like Dawson and Pavlik available, Calzaghe chose to fight a couple of older American fighters and then retire. Calzaghe blew it by not facing Dawson or Pavlik, because he would have earned some respect from American fans if he would have won.