By Aaron Klein: Going into their fight on November 8th at Madison’s Square Garden, it’s very difficult for me to spot any real advantages that Roy Jones Jr. (52-4, 38 KOs) has going for against unbeaten Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) other than perhaps size. That’s a quality that I probably shouldn’t be overlooking too much, because Jones might end up being too big, too powerful and too fast for Calzaghe to handle. However, now a ripe 39, just doesn’t look on Calzaghe’s level at this time, and it takes me quite awhile of digging to find a time when I think Jones could possibly beat a fighter of Calzaghe’s talent level.
Jones not only looks physically old in appearance, looking like a 40 year-old, but he’s also fighting like a fighter that is old in the fact that he’s lost three out of his last six fights in the past four years. Jones, of course, would probably try and excuse the losses away by saying that they were the result of him having to strip off close to 25 pounds of muscle after he moved down from heavyweight after capturing the WBA heavyweight title against John Ruiz in 2003. That may or not be the reason for Jones’ sudden decline in ability, but even if it was, it wouldn’t be any kind of excuse for how average he looked in a losing effort to Antonio Tarver 2005, two years after Jones had taken off the weight to move back down to the light heavyweight division.
By William Mackay: You can include me in for one of those people who are less than impressed with the level of opponents that unbeaten super middleweight Joe Calzaghe has faced in his career. In looking over the mostly average fighters that Calzaghe has built up his unbeaten record on, I see few fighters of worth on the list that jump out at me. I can’t help but be left with the general impression that Calzaghe has either been carefully managed, steered clear of top fighters in his career like Julian Jackson, Bernard Hopkins, Gerald McClellan, Antonio Tarver and James Toney, or he just didn’t care to fight them. 
By Michael Lieberman: After watching this week’s Steve Bunce boxing special, I’m more than a little confused about who’s telling the truth between Joe Calzaghe and Kelly Pavlik in terms of whether or not Calzaghe ever offered a fight to Pavlik in the past. According to Calzaghe, he twice contacted Pavlik about a fight in the past but he failed to take the bait. For his part, Pavlik is saying that Calzaghe has never once offered to give him a fight, and is just trying to “save face” by saying that he offered Pavlik a fight which he wouldn’t accept. One thing is clear, however, Calzaghe clearly isn’t interested in fighting Pavlik anymore, if he ever was to begin with. 
By Chris Williams: Sounding a more than a little defensive and angry in an interview with The Sun, undefeated Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) ripped into middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (34-0, 30 KOs), saying that Pavlik declined to fight him after he made an effort to fight him just after he (Calzaghe) had defeated Jeff Lacy back in 2006. Rather than fight him, Calzaghe points out, Pavlik chose to fight Jermain Taylor, who Pavlik beat twice. Calzaghe claims that after Pavlik defeated Gary Lockett in June 2008, he failed to approach Calzaghe about a fight. It was only after Calzaghe signed for a fight with the 39 year-old Roy Jones Jr. (52-4, 38 KOs), that Pavlik “started to get brave,” Calzaghe says. What Calzaghe says seems somewhat odd, however, because Pavlik had previously shown great interested in fighting Calzaghe before and after the fight with Lockett, and would seen curious that Calzaghe believes that Pavlik wasn’t interested in a fight. 
By Michael Lieberman: Undefeated super middleweight Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) has had a stellar career, beating a variety of fighters some good and many not so good, but on November 8th barring another injury delay by Calzaghe, he’ll be facing easily the best opponent of his career in 39 year-old Roy Jones Jr. (52-4, 38 KOs) at the Madison Square Garden, in New York City, New York. Ignore for a second the age and recent losses by Jones, he’s got more than enough talent to beat the likes of Calzaghe. Jones, perhaps the best pure boxer that has come through the sport in the past half century, is a six-time world champion boxer with title wins in four different weight classes and previously held one title or another for 11 consecutive years fighting the best in the world over that time. 
By Michael Lieberman: Let me start off by saying that I’ve always been a huge fan of Joe Calzaghe. Indeed, up until his fight with Bernard Hopkins last April, I thought Calzaghe was one of the finest boxers of all time. However, my thoughts have changed since the Hopkins bout, and now that Calzaghe had decided to fight a badly faded Roy Jones Jr., I’ve lost whatever respect I had for him as a fighter. The fight with Hopkins, who was forty-three at the time of the bout, was wrong and something I consider ill-advised for Calzaghe to take. Sure, I can understand him needing the money, because who doesn’t? 
By Jonathan Watkins: To become a renowned champion, you must fight your way to the top and then maintain the skills and consistency to stay there. Once accomplished you then have the luxury of sitting at the top of your division and being sought after by up and coming boxers. These fighters, aspiring to become better than the best fighter, have something to prove, unlike the title-holder who has already proven his worth.
By Michael Lieberman: Instead of taking on Kelly Pavlik in his final fight of his career, Joe Calzaghe has opted for the Oscar De La Hoya finish to his career, facing a fighter that’s well beneath him in ability at this stage in his career Roy Jones Jr. on November 8th at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Jones may have been a great fighter one point in his career – and perhaps easily a much better fighter than Calzaghe can every hope to be – but at 39, Jones would be lucky to beat a bottom level top 15 fighter. To listen to Calzaghe tell you, people would think he’s about the face the toughest opponent of his career in the ancient Jones. 
By Dan Ambrose: This is a question that has many boxing fans and writers wondering about since undefeated super middleweight Joe Calzaghe decided upon fighting what many people consider to be a faded Roy Jones Jr. rather than a young, 26-year-old undefeated middleweight Kelly Pavlik. Although Calzaghe has made his reasoning pretty clear for deciding not to fight Pavlik – “he’s not ready…he hasn’t proven himself…he turned me down previous…etc” -it doesn’t seem to be making much sense to many people and it’s not pacifying a lot of non-English boxing fans, who see it as something other than what Calzaghe is saying. 
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.