Joe turned down the chance to fight Jones, will now accept to face Kelly Pavlik

[-----------]

Calzaghe-Pavlik 'set for' October


Kelly Pavlik's promoter Bob Arum has said he is confident of securing a bout with Joe Calzaghe in October and says such a match up would take place in Las Vegas.

Pavlik destroyed Calzaghe's stablemate Gary Lockett in three rounds in Atlantic City last Saturday in his first defence of the WBC/WBO middleweight title.

Initially Roy Jones Jnr was mooted as Calzaghe's next opponent in the autumn in Wales.

However, it appears that Calzaghe could be returning to Las Vegas, where he defeated Bernard Hopkins in a split decision in April.

"My first priority is Joe Calzaghe," Arum told the Max Boxing website. "That's a huge fight and if that fight takes place - it would take place in Las Vegas.

"So that's my first priority. That's priority number one. I really believe they are nice people the Calzaghe people. Frank Warren, his promoter is a dear friend of mine.

"They want to make the fight. I think the economics will come together and I think that fight will be made. That fight will be in October, not September.

"If the Calzaghe fight can't be made, then Kelly will fight in September and we will look to fight in Ohio, probably Cleveland."

The bout would see Pavlik step up to challenge for Calzaghe's WBC/WBA/WBO super middleweight belts which he has retained despite taking Bernard Hopkins' Ring Magazine light heavyweight crown.

[Flab]

Joe's gonna' get killed.

[Left Hook Tua]

Calzaghe-Pavlik 'set for' October


Kelly Pavlik's promoter Bob Arum has said he is confident of securing a bout with Joe Calzaghe in October and says such a match up would take place in Las Vegas.

Pavlik destroyed Calzaghe's stablemate Gary Lockett in three rounds in Atlantic City last Saturday in his first defence of the WBC/WBO middleweight title.

Initially Roy Jones Jnr was mooted as Calzaghe's next opponent in the autumn in Wales.

However, it appears that Calzaghe could be returning to Las Vegas, where he defeated Bernard Hopkins in a split decision in April.

"My first priority is Joe Calzaghe," Arum told the Max Boxing website. "That's a huge fight and if that fight takes place - it would take place in Las Vegas.

"So that's my first priority. That's priority number one. I really believe they are nice people the Calzaghe people. Frank Warren, his promoter is a dear friend of mine.

"They want to make the fight. I think the economics will come together and I think that fight will be made. That fight will be in October, not September.

"If the Calzaghe fight can't be made, then Kelly will fight in September and we will look to fight in Ohio, probably Cleveland."

The bout would see Pavlik step up to challenge for Calzaghe's WBC/WBA/WBO super middleweight belts which he has retained despite taking Bernard Hopkins' Ring Magazine light heavyweight crown.

this is not gonna end well for joe......

bad choice of opponent on his part. he would've been better served fighting roy or antonio. good for us though.

[duffgun]

wow this is gonna be a fight I am gonna try and get over to see this one.

[-----------]

This just shows everyone that Calzaghe wants to fight "the best" out there.

Jones would be a much easier fight for him, maybe too easy.


This is a total 50/50 fight.

[Dick-Sucker]

Calzaghe-Pavlik 'set for' October


Kelly Pavlik's promoter Bob Arum has said he is confident of securing a bout with Joe Calzaghe in October and says such a match up would take place in Las Vegas.

Pavlik destroyed Calzaghe's stablemate Gary Lockett in three rounds in Atlantic City last Saturday in his first defence of the WBC/WBO middleweight title.

Initially Roy Jones Jnr was mooted as Calzaghe's next opponent in the autumn in Wales.

However, it appears that Calzaghe could be returning to Las Vegas, where he defeated Bernard Hopkins in a split decision in April.

"My first priority is Joe Calzaghe," Arum told the Max Boxing website. "That's a huge fight and if that fight takes place - it would take place in Las Vegas.

"So that's my first priority. That's priority number one. I really believe they are nice people the Calzaghe people. Frank Warren, his promoter is a dear friend of mine.

"They want to make the fight. I think the economics will come together and I think that fight will be made. That fight will be in October, not September.

"If the Calzaghe fight can't be made, then Kelly will fight in September and we will look to fight in Ohio, probably Cleveland."

The bout would see Pavlik step up to challenge for Calzaghe's WBC/WBA/WBO super middleweight belts which he has retained despite taking Bernard Hopkins' Ring Magazine light heavyweight crown.

This is the only fight i can see Kelly loosing. I think its going to be close and i think Joe will win this one.

[Silencers]

I will be looking forward to this one.

[Yokoyo]

"You need to feel a little frightened before a fight like this," Joe Calzaghe says as the sweat rolls down his gaunt face in a bleak room at the back of a ramshackle gym. After another draining session in the ring, at the end of a narrow hallway outside, Calzaghe looks strangely vulnerable. We're alone now, talking behind a closed door about fear, starvation and the danger he will confront in the early hours of Sunday morning against the unbeaten Mikkel Kessler in Cardiff.

Calzaghe also seems touchingly modest as he reaches for a towel before stripping completely. This is a literal as well as symbolic exposure for a 35-year-old world champion who has held his WBO super-middleweight title for over a decade - ever since he beat Chris Eubank in a ferocious battle in October 1997.

"We're only human and fear can eat away at you the closer you get to a big fight," Calzaghe says quietly as he removes his black trunks, a protective belt and his underpants. He wraps the white towel quickly around him and rubs a bruised hand across his eyes to wipe away the perspiration.

We're in a room so cold and raw it's like a gritty icebox, but Calzaghe can't stop sweating. Outside the Newbridge Boxing Club in Abercarn, a 20-minute drive from Newport, a misty rain drifts down from the mountains and into the valley below. It's almost as murky in here as the steam rises from Calzaghe's ghostly body. He motions me to sit next to him on the wooden bench as, with a shy apology, he prepares to remove his socks next. His feet look alarmingly white in the gloom but, fortunately, they don't smell. "That's a relief," Calzaghe says as he sniffs approvingly at the absence of any stench.

"Having been a fighter for 25 years I know how to handle the fear. The fear is there but I use it to motivate me. I've had a few stinkers over the years - fights against David Starie, Kabary Salem and Sakio Bika - where I looked terrible. But, without any fear, how do you get up for those fights? How do you prepare for a guy like Bika? No one had heard of him outside hardcore boxing circles. I won easily on points [last October] but my timing was off, my desire was missing and I was rubbish.

"That's why I went to Frank Warren and literally begged him, as my promoter, to get Kessler. I knew how badly I needed the fear back. Kessler gives you that because he's an unbeaten world champion. He's had 39 fights and he's not come close to losing one. I'm unbeaten in 43 so we've got some record between us - 82 bouts and not a single defeat. At the Millennium Stadium, in front of 50,000, someone is going to get hurt and have their heart broken. I'm sure it won't be me."

Calzaghe is such a likeable and impressive man partly because he speaks so honestly. He might carry a champion fighter's requisite self-belief but the swagger is kept to a minimum and so he is able to describe Kessler's attributes. "He's very smart and knows how to control a fight. Kessler also hits hard and he's supremely confident. When we've met face-to-face to promote the fight I noticed he's similar to me - relaxed and confident without mouthing off. The fact he's willing to fight me in Cardiff says everything."

Calzaghe's 21st title defence is expected to be his most arduous. With the fight being screened live on HBO even the parochial American boxing fraternity is intrigued by an all-European unification contest - the Dane holds the WBC and WBA belts. The expectation and uncertainty is palpable. In a British boxing magazine four out of nine experts recently picked Kessler to beat Calzaghe.

The blistering pride that lurks beneath Calzaghe's amiable exterior is evident as he listens to some typical comments from that poll claiming "Kessler is clearly the more ambitious and hungrier fighter" with "the technical superiority" to nullify Calzaghe's superior hand-speed. He winces when hearing another suggestion, that "four months shy of his 36th birthday I sense Joe's not in love with the sport any more."

Calzaghe's face hardens. "I'm not sure how he senses that when he hasn't been up close, like you, and watched me work. People have been going on about my next fight being one too far for years. I last lost a fight - and it was a corrupt decision made by amateur officials - 17 years ago. I've won my last 60 amateur fights and 43 as a professional. But I remember every defeat I suffered as an amateur. They were rare enough to be burned into my brain and that's why I can't bear the thought of losing.

"I'm 100% sure I'll have, at the most, two more bouts after Saturday. It's like I've been running a marathon these last 17 years without losing and now the end is in sight I'm not about to give up. I've not come all this way to blow it at the finish. Kessler's a good all-round fighter but he's also predictable. I wouldn't say he's one-dimensional but he fights the same way every time. I don't think he's adaptable like me. He can't fight on the inside or going backwards and while he looked impressive in beating [Librado] Andrade [seven months ago] he never dominated. Andrade is slow and ponderous but he still landed. So with my hand-speed and adaptability I'm going to drag Kessler to a dark place where he's never been before."

He smiles briefly. "I'm completely relaxed but Kessler will start to feel the pressure. I saw it happen to Jeff Lacy. He talked real big but, suddenly, in the last few days you could see how intimidated he became. It got too much for him."

Calzaghe's performance against Lacy, an extraordinary display of controlled aggression and seamless punching in March last year, is widely considered to be the most complete 12 rounds of boxing seen in a British ring. But he reveals now that, "the pressure and turmoil got to me so bad I almost pulled out. I hurt my hand about three weeks before and wanted to withdraw. My dad wouldn't let me. He said 'It'll be the end of your career if you don't go through with it.' He gave me no choice so I had a cortisone injection before the fight. But I was still very uptight.

"And then a few days before I left for Manchester it snowed in Wales. It was so gorgeous in my garden that something calming came over me and I felt certain I'd win. All the strain and anxiety rolled off me. It was a beautiful feeling. I've had that same feeling before this fight, with Kessler, for weeks. I've just got to get the weight down now."

When he is only a few feet away it's hard to miss the sunken features of a starving fighter. His ordeal is also evident when you hear the way some words stick at the back of his dry throat. "The weight's so tight I can't drink too much. I'm making sure I don't get dehydrated but every ounce is vital. The week of the fight is torture. I can have 500 calories a day from Monday to Wednesday. But on Thursday, the day before the weigh-in, and on Friday itself, I usually can't eat anything. Sometimes you can have a sliver - it depends how you do it.

"The alternative is to come in at 12st 4lb on the morning of the weigh-in. But shifting 4lb on the day can feel like you're trying to get blood out of a stone - but I'd often rather do that as it means I can eat something the day before. If I don't eat on the Thursday I usually come in 1lb over but I'm so weak that it's a killer to sweat it off in the sauna."

As today is one of this week's supposedly easier days I ask Calzaghe what he might eat for his 500-calorie intake. "In the morning a small bowl of porridge cooked with water," he grimaces.

"Lunch is a diet yoghurt and, maybe, a banana. At night, it's a small piece of chicken and salad. It's not a lot especially when you're training twice a day in sweatsuits. Thursday night is horrible. You're so starving and angry you can't sleep. But once I'm off the scales it feels like the fight is almost won."

Calzaghe licks his lips. The sweat, at least, has dried on his bare skin. He wraps the towel more tightly around him in the semi-darkness. "It's a strange life, isn't it?" he laughs, "but I've been doing this so long it feels natural to me. In the early hours of Sunday morning, when I step into that ring before a massive crowd, it'll be very familiar. I'm not sure Kessler will feel the same. He'll look across at me, knowing I've been world champion for the last 10 years, and the shock could hit him then. He might feel suddenly lost. It'll be different for me. I'll feel like I've come home again."















He always wanted to fight then best, there's no difference now.

[the_godslayer]

this is not gonna end well for joe......

bad choice of opponent on his part. he would've been better served fighting roy or antonio. good for us though.

I agree, Jonesor Tarver would have been an easier option for Joe, this is by far the biggest test for him at the moment

I will be looking forward to this one.

me too!!!!!

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I will be looking forward to this one.

me too!!!!!

I Can't f**king wait