By Umar ben-Ivan Lee

With only six-weeks between Joe Calzaghe and a mega-fight for big money with Jeff Lacy, he decides to take on a non-mandatory 5'7 Super-Middleweight for a small payday.

During the course of this meaningless fight, Calzaghe is injured and now says he cannot fight Lacy in November. Now Frank Warren and Calzaghe are angered at the mere suggestion that this is not a legit injury. However, others have stated that Calzaghe never wanted to fight the younger Lacy in the first place and just as he has done in the past, Calzaghe has found a way to get out of tough fights.

At age 32, Calzaghe has not had any marquee fights and still is perplexed by not being a household name in Great Britain. Now that he has a golden opportunity to have just the kind of fight that he needs he seemingly blows it on a meaningless fight with Evans Ashira. At a minimum, Calzaghe and Warren are guilty of poor judgment.

Ricky Hatton, fresh off his victory over Kostya Tszyu, has been offered a 4.1 million-dollar payday to fight Zab Judah in England. A Judah-Hatton contest could be a classic as two fighters who are both considered pound-for-pound elite battle both in their prime, both with decent power and high energy-levels.

Would the pressure tactics of Hatton be too much for Judah? Would the power and speed of Judah be too much for Hatton? We may never know.

The camp of Hatton and many British fight fans will tell you that Hatton has opted to fight WBA belt holder Carlos Maussa instead of Judah because he does not want to do business with Frank Warren any more and that is certainly a more legit excuse than the lame one Calzaghe is using to not fight Lacy. If Hatton wants greatness though, and just doesn’t want to be a Brit phenomenon, then he will have to take on the best. And Maussa isn’t the best, he is a guy who was beat down by Miguel Cotto.

It will seem at this moment that the British fighters are going wobbly;  Calzaghe not fighting Lacy, Hatton not fighting Judah, Naseem Hamed at Cruiserweight, Audley Harrison boxing senior-citizens, and a fan base that has put their hopes in a teenager in Amir Kahn.

British fight fans are often angry at the American boxing media for not giving their fighters ample due. Well in order for us to do this, we will have to see their fighters fight other boxers in their prime. What good boxer in his prime has Calzaghe fought? Hatton beat Tszyu, but before that he was fighting guys either smaller than him or way past their prime.

Now I am not the least bit nationalistic and I do not view boxing through the eyes of patriotism or nationalism. However, I do recognize that the best boxers in the world fight in America and if you want to be considered an elite fighter you have to fight the best of the US and Latin America. Calzaghe and Hatton can keep on looking for the easiest fights they can possibly make while still getting paid or they can step to the plate like the champions they want to be.

Umar ben-Ivan Lee may be contacted at keepslugging@hotmail.com