24.06.08 – by James Slater: In quite unexpected news, unbeaten great Joe Calzaghe has split with his long-time promoter Frank Warren. Speaking with The South Wales Argus, the 36-year-old super-middleweight and light-heavyweight king made the official announcement earlier today. Despite having been with The Hall of Fame promoter for well over ten years, Calzaghe wants to wind up his career by calling the shots himself..
“There has been a lot of speculation about my future,” Calzaghe said. “At this time I want to set the record straight and end that speculation. I am now a free agent with no contract and intend to be self-managed from now on. I am the only person who can make negotiations for my next fight.
Regarding that fight, I am not in negotiations with Kelly Pavlik, despite reports to the contrary. My intention is to fight Roy Jones Junior, a four-weight world champion fighter. That would be a special event for me against a legend of the sport. There are issues to be resolved with my former promoter Frank Warren and I hope they can be done so amicably.”
So far there has been no official statement from Warren, but it’s pretty safe to say he will be anything but thrilled by the news. It’s unclear exactly why Calzaghe has parted company with Warren – with more than likely just one more fight to go before he hangs up his gloves, one would have thought Joe would stick with his long-time promoter to the very end. More than likely, as time goes by, more news will come out and perhaps explain just what went wrong – if anything – between the two men.
One thing is abundantly clear right now, however – Joe Calzaghe has absolutely zero interest in fighting the current middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. This much Joe has again made plain. This is more of a blow to boxing fans than Calzaghe’s parting with Warren. Who really cares too much who promotes a fighter, so long as the best possible fights get made? And it seems, with or without Frank Warren, Joe would not have put his name on any contract that called for him to face “The Ghost.”
No-one should ever go as far as to say the unbeaten Welshman is afraid of Pavlik, but it is puzzling why Calzaghe is so dead-set on facing the faded Jones instead. A Calzaghe-Pavlik fight would he monstrous, whoever promoted it, wherever it took place and at what weight. In all probability Joe would’ve been able to have called a number of the shots regarding the fight, too. But still he doesn’t want to know.
Despite some fans feeling disappointed at how Calzaghe is winding up his career (if indeed the fight with Jones is his last), the all-time great has earned the right to go out as he sees fit.