WBC and WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik has denied claims that he turned down the opportunity to fight Joe Calzaghe. Pavlik, who takes on Bernard Hopkins on the 18th of October, has said that no approach from the Calzaghe camp was ever made. In an interview on Setanta Sports News during Steve Bunce’s Boxing Hour Pavlik said: “I don’t know why they keep throwing my name out there. They never ever offered us the fight. Calzaghe? Never..
“Calzaghe and his dad keep throwing shots at me for no reason. He has Roy Jones Junior in front of him. The chances of him getting past Roy Jones are very slim.
“There might not be any talk of me and Calzaghe in the future. If he doesn’t get past Jones, there’s no point in me fighting him.”
Joe Calzaghe and Roy Jones Jnr preview November clash
Light heavyweight boxer Joe Calzaghe has described his next opponent, Roy Jones Junior, as “the best fighter of the past 20 years.”
While Calzaghe revealed he had always been a fan of Jones, he admits he was too quick to dismiss the 39-year-old as a spent force.
In an exclusive interview during Steve Bunce’s Boxing Hour on Setanta Sports News Calzaghe said:
“I’ve been an admirer of him since the amateur days, since he got ripped off in the Olympics.
“Two years ago I was one of the many people who said Roy Jones should call it a day. He went from being Superman to getting knocked out by a guy called Tarver.
“Since then, like all great fighters, he’s come back and had some good wins. Roy Jones Junior is back.”
Meanwhile Jones Junior has described Calzaghe as a ‘super-power’ in world boxing.
“If a country had as much firepower as Joe does, as much ammunition as he uses in a fight, that country’s going to rule the world.”
Going into the fight Jones admitted that Calzaghe’s record of 45 wins and no losses was “something special.”
“You’ve got to respect any athlete. I don’t care who you’re fighting, it isn’t easy to become 45-0. If you don’t respect that there’s something wrong with you.
“He throws so many punches it’s ridiculous. That’s going to pose a problem for anybody.”
Jones added that he had not ruled out fighting Calzaghe on more than one occasion, saying that the pair could fight a ‘best of three’ series across the US and the UK.
“That’s what I tried to get Joe to do. If we fight two and it ends in a one all tie, we might do a third.”