18.09.08 – by James Slater – Tonight, on Setanta Sports’ Steve Bunce Boxing Hour T.V show, the Joe Calzaghe-Roy Jones and Kelly Pavlik-Bernard Hopkins fights were heavily previewed – with interviews given by all four boxers. And as intriguing as both fights are, this writer couldn’t help but get the feeling that the match-ups are the wrong way around. Yes, both bouts are good, top of the range fights, but surely things would be even better if Calzaghe was facing Pavlik, and, in a rematch of their 1993 fight, Jones was facing Hopkins. Let’s face it, everyone wants to see Pavlik take on Calzaghe – there has been talk to this effect, on both sides of the Atlantic, for months now. And on tonight’s Boxing Hour, talk again briefly revolved around a possible Calzghe-Pavlik showdown.
Calzaghe once more claimed that Pavlik twice turned down a fight with him. While Pavlik, who spoke to Steve Bunce via a telephone hook-up from the States, said he has never been offered a fight with Calzaghe at any time. “I don’t know why they keep throwing my name out there,” Kelly said on air. “They never offered us the fight. Calzaghe? Never. I don’t know where they get these things from. His dad’s a ballet dancer. After I knocked Gary Lockett out his dad started ripping me apart. I’d go on Eastside Boxing and I’d read things where Enzo [Calzaghe] was ripping me apart..”
Pavlik went on to say he’d love the fight, and that at every opportunity, and whilst being interviewed by everyone who asked him, he has said the same thing. But for whatever reasons (you can believe whatever you want about either fighter being afraid of the other), the two great and unbeaten fighters are going in different directions – Calzaghe to a fight with Jones (possibly Joe’s final fight) and Pavlik to his fight with Hopkins.
Hopkins and Jones were also both interviewed and gave viewers interesting insights into their upcoming bouts. But as excited as we are about the two fights taking place in October and November, wouldn’t we be more so if the match-ups were different? It really will be a crying shame if Pavlik and Calzaghe do not get it on. And Hopkins, who admitted that his points loss to Jones is the one and only time he’s ever been fairly beaten in his career, would be much better off facing Jones in a long awaited return than in going in with the lethal-punching and much younger Pavlik.
Two veterans, seeking closure at the end of their careers, taking on one another, and two unbeaten stars (albeit one at the end of his career also) meeting up to see who really is afraid? Talk about two fights we’d all like to see. Maybe this is simply asking too much, and after all, what we are getting at the end of this year is pretty good as it stands.
I just can’t help getting the feeling that in the old days the two higher quality bouts are what we would have been treated to.
(By the way, yes, you did read correctly, Kelly Pavlik did indeed state how he reads this very web site!)