Blog Alert by Socalboxer
- Its rare that a champion is able to go out on top. Calzaghe has made some great accomplishments throughout his career: an undefeated record; longest reigning champion of his era; 10 year super middleweight title reign plus 21 defenses and unification victories; a move up to light heavyweight beat Bernard Hopkins for the title and defend it against Roy Jones Jr.
All that sure is a mouthful. And what reason would the 36 year old Calzaghe have to fight on? Lennox Lewis and Ricky Hatton have said that Calzaghe should call it quits. When pressed by HBO's Max Kellerman after the Jones Jr. fight, Calzahge seemed to have little interest in fighting on. However, there are some possible match ups out there for him, and I take a brief look at each of these possibilities.
Chad Dawson – Undefeated light heavyweight title holder. He produced wins over Antonio Tarver and “The Road Warrior” Glen Johnson – not an easy thing to do. However, outside of boxing circles he simply isn’t well known. A major promotion could be made from this fight in the
UK but Joe is probably looking for a major world wide event at this stage of his career. While this is an excellent match up, it might not be big enough to lure Calzaghe.
Bernard Hopkins – The grizzled old veteran proved that he still packs a punch when he shut out Kelly Pavlik. But he does have a narrow split decision loss against Calzaghe already. And that could be a major sticking point in Calzaghe giving him another opportunity. You can bet that
Hopkins will do what he can to get Joe in the ring with him again. I feel
Hopkins does deserve the opportunity.
Winky Wright – One of the elite fighters of this era, unfortunately he is also one of the most inactive fighters lately. His drawing power is about average especially when paired with a big name – he was able to get large crowds for his fights with Tito Trinidad and Bernard Hopkins. A fight with Joe would get a fair amount of attention. But would it be enough to get Joe’s attention, sadly I don’t think so.
Jermain Taylor - If
Taylor can produce a great showing against Jeff Lacy this weekend, and I mean the type of performance that Calzaghe himself displayed against Lacy, then a match up with
Taylor might make sense.
Taylor does carry some brand power with his name and holds two wins over Bernard Hopkins. If Lacy were to get by
Taylor, Jermain can kiss this opportunity good bye.
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