Boxing Champion Joe Calzaghe: “I want to go out at the top”

By Simon Jackson

Joe Calzaghe has expressed his desire to hang up his gloves after three “super fights” which will enable the unbeaten Welshman to step away from the ring while still at the peak of his profession.

Calzaghe extended his unbeaten record to 43 when he stopped Peter Manfredo Jnr six weeks ago at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium and the WBO and IBF super middleweight champion has strong thoughts on his future.

“I would like three more fights, all of them against big names,” Calzaghe said to skysports.com. “Two years ago I said I would have three more fights and now, three fights later, I want three more. Whatever happens, I want to go out at the top, that is for sure.”

Ronald Winky Wright 51-3-1 (25), Bernard Hopkins 47-4-1 (32) and the unbeaten pair, Jermain Taylor and Mikkel Kessler are possible future opponents for Calzaghe, 35, but it is Hopkins – who fights Wright this summer – who may be Calzaghe’s next opponent.

“Hopkins would interest me,” Calzaghe said. “He won his last fight against Antonio Tarver so he is still a formidable opponent. “He looked good against Tarver but he is 42 years old and he can’t go on forever. The winner of Winky Wright and Hopkins could be my opponent for January. They are fighting in July and I think they will put on a good show, but Hopkins will be too big for Wright.”

But although both Wright and Hopkins have tried, neither have been able to get past the formidable Taylor, 27-0-1 (17), who is Calzaghe’s ultimate target.

Hopkins twice lost on points to Taylor in 2005 and following the first fight Taylor, a proud Arkansas resident, is reported to have presented Bill Clinton, the former U.S. President and a fellow Arkansas resident, with a replica of the robes he wore before entering the ring.

Wright did marginally better against Taylor with a 115-113; 113-115; 114-114 draw 12 months ago but in common with his next opponent could not edge past Taylor.

Mikkel Kessler remains a possibility and while promoter Frank Warren is in contact with the Danish born fighterʼs connections it is Taylor that Calzaghe wants.

“Kessler is a good fighter,” Calzaghe said. “Frank has been talking to his promoter over the last few days, trying to do something with him but I think that fight may be six months or more down the road. Kessler is not a big name in America.

“He has had a couple of good wins but in his last fight he beat Markus Bayer, who was shot. We can go down the Kessler road but Taylor is the one for me.”

Courtesy www.frankmaloney.com