Joe Calzaghe: Ready for a Career Defining Challenge.
“Lacy wants to fight me and I want to fight him because he’s got a belt. I’ve watched him in the ring and I’m not worried about anything. I don’t think he’s a brilliant fighter but he’s a good fighter. He has a pretty straightforward, orthodox style with decent boxing skills who looks to land his punches but I believe that when we fight I’ll destroy him.‖Undefeated WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe has no doubt that he is superior to American star Jeff Lacy.
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Although you won’t see his name on many pound for pound lists, Joe Calzaghe feels he is without a doubt one of the best fighters in the world today regardless of weight and simply wants the chance to prove it. The Welsh Wonder’s undefeated streak stretches almost to ninety fights when you consider his sterling amateur career and |
Calzaghe is looking towards Florida this weekend in hopes that a bout taking place in Tampa on Saturday will help him confirm his lofty self assessment. Should Jeff Lacy defend his IBF title and turn back the more experienced ex-world champion Robin Reid in their bout, the hammer fisted American will without question raise his profile and quality in the eyes of many. If Lacy can pull it off and Joe wins his next appearance, scheduled in Cardiff for September 10, Calzaghe-Lacy is a unification clash that could happen at the end of the year. No one wants that fight to take place more than the “Italian Dragon,” Joe Calzaghe.
Join us for this exclusive interview in which Joe Calzaghe, the hard-hitting southpaw champion reveals his future plans.
The WBO champion is coming off an impressive win over mandatory challenger Mario Veit, a solid sixth round stoppage in the challenger’s homeland of Germany this past May. Initially, the southpaw from Newbridge, Wales was upset that he had to play tourist and travel to the Continent but Britain’s Sky TV had little interest in putting up millions of pounds sterling for a rematch with a fighter Calzaghe destroyed in a single round four years earlier. Surprisingly, the field trip turned out to be a blessing in disguise. “I was a bit dubious knowing the track record about what’s happened with fighters that have gone abroad and fought in places like Germany where things can go bad,” said Joe. “But they treated me with a lot of respect and treated me how I deserve to be treated. I’ve got no problem with that, they were very nice people and they had a gym waiting for me to use. It was quite a pleasant experience for me, actually. Going to Germany was a bit of a kick up the ass really.
“After I knocked Veit out four years ago, he won fifteen or sixteen on the spin and was coming off a good knockout win against Charles Brewer. I watched the tapes of him and he wasn’t the same I guy I had previously fought, so I had to prepare for a different fighter. Going to Germany, I knew that if I fought a bad fight, I was going to lose. If it went twelve rounds in a tough fight, they’d probably give it to him. I knew I had to make sure I was at my best and that’s what I needed. It was motivating to go into his backyard and that was the extra lift that I needed. It gave me the concentration I needed in the gym. So, it all went well for me.
“The fight itself, it was a good one. I was winning every single round before I stopped him, but it was competitive, it wasn’t just one way traffic. He caught me with some good shots and had a decent jab as well. I was happy with my performance, it was a controlled performance this time. Sometimes I can be a bit like a bull out of the gates and that really isn’t my style, which is why it can get me in a bit of trouble like in the fight against ByronMitchell. I nearly paid the ultimate price in that one from me being a bit too offensive and not thinking about defense. Against Veit, I was happy with how I used my boxing skills. My jab was lovely, I out-boxed him, I was patient and the punch came.”
While he isn’t looking past the September 10th date, Calzaghe doesn’t yet know who he’ll be defending his WBO Super Middleweight title against for the seventeenth time. Given that, the first and foremost thing on his mind is IBF belt-holder Jeff Lacy. The American champion faces ex-WBC titlist Robin Reid this weekend and it’s no secret that Calzaghe will probably get the first unification contest of his career against the winner. The fast- handed box fighter makes no bones about preferring to meet Lacy instead of re-matching Reid, a granite chinned counter-puncher who gave him difficulty some six years ago in a losing effort.
“I defeated Reid and have gone on skywards while his career has stagnated,” Calzaghe flatly declared. “So he won an IBO title, big deal, and he lost a fight to Sven Ottke. As far as I’m concerned, there’s a big gulf between us and he’s not in my sights. If he wins the title and then wants to bring it on? Fair enough but like I said, Lacy is quite a dangerous fighter and that’s what I like to face in opponents. He has the credentials to bring out the best in me and I’m glad that he’s rated in America because that’s the kind of fights I want.
“Lacy wants to fight me and I want to fight him because he’s got a belt. I’ve watched him in the ring and I’m not worried about anything. I don’t think he’s a brilliant fighter but he’s a good fighter. He has a pretty straightforward, orthodox style with decent boxing skills who looks to land his punches but I believe that when we fight I’ll destroy him. He comes forward and at the end of the day, has a lovely style for me. He probably wants to make a statement by fighting Robin Reid, but Lacy and I already have an opponent in common; Omar Sheika. Lacy fought him recently but he couldn’t do a job on Sheika like I did.”
In addition to a super middleweight unification fight, a jump up in weight may be on the cards for Calzaghe, a tall broad shouldered type who has been in the 168-pound division his entire career. “I don’t know how much longer I can stay at super middle because when I turned pro, my natural walking around weight was about 170-174 pounds,” he recalled. “But now I make the same weight when I walk around at about 190-pounds. I’d like to move up and besides, it’s always been my ambition to become a two-weight world champion. I’d like to face the best at light heavy but they may not be easy fights to make. People I’d like to meet there include Antonio Tarver, Glen Johnson, and Tomasz Adamek or even Clinton Woods, but he’s not interested. He wanted to fight me before he won the IBF title but now he’s not interested and won’t even hear my name be mentioned. so obviously I’m frustrated about that.”
Joe Calzaghe has achieved a great deal in his near twelve-year career so far but is telling everyone who will listen that the best is yet to come. “I’m thirty-three now so I have to keep the ball rolling, I need to keep busy, keep active and can’t afford to be out of the ring,” he said. “You can become forgotten if you don’t fight very often but now there’s a massive opportunity with Frank Warren signing that deal with ITV, for all his fighters but especially for myself so I’m looking forward to it. I haven’t had many hard fights so I still feel young and I’m looking forward to fighting on ITV and presenting my skills to a wider audience.
“I’m hoping to be back in September and then hopefully I’ll get a big fight before the end of the year, so I hope to be in the ring twice more this year. I’m thirty-three but just like in any sport, an athlete never really stops learning. I’m trying to use my head a bit more, use my boxing skills but I just get caught up in the moment sometimes (laughs), I like to get in there and just knock somebody out as quick as possible (laughs). But, I used a bit more controlled aggression and put on a better performance my last time out. I want the opportunity with Lacy even if it isn’t a huge money fight because at the end of the day if I win a unification bout then the bigger money fights will come.”
SaddoBoxing.com would like to thank Joe and Enzo Calzaghe as well as Frank Warren and Richard Maynard for making this article possible.
Contact Curtis McCormick at thomaspointrd@aol.com