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By Mark Staniforth, PA Sport courtesy Fred Sterberg
Joe Calzaghe admits he finds it tough to make the super-middlweight limit, but it was Mikkel Kessler who had to strip naked on the scales ahead of their Cardiff showdown.
The Dane initially weighed two ounces over the 12-stone (168 lb)maximum before shedding his underwear to hit the limit exactly.
Calzaghe unusually had over a pound to spare as he came in at 11st 12lbs 7ozs (166.6 lb)
The pair then engaged in the traditional head-to-head pose which briefly threatened to become tasty as they rubbed foreheads together, before being wisely pulled apart by their trainers.
Calzaghe admitted he would be heading straight to the local supermarket to pile on the pounds ahead of the fight which will take place at the Millennium Stadium in the early hours of Sunday morning.
“Forget about the fight. All I care about is my fridge,” Calzaghe joked. “Cakes, chocolates, sweets, pies – at this stage the only thing that matters is what you can eat out of your fridge.
“I’ll go to Asda then I’ll go home and eat everything. I don’t think it matters what you eat at this point. I eat anything I want, all churned up together. It’s pretty disgusting. And I can’t wait to have a pint of Guinness on Sunday.”
Over his decade-long reign as champion, Calzaghe has proved that his fight to make the weight has been more of a tiresome chore than a severe weight-loss programme which has had much negative impact on his performance.
Despite his desire for sustenance, he has looked as fit and relaxed as ever in the build-up to the biggest fight of his career against the unbeaten Kessler, who will put his WBA and WBC titles on the line against Calzaghe’s WBO belt.
The fact that Calzaghe will revert partially to the role of challenger for this contest for only the second time since he won his belt from Chris Eubank – he wrested the IBF version from Jeff Lacy last year – is where his real hunger lies.
“People think I haven’t got the hunger for this fight but believe me you have to got to have tremendous hunger to be able to train like I’ve trained because this is only my second unification fight.
“It’s great fighting someone else who has other belts because I’ve got so much to gain from winning this fight. I want to retire undefeated and I know this is going to be my toughest challenge yet.”
Calzaghe is keen to shrug off the historical and pound-for-pound comparisons which will inevitably move into overdrive should he claim his 44th professional win in style.
He has always been something of a reluctant celebrity, preferring to lead a quiet life in south Wales.
“I’ve had a brilliant 12-week camp,” he said, before correcting himself: “Actually, it’s not really a camp. I just stay at home.”
Even the prospect of a European indoor record of more than 50,000 fans at the Millennium Stadium and prime-time television exposure in the United States cannot bring out any rabid ambition which must lurk somewhere deep inside.
“Those things don’t drive me,” added Calzaghe. “Everybody is entitled to their own opinion and what people think doesn’t bother me either way, whether they have good or bad things to say.
“I know what I’ve achieved in my career is phenomenal. It’s amazing that I’ve been here 10 years since beating Chris Eubank, and I probably should have had 30 defences, not 20, because of my hand injuries.
“As you get more mature and get more big fights you get more comfortable and more relaxed. I been through the mill before. I’ve been in this kind of atmosphere and it’s a big deal. Kessler hasn’t.”
Indeed, the Dane, seven years Calzaghe’s junior, may point to his admirable 2005 win over Anthony Mundine in Sydney, but he will discover there is a world of difference between 15,000 Aussies and 50,000 roaring Welshmen.
What Kessler does boast is an unbeaten 39-fight record and a powerful right hand which has enabled him to emerge as the only genuine challenger to Calzaghe’s claims of 12-stone supremacy.
Kessler kept a low profile in the build-up to this fight, fuelling rumours of last-minute nerves or hidden hand injuries, although the real reason is likely to be as irrelevant as some kind of toys-out-of-the-pram promotional wrangle.
When he has appeared, Kessler has looked chiselled and confident; in other words, anything other than a fighter who is preparing to go into the biggest fight of his career with one healthy hand.
“My hands are fine and I have absolutely no idea where these rumours have come from,” said Kessler. “This is the first time in my career that I haven’t had an injury problem at any stage of my training camp.”
Given the strength of the ticket sales, Kessler’s absence from promotional duties has hardly had an adverse effect, and the pair’s mock jousts at the traditional head-to-head stare-out bore out the respect they clearly feel for each other.
“He is a dangerous fighter so I have got to make him respect me from the start,” acknowledged Calzaghe. “We’ll both want to control the centre of the ring. To use a Ricky Hatton phrase, it’s not going to be a tickling contest.”
Kessler is certainly good enough to provide Calzaghe with the toughest test of his unbeaten reign, and if this is the night when the Welshman’s age finally catches up with him, then the Dane has the ability to reign on points.
But a Calzaghe at his best is likely to have just that little bit more in every department. Kessler’s relatively straight-up, foot-forward style of fighting could be made for Calzaghe’s slippery southpaw counter-punching.
Calzaghe is favourite to claim a points win in a fight which can hardly fail to live up to its illustrious billing. With it he will earn the kind of prize that money simply cannot buy. Not even in the cake aisle of his local Asda.
