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With the postponement of their scheduled September 20 clash announced earlier this week, due to a training injury to Joe Calzaghe’s hand, the contest between the Welsh Wizard and Roy Jones Jr will now take place in November at the original location of Madison Square Garden.
Five years ago, this was a prospective fight that would have had fans and media alike crawling over broken glass to get into. Calzaghe had just won a tremendous slugfest with heavy-handed recent ex-champion Byron Mitchell while Jones was at the absolute height of his career having just outclassed John Ruiz for a heavyweight title.
Since that time, the pair’s careers have gone in wildy different directions. Calzaghe, staying at super middle, won four fights over tough but less than top class competition before enjoying his coming out party again Jeff Lacy in 2006 but then going in against lower tier opposition again for two bouts before emerging to outfight Mikkel Kessler.
“The Pride of Wales” then made his long awaited jump to light heavyweight to outwork the ageless Bernard Hopkins, who was finally, at age 43, in with an opponent who “The Executioner” could not control.
Jones fell straight down after his amazing performance against Ruiz, returning to light heavyweight and winning a close bout against Florida rival Antonio Tarver before suffering consecutive knockout losses to Tarver and Glen Johnson in 2004.
At one time it was unthinkable that Jones would have been even pushed hard in a bout by either Tarver or Johnson but the hair trigger reflexes of the modern day great were clearly not what they once were.
Jones survived his third bout against Tarver only to lose comprehensively on points in 2005 before setting his sights lower and outpointing two tough, but less than top class opponents, before handling an undersized and spent Felix Trinidad this past January.
Both Calzaghe, 36, and Jones, 39, are clearly in the twilight of their careers and this could be the final bout for both. In Calzaghe’s case, he’s already announced this is it while it’s anyone’s guess whether Jones will keep going, but his performance against Calzaghe will likely determine his future viability for future big fights.
If they had fought in 2003, hardly anyone would have picked Calzaghe to come out on top but in 2008, it’s the reverse. This bout isn’t happening as a result of public pressure but rather Calzaghe wishing to fight a legend, similar to his bout against Hopkins, that he has always wanted to face and felt prevented from doing so years ago.
Despite Jones being of diminished skills compared to the fighter that schooled Ruiz and so many before him, his clash with Calzaghe should see the old master likely waiting for the younger man to commit and then use his still superb countering abilities.
Jones will likely jab and move away from Calzaghe’s high volume attack in a less than thrilling early portion of the bout, but at some point will tire and the two men will come to grips over the second half of the bout and at that point anything can happen in what should be a thrilling contest.
