Boxing News Boxing News
In a battle of two of the most decorated fighters of the past two decades, Joe Calzaghe climbed off the canvas to hand Roy Jones a twelve round unanimous decision defeat at Madison Square Garden in New York last night.
Calzaghe was winning the first round off the southpaw jab when he crouched on the inside and was caught by a uppercut he never saw coming from Jones, falling to the canvas.
But the Welshman beat the count and resumed his pressure of Jones, who tried to maintain distance and catch Calzaghe coming in.
As the rounds wore on, Calzaghe’s pressure forced Jones to become more and more defensive, content to cover up on the ropes and let the younger man rattle him with a two handed assault to the head and body.
It was clearly not the Roy Jones of his prime but the 39 year old Floridian did catch Calzaghe on occasion with a hard right uppercut or right cross, which the “Welsh Wizard” simply laughed off, either making faces at the former four weight world champion or improvising a fake “hurt fighter” shimmy that seemed to anger Jones.
Jones simply couldn’t keep up with the high work rate of Calzaghe and picked up a bad cut over his left eye in the seventh, taking even more of the steam from his efforts.
Calzaghe was clearly enjoying himself, forcing Jones into survival mode to try and stem the onslaught until the twelfth and final round was over when Calzaghe declared the winner via marks of 118-109 on all three scorecards.
“The Pride of Wales” improves to 46-0 (32), while Jones loses for the first time in three years to fall to 52-5 (38). Calzaghe didn’t declare his retirement after the bout as he had done so previously but will consider his options before making a decision to carry on or not.
On the undercard, light welter Dmitriy Salita, 29-0-1 (16), won the vacant IBF Intercontinental title with a twelve round UD against Derrick Campos, 17-6 (10).
Former light welter and welterweight world champion Zab Judah, 37-6 (25), returned to the win column with a ten round points verdict over Ernest Johnson, 18-3-1 (7), and former middleweight prospect Daniel Edouard, 20-2-2 (11), outpointed Alphonso Williams, 10-5 (8), after eight rounds.
Heavyweight Dominick Guinn, 30-6-1 (20), defeated Gabe Brown, 18-9-4 (12), in an eight rounder and welter Francisco Figueroa, 20-2 (13), survived a scare against super journeyman Emanuel Augustus, 38-30-6 (20), to pull out an eight round split decision.
Two prospects were on the bill as super middle Daniel Jacobs, 12-0 (11), stopped Jimmy Campbell, 11-3 (8), in the third and light middle Joseph Judah, 4-0 (1), stopped Richard Heath, 3-10 (2), in the second.
