Calzaghe: Too Little, Too Late.

You would think a certain level of cynicism is necessary to discredit the career of a world champion fighter. Thirty or perhaps even twenty years ago, that statement would have been true. However, in today’s boxing industry, a precious few fighters competing at the top-level

welcome the greatest and most dangerous challenges consistently, relishing the opportunity to take their destiny into their own hands and giving their all in the name of greatness. Today, an ever-increasing majority of champions look to preserve their unblemished records, making unrealistic financial demands and accentuating any excuse that allows them to remain in their own corner of the world with the spoils of past victories untouched. Joe Calzaghe is one such champion. As the global procession of the great fighters of his time passes by, Calzaghe’s talents as a fighter remain largely dormant, spent in measured amounts on hopeless mandatory obligations. Recently, Calzaghe further illuminated his delusion by revealing a plan, a final stand against the great fighters of his day that he hopes will lead him to a unification of monolithic proportions against none other than……..Mikkel Kessler? Is anyone else inspired? I thought not.

Such Calzaghe maneuvers are evidence that he feels his dues as one of the world’s greatest fighters are paid; they are not. Calzaghe appears to believe that simply being active alongside and verbally challenging such notable champions as Roy Jones Jr. and Bernard Hopkins is enough to grant him greatness by association. Calzaghe’s championship reign emerged from the ashes of the Benn-Eubank-Collins era. In victory or defeat, all three of those fighters nonetheless went forth against true champions of their time. Benn for example, was ironically more successful against the foreign elite than he proved to be against his domestic counterparts. Unable or unwilling to continue that proud tradition, Calzaghe promised much, and thus far, delivered little.

Calzaghe is a champion, but one that has too long let his ambition wander, allowing the business of his legacy to fall where it may. Meanwhile, legends have come and gone, scarcely acknowledging Calzaghe’s impotent threats as they indulge affairs of greater importance. Some may view Calzaghe’s positioning in the super middleweight division, nestled between the glamorous middleweight division and the competitive light heavyweight ranks to be a handicap, but the truth is, when the opportunities were available, Calzaghe neglected to force the issue. His prominent standing atop the 168-pound division comes from little more than assumption of his superiority through examination of mere statistics; a long, undefeated record full of title defenses may seem impressive, but against whom those victories came, is a tale in which an accurate interpretation of Calzaghe’s career finally appears.

Sven Ottke never held the essence of a great fighter. Although he retired undefeated and commanded a statistically impressive career, in the ring, and the eyes of boxing fans, he was a survivor. Ottke gathered two more reputable championships to his credit than Calzaghe has attempted, and did so without a single, solitary punctuating performance, no statement of intent, no defining moment. Worryingly, Calzaghe seems to have adopted a similar mantle in Ottke’s wake.

Injuries aside, Calzaghe’s career choices during the healthy portions of his career have been poor to say the least. In many instances, Calzaghe wasted his time with fights against such names as Byron Mitchell, already beaten by Ottke in a unification fight but nonetheless, an occasion viewed as arguably Calzaghe’s career highlight. Aging former champion Charles Brewer, already twice beaten by Ottke at the time of his challenge to Calzaghe. Finally, we come to the completely forgettable plight of Tocker Pudwill; once again, Pudwill already suffered defeat by Ottke’s hand. If these contests were part of some protracted goading, meant to lure Ottke towards a fight with Calzaghe, the strategy failed miserably.

If Calzaghe’s grand plan, the final act being the unification with Kessler manages to raise little more than vacant reactions, the road he means to travel there is even more anti-climactic, overwhelming to boxing fans only in terms of its sheer disappointment. Calzaghe’s contentment to fight another champion’s castoffs continues this week when he faces Brian Magee, Ireland’s former IBO champion, already beaten by Robin Reid, who in turn knows defeat to Calzaghe himself. Reckon also with the fact that after Magee, Calzaghe expects to travel to Germany to indulge yet another mandatory obligation. Mario Veit is the WBO’s mandated challenger, a fighter Calzaghe knocked out in a single round some years ago; proposed scenarios such as these make connotations of a dog chasing its tail difficult to escape.

In the last ten years, witnessing Calzaghe achieve little more than domestic dominance interrupted only by the occasional thrashing of a spent or severely limited international force, and considering his past unwillingness to fight beyond safe confines, it is unlikely that a definitive moment will arrive to save the wasting of his once considered limitless potential. A simple escape lays in denial, the repeated self-conviction that great fighters avoided him, injuries waylaid him for too long and that he did all he could to impose himself as the world’s premier super middleweight. But a legacy is affirmed in the eyes of boxing fans, not the superficial assurance of statistics and excuses. What means little now, will mean even less when the day comes when Joe Calzaghe’s legacy is no longer in his own hands, and that day is fast approaching.

Jim Cawkwell can be reached at jimcawkwell@yahoo.co.uk