Bika 4 attempts at weigh-in

We will have to wait until Saturday night to discover just how good Sakio Bika is, but he won't want for size when he takes on Joe Calzaghe at the MEN Arena.

A heavily muscled Bika had to strip naked as he made the 12-stone super-middleweight limit at the fourth attempt at the weigh-in today, although he was never more than six ounces.

Not only did he look a size bigger than Calzaghe with his perfect boxer's frame of a big torso on spindly legs, he also enjoyed an inch height advantage over the Welshman.

Ever the professional, and having had to make the super-middleweight limit for more than a decade, Calzaghe was dead on 12 stone - even wearing a woolly blue hat.

In contrast Bika, who began his professional career as a middleweight, had to shed those six ounces before he too made the 12-stone championship limit.

Earlier he had hopped on the scales twice in his underwear and then once naked, but each time failed to get inside 168 pounds.

Both men looked confident during the head to head, before Calzaghe jokingly waved him aside so he could have his photo taken alone.

When you are about to make the 19th defence of your WBO super-middleweight title, own the IBF crown and are considered to be the best fighter in the world in your division, it's a privilige you are allowed to have.

Bika, who wound up in Australia via Cameroon, shrugged and wandered away, and looked genuinely unfazed by the size of the challenge ahead of him.

He's certainly being made to feel at home by the unseasonally warm Manchester weather, in stark contrast to the snow flurries which greeted Calzaghe's last fight here, against Jeff Lacy.

Yet come rain or shine he usually finds a way to win and win impressively, and once more he is expected to do the business against former WBC super-middleweight title challenger Bika.

Calzaghe will begin tomorrow night's fight a huge favourite, but the presence of American media mogul Jay Larkin at the weigh-in will have served to remind him just how much is riding on the fight.

Sports Network's US consultant, Larkin was instrumental in bringing Calzaghe's promoter Frank Warren and US television network HBO together, and they will be screening the Bika contest on a delayed basis Stateside.

If Calzaghe impresses, a live date is almost certainly his in February, against any one from a long list of opponents, many of them American

Having waited so long for recognition, Calzaghe, Britain's premier fighter, is seeing his popularity begin to snowball on the back of that Lacy win.

Calzaghe even met Welsh crooner Tom Jones, who plays at the MEN Arena on Friday night, in the build up to the fight, to cement his credibility as an A-lister.

Jones, of course, famously left his homeland to conquer the States, and that is next on the agenda for Calzaghe.

He's already beaten a string of American super-middleweights, and a fight on US soil, perhaps as early as February but almost certainly at some point next year, can only help increase his profile.

* In the chief support WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli weighed in at a shade under 199 pounds, while challenger Mark Hobson was smack on the championship limit of 200 pounds or 14'4 stone.

WBU featherweight champion Steve Foster Jnr was 8'13, while challenger Derry Matthews was 8'12 1/2 stone.

Source:

http://www.frankwarren.tv/drill/News...oes-naked.html

Good read CJA. Have your first Cool Click on me :)

JC made Bika get the phuk out of his spot light :)

I had no idea Tom Jones was still alive. He must be at least 200 years old. I also thought he was American. Go figure. We learn something new everyday.

Let's hope this is another great win for JC.

Go JC Go!

is the enzo fight on TV in the UK?