Why did RJJ and Calzaghe never fight?

[Cortez The Killer]

I'm curious if anyone knows, if there is a reason. Speculation is nice too

Think...1997-2003...those were 6 PRIME years where both were around the same weight and it seems like a matchup would have been natural. Was somebody *cough JOE cough* ducking?

Would anyone still be interested in seeing them fight?

[superheavyrhun]

Whoa whoa whoa there dasamm, I think you'll find, if you look back at all your tapes, that it was RJJ that wasn't interested in the Calzaghe fight. For him, Calzaghe wasn't a name in the US, and it made no sense to him to risk that unified title of his against an up-and-comer from Britain who had looked really good but hadn't beaten any real american fighters prior to then.
Also, Calzaghe wouldn't have sacrfiiced his WBO SMW belt to move up to light-heavy, unless it was for a fight against RJJ, and he wasn't interested, so that's why it wasn't made.

[Cortez The Killer]

Whoa whoa whoa there dasamm, I think you'll find, if you look back at all your tapes, that it was RJJ that wasn't interested in the Calzaghe fight. For him, Calzaghe wasn't a name in the US, and it made no sense to him to risk that unified title of his against an up-and-comer from Britain who had looked really good but hadn't beaten any real american fighters prior to then.
Also, Calzaghe wouldn't have sacrfiiced his WBO SMW belt to move up to light-heavy, unless it was for a fight against RJJ, and he wasn't interested, so that's why it wasn't made.

Well, that's why I was asking. And then decided to speculate myself True, those are good points..I guess it's one of those things in retrospect seems like it would have been good for both fighters. If JC beat RJJ before 2004 when RJJ hit his rough patch it would have added a lot of legitimacy to JC's legacy and it would be hard for us haters to take anything away from him. And...well if RJJ took it he may have decided he liked SMW and would have never fought Johnson or Tarver again. Easy to look back and say "shoulda woulda" but too bad for both imo it didn't happen. Calzaghe would have also still had over 30 wins at the time and though not against big names it seems like it could have been enough for RJJ to keep an open mind.

[Tito BHB]

what at super middle? fair play i think the question is why did eubank or benn never fight jones...
i mean some americans dont think much of joe now... never mind back then early 90's he was none existant on the boxing scene...
peace

[Wacko3205]

I'm sure that there are several reasons.

No one stateside really cared about Calzaghe...especially Jones.

Jones probably wanted alla the money...& there probably wasn't that much money in the fight to begin with.

Also...Jones pretty much refused to fight out of the U.S. & he didn't have to.

I'm sure that there are more reasons...but those are the ones that I would spec on.