If Joe Calzaghe Returns, He Will Not Retire An Undefeated Champion
The much-hyped Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament began last Saturday night in two separate European states with “King” Arthur Abraham and Carl Froch winning their respective bouts to commence the unique event.
The tournament was primarily established to anoint a new champion in the super middleweight division after its longtime titlist, Joe Calzaghe, relinquished his crowns in 2007 and ultimately retired in February 2009.
The finals of the World Boxing Classic tournament are expected to occur sometime in May or June 2011.
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Many fans of the Sweet Science are already clamoring for a matchup that would pit the former champion Calzaghe against the winner of this unprecedented tournament.
Unfortunately, Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KOs) has made it emphatically clear that he would rather become infected with herpes than return to the ring to face the winner of the Super Six World Boxing Classic.
“I’m enjoying retirement,” said Calzaghe, 37, a Welshmen who is only the third European boxer ever to retire as an undefeated world champion.
“I don’t want to fight. My kids don’t want me to fight. Not too many fighters retire at the right time. That means more to me than money. Honestly, there is no desire in me. Nothing in me at all wants to fight again.”
Many boxing observers and analysts predict that either Abraham (31-0, 25 KOs) or Froch (26-0, 20 KOs) will emerge victorious next year.
Calzaghe is readily aware that boxing promoters and network executives will attempt to entice him out of retirement with lucrative deals to scrap the Classic’s eventual winner.
Still, Calzaghe maintains that he will rebuff any offer that is proposed to him no matter how exorbitant the purse may become.
“I’ll tell them what I told you,” said Calzaghe, a southpaw who Ring magazine once rated as pound-for-pound one of the top 10 boxers in the world, “no.”
“The Pride of Wales” claims that he wishes a Super Six tourney had existed when he was still an active fighter.
“Of course I wish they had this when I was boxing,” said Calzaghe. “This (168-pound) division is close to my heart. My time was a frustrating time. I couldn’t get the great fights. It was not a very illustrious division. This is a great tournament that is great for boxing. There are too many champions out there. This should settle that.”
Calzaghe’s must notable victories came at the expenses of Super Six competitor Mikkel Kessler (42-1, 32 KOs), former IBF super middleweight champion Jeff Lacy (25-3, 17 KOs), and geriatric pugilists Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1, 32 KOs) and Roy Jones, Jr. (54-5, 40 KOs).
If Calzaghe had battled either Hopkins, 44, or Jones, 40, in the primes of their careers, he would have been utterly massacred by either of those two legendary boxers.
Calzaghe possessed great pugilistic skills and he is an enormously accomplished fighter.
But, “The Pride of Wales” was never able to secure a signature victory that would have definitively cemented his legacy as an all-time great.
Calzaghe stated that he still occasionally spars and has maintained his conditioning.
Additionally, Calzaghe said he hasn’t “let himself get fat” and he is very confident that he would still prevail today over any fighter in his weight class.
“I’d be a fool to come back,” said Calzaghe. “I have too much good going on in my life.”
As noted previously, Calzaghe was quoted as saying, “Not too many fighters retire at the right time.”
If Calzaghe upholds his stance and he does not fight again, he will be a boxing novelty in the sense that he escaped from the sport with his health entirely intact and his finances secure.
In this particular instance, fans should believe Calzaghe and allow him to prepare for the next stage in his life.
However, if Calzaghe relents and returns to the ring like most boxers do, he will not retire an undefeated champion.
Calzaghe will turn 38 in March and age has never been kind to prizefighters.
As Calzaghe himself said, he would simply “be a fool to come back.”
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