ESPN Boxing

Roy Jones Jr. challenges light heavyweight world champion Joe Calzaghe on Nov. 8 (HBO PPV) at New York's Madison Square Garden in "Battle of the Superpowers," a showdown between two of boxing's biggest stars. Throughout the remainder of his training camp, Jones will be keeping in touch with Dan Rafael of ESPN.com and providing an exclusive blog leading up to the fight.

First off, I want to thank the boxing fans for their interest in this fight. I'm really looking forward to facing Calzaghe and putting on a good show. Right now, I'm up in my training camp in California, Pa., about 45 minutes southeast of Pittsburgh. Everything is going great. My weight is good and my body is feeling really good.

I've usually trained in my hometown of Pensacola, Fla., but I decided to go away to train for this fight like I used to do early in my career. When I fought Bernard Hopkins, I trained in Las Vegas. When I fought James Toney, I trained in Great Gorge, N.J. Later in my career I stopped, but it's always better for me to get away. Going away helps me get my mind right and helps me better handle the task at hand. It gives me more time to focus on myself and not the everyday issues that come up at home. When I go away, I go to sleep earlier and get more rest. There's not too much to do up here, so you train. The people up here don't know me like the people in Pensacola, but they're the nicest people. They respect me and give me my space to do my thing and I enjoy being here.

Before I came up here, I did about six weeks of conditioning and training in Pensacola, but not really boxing training. Now, I'm in the boxing training camp with Merk (longtime trainer Alton Merkerson). We've been up here about three weeks now and there are about three weeks to go. I wish the fight was tomorrow.