Calzaghe ready to display skills on American soil

Rafael

By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
(Archive)

Updated: April 4, 2008

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

"You know what you're getting yourself into?" Hopkins, left, will be Calzaghe's first opponent in the U.S.

Calzaghe ready for America

Joe Calzaghe has proven that he's one of the best fighters in the world. He's done it by reigning for more than a decade as super middleweight champion, making 21 defenses and winning all four major belts along the way.

Through it all, the 36-year-old Welshman has remained undefeated. But if there is one gaping hole in his resume it's that he has yet to conquer America. He's only boxed outside the United Kingdom twice, in Denmark and in Germany.

But Calzaghe (44-0, 32 KOs) says he's finally ready to fight under the hot Las Vegas lights, even though he could certainly stay in the United Kingdom, rack up defenses, make big money and draw huge crowds. His unification victory in November against Mikkel Kessler drew more than 50,000 in Cardiff, so Calzaghe doesn't need to come to America.

He wants to.

And when he gets here, light heavyweight champ Bernard Hopkins (48-4-1, 32 KOs) will be waiting.

"I'm looking forward to it," Calzaghe said this week. "Obviously, it's my first fight in America in any weight. Yeah, I'm excited."

Calzaghe arrives in Las Vegas on Monday, giving himself plenty of time to adjust to the climate and time changes in advance of their April 19 (HBO, 9:45 p.m. ET) fight, Calzaghe's first at 175 pounds, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

It will be the culmination of the question he's been asked for years: When will you fight in America, Joe?

Calzaghe, however, never really cared about leaving the comfort of home until recently. In December, he traveled to Las Vegas to see England's Ricky Hatton, whom Calzaghe has known for years, fight Floyd Mayweather. Calzaghe saw the massive crowd that traveled from the U.K. to support Hatton and at the weigh in the day before the fight, he was confronted on stage by Hopkins, who called him out.

A month earlier, following his resounding victory against Kessler, Calzaghe said he seriously started to think about coming to the U.S. if he could get a big fight. Then Hopkins began calling him out and the time was finally right.

"After the Kessler fight I had to sit down and say, 'How am I going to better this moment?' To finish my career off with meaningful fights, that's something that gets me excited. And I suppose going out to watch Ricky and being confronted by Hopkins with his comments. I love them," Calzaghe said. "He's a smart guy and that sold the fight. So once I saw the tremendous reception that Ricky got, it's incredible, absolutely incredible. You know the sight of all the thousands of fans, it's just brilliant and I had a buzz off that and I wanted to get a bit of that before I retired because there's one thing missing really from my record."

Even though Calzaghe is coming to America, he'll be the crowd favorite with thousands of fans expected to make the trip like so many Brits did for Hatton.

"It's Joe's first fight in the States, but I think it'll be like fighting at home for him because it seems there's going to be more Brits there than there are supporters for Bernard Hopkins, so it should be a real British atmosphere," promoter Frank Warren said. "I know that all of Britain will be behind him and I think he'll win over a lot of the American fans as well if he hasn't already done after his two performances that we've seen with Jeff Lacy and Mikkel Kessler."

Besides wanting the experience of a big Vegas fight, Calzaghe said that at this stage of his career, he needs motivation to get up for fights. The challenge of crossing the pond provides it, he said.

"Well, new challenges basically," he said of his reason. "I've always said if you get a fight as a light heavyweight it would be nice, and a fight in the States. I thought, well it kind of is the end of my career, it'd be a shame never to experience it first hand. So that's basically it. Fighting in America and challenging myself. That in itself is cool for me and it's worth getting me excited. It's not just about fighting for money. At the end of the day, you're willing to get paid, but it takes a lot for me to get excited these days.

"It's a challenge to go to America and to win," he said. "At the end of the day -- let's face it, I'm going outside my comfort zone. I have to not just go there and win, I have to go there and dominate. And that's a difficult task to do against somebody like Hopkins."

Arum looking ahead for Pavlik

Pavlik

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Kelly Pavlik has a date with Gary Lockett, but he's already thinking ahead.

Although middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik has a June 7 (HBO) date with mandatory challenger Gary Lockett, promoter Bob Arum is thinking ahead to a fall defense he would like to put on in Pavlik's native Ohio, probably Cleveland. Arum said Don King, who promotes Ricardo Mayorga, has called him about matching Pavlik with the former welterweight and junior middleweight titleholder, who weighed 164 pounds when he sent Fernando Vargas into retirement in November.

"It's just one of the possibilities," Arum said about a Pavlik-Mayorga bout.

Arum said middleweight titlist Arthur Abraham is also in the picture, but not until the fight after the fall defense.

"I think Kelly could fight Abraham at beginning of [2009]," Arum said. "Kelly would like to make that a statement fight as he leaves the middleweight division."

He had hoped Pavlik could fight in September and again in December, but the potential Abraham bout, he said, would be put off until early 2009 because of a lack of TV dates. Arum said HBO is interested in Pavlik-Abraham for Jan. 31.

Byrd business

Byrd

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Enough with the heavyweights! Chris Byrd, right, is ready to campaign as a light heavyweight.

In the wake of an 11th-round TKO loss to Alexander Povetkin in an October eliminator, ex-heavyweight titlist Chris Byrd (40-4-1, 21 KOs) planned to move down to cruiserweight. But Byrd, 37, has had such an easy time getting down in weight, that he's moving all the way down to light heavyweight.

"He wants to prove that he can accomplish what has been done only twice before, for a [former] heavyweight champion to move down and win the light heavyweight title," John Hornewer, Byrd's attorney, told ESPN.com.

The others: Roy Jones (2003) and Bob Fitzsimmons (1902).

"Chris was 173-and-a-half pounds walking out of the gym [Thursday], but we realize until people see it, they're not going to believe it," Hornewer said.

He added that he's close to finalizing a promotional contract for Byrd with Artie Pelullo.

"The deal we're talking about is aimed at getting Chris into the Jones-Tarver-Woods-Johnson-Hopkins-Calzaghe mix," Hornewer said.

Pelullo said if they conclude their deal, Byrd would headline his May 16 ESPN2 card in Las Vegas.
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QUICK HITS

Torres

• Junior welterweight titlist Ricardo Torres of Colombia makes his third defense against Kendall Holt July 5 (Showtime) at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas in a rematch of their controversial fight last fall, Top Rank's Bob Arum said. Last September, Torres (32-1, 28 KOs) stopped Holt (23-2, 12 KOs) in the 11th round in Colombia in a fight during which fans pelted the ring with debris and liquids in a chaotic scene, and there were questions about the referee's inability to handle the situation. Holt's efforts to have the WBO order a rematch were shot down, but signing with Top Rank, which also promotes Torres helped facilitate the optional defense.

Ward

• Super middleweight Andre Ward (15-0, 10 KOs), the only 2004 U.S. Olympic boxing gold medalist, will look to follow up an impressive seventh-round TKO performance against Rubin Williams last month against another quality opponent in 2000 Olympian Jerson Ravelo (18-2, 12 KOs), whose hand problems have stalled his career. They're due to meet June 13 on "ShoBox" (Showtime) in the Cayman Islands, promoter Dan Goossen told ESPN.com.

Bradley

• Showtime has wrapped up its negotiations with British promoter Mick Hennessy and will air a strong doubleheader from Nottingham, England, on a May 10 special edition (more expensive than usual) of "ShoBox," Showtime's Gordon Hall told ESPN.com. On the card: junior welterweight titlist Junior Witter (36-1-2, 21 KOs) in a mandatory defense against Timothy Bradley (21-0, 11 KOs) and a super middleweight eliminator pitting Carl Froch (22-0, 18 KOs) and Denis Inkin (32-0, 24 KOs). "I am very pleased to have made this show as it gives us an opportunity to see if Bradley can become the 25th 'ShoBox' fighter to go on to win a world title," Hall said. "'ShoBox' is a series about young fighters being matched tough, develop [them] and turn them from prospects to contenders. This was the case with Bradley over his three appearances on 'ShoBox.'"

Ngoudjo

• Lou DiBella offered $191,000, the winning purse bid to secure the right to promote the junior welterweight eliminator between Herman Ngoudjo and ex-titleholder Souleymane M'Baye, beating the $176,000 offer from Branco Sports, the only other bidder. DiBella, however, only bid as a favor to Ngoudjo promoter Yvon Michel of Montreal because Michel did not meet the IBF's deadline to register with the organization. The fight could land June 6 in Montreal and possibly be televised on ESPN2. It's not the first time DiBella has done a fellow promoter a similar favor. He also bid on Golden Boy's behalf for the Librado Andrade-Robert Stieglitz fight that took place last month.

Gamboa

• Arena Box-Promotion, which promotes 2004 Cuban Olympic gold medalist and heralded junior lightweight prospect Yuriorkis Gamboa, obviously believes in his talent based on the way he's being matched early in his career. Gamboa (9-0, 8 KOs) has already faced solid competition and Arena was willing to match him with ex-featherweight belt holder Freddie Norwood in January before Norwood withdrew. For Gamboa's May 17 HBO debut in Primm, Nev., he was to fight Marcos Ramirez (25-0, 16 KOs), who withdrew last week. Now Gamboa has a new opponent, another experienced foe in Darling Jimenez (23-2-2, 14 KOs), winner of six consecutive bouts by knockout, including an upset of ex-titleholder Mike Anchondo. "I don't care who I'm fighting. I will knock out everybody who crosses my way to the world championship," Gamboa said.

Rahman

• For the June 28 HBO PPV undercard of the David Diaz-Manny Pacquiao fight, Top Rank's Bob Arum had been talking up a match between 6-foot-8, 270-pound Tye Fields and ex-champ Hasim Rahman in what Arum was touting as the "heavyweight championship of Las Vegas" between the city residents. However, Rahman didn't have interest in that fight so Fields (41-1, 37 KOs) will face former title challenger Monte Barrett (33-6, 19 KOs), who lost a decision to Rahman in a 2005 interim title fight. Despite Barrett's recent rough stretch in which he lost three in a row before winning his last two, he represents the best opponent of Fields' career. Arum said when Top Rank asked Rahman manager Steve Nelson about facing Fields, he didn't show much interest. "When they said they'd rather fight [David] Haye or [Derric] Rossy, we never made a money offer," Arum said. "We said fine and left it at that and made this fight. It's a step up for Fields. We'll see if he can fight. I really believe that I have something in Tye Fields. We'll soon see."

• Big-punching cruiserweight Darnell "Ding-A-Ling Man" Wilson, author of the 2007 ESPN.com knockout of the year against Emmanuel Nwodo, will challenge titleholder Firat Arslan (28-3-1, 18 KOs) in Germany on May 3. Dino Duva, Wilson's promoter, told ESPN.com he made a deal with Arslan promoter Universum for the fight, but was awaiting Universum to sign the contract. Wilson (22-6-3, 19 KOs) will get the opportunity despite losing his last fight, a Feb. 2 decision to B.J. Flores. It will be Arslan's first defense of the title he won from Virgil Hill in November.

Chavez

• Junior middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (35-0-1, 28 KOs) sells pay-per-views, not his opponents, so it shouldn't make a difference that he has a new opponent for an April 26 Top Rank PPV card from Queretaro, Mexico. Chavez was supposed to face Italy's Michel Orlando, but he withdrew this week because of an undisclosed medical issue. Taking his place is Tobias Giuseppe Loriga (24-0-1, 6 KOs), the Italian junior middleweight champion. The card also includes a featherweight title eliminator between Hector Velazquez and Elio Rojas.

Khan

• British star Amir Khan (16-0, 12 KOs), 2007 ESPN.com prospect of the year, faces Denmark's Martin Kristjansen Saturday night in Bolton, England, Khan's hometown, in a lightweight eliminator that will make the winner a mandatory challenger to titleholder Nate Campbell. Khan has predicted a knockout, although Kristjansen (19-1-3, 5 KOs) has never been stopped. "Khan is saying that this will be the easiest fight of his career and if he believes that then he is going to be in for a big surprise," Kristjansen said. "I've watched his last three fights and I'm not impressed with him. He is strong and fast, but is still young and doesn't have the experience that I have, and I will expose him. He might think that he can stop me inside three rounds and I will let him carry on thinking that, but I've trained for a long, hard fight so he had better be prepared. Khan is the big star in Britain and wants to fight for the world title but he won't be getting past me."

Johnson

• Slick heavyweight prospect Kevin Johnson (18-0-1, 6 KOs) faces Terry Smith (30-4-1, 18 KO) April 18 in Miami, Okla., on "Friday Night Fights" (ESPN2). The fight came together after lightweight Zahir Raheem fell off the card after a car accident last week and the replacement fight, a lightweight eliminator between Ray Narh and Ranee Ganoy, fell apart when Ganoy, of the Philippines, could not obtain a visa.

Spadafora

• A bout with the stomach flu has forced ex-lightweight titleholder Paul Spadafora's first fight in 13 months to be postponed from April 6 to April 25. Spadafora (40-0-1, 16 KOs) will be making his welterweight debut in the 10-rounder against an opponent to be determined.

Quotable

Pavlik

"I definitely want to go out with a bang. What I mean by that is that this is probably going to be my last fight. I said I wanted to defend my title a lot, but I think this is going to be the last fight because we did what we had to do. I'm going into retirement after this, so I'm going out with a big fight here." -- middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik at a Tuesday news conference in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, where he stunned the media by saying he'd retire after his June 7 defense against Gary Lockett, before finally revealing his April Fool's Day gag.