BoxRec

Seeing as there not many options for a feb date, I think Manfredo is a decent enough opponent. Makes business sense from SN as well: Joe Public will be mightily impressed with a Calzaghe win, even if the hardcore fans & writers wont.
At least we wont get the resounding Who He? heard before most JC fights by the casual fans.

And a good show increases the chances of HBO finding the cash for a big PPV Taylor fight in the summer.

Trouble is, all those years of oscure WBO fights leave Joe having to fight nothing less than godzilla to avoid the usual arrows from his critics.

Manfredo makes sense to build a fight with Taylor, which to me sounds the most likely route.

It's a natural route to take as the fight can easily be made in the states or who knows, maybe Taylor will travel, he seems willing to take risks to further his reputation.

I guess this wouldn't be a bad fight if it happens, and although Manfredo doesn't seem a great opponent, he's ok as a warm up, but nothing more than that.

I would rather have seen the Kessler fight, but I think it's not going to happen.

Will the Taylor fight actually happen though? Calzaghe's career has been one false promise after another.

This is the big danger, that all we get is talk, and then another crap fight.

I think most of us know the Taylor fight is probably not going to happen. First it'll be HBO wanting it in America. Then it'll be Taylor not leaving America. Then it'll be 'Former longstanding WBC champion to challenge King Calzaghe!'

Jesus Christ, how many more f**king times are we going to say exactly the same thing about this guy.

Does anyone remember that time Warren responded to one of Ian McNeilley's articles and we all sort of were brought around to his point of view and kind of understood his problems? He would have a lot more explaining to do this time.

Manfredo is supposed to have looked great after leaving Contender, with two brutal KO wins over Pemberton and Spina. Great in the sense that he could be championship material in a couple of years.

Taylor won't travel. He said of Lacy losing to Calzaghe, "You don't fight a man in his garden". Calzaghe and Warren seem to get it that a trip to America is needed to get beyond the routine.


I remember the article by McNeilly. He made a valid point that Calzaghe-Ashira was another load of tosh passed off as a 'World Title' fight.

Indeed, it's Warren's job to convince the public, is it any wonder he managed to persuade us all.

However, it's impossible to believe that despite Warren's prodigious talents as a promoter and over two decades of experience, he can only secure Calzaghe one 'mega' fight in his whole career.

So many fights have come and gone, that at some point you have to question Joe's willingness.

There are plenty of other fighters out there on the world scene who have been in numerous huge fights, what was their secret?

Ok with all this talk of megafights Lacy fight aside, 3 of his last four will have been Ashira, Bika, Manfredo. Hardly a tough schedule is it? Assuming this Manfredo fight comes off of course.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:Indeed, it's Warren's job to convince the public, is it any wonder he managed to persuade us all.

However, it's impossible to believe that despite Warren's prodigious talents as a promoter and over two decades of experience, he can only secure Calzaghe one 'mega' fight in his whole career.

So many fights have come and gone, that at some point you have to question Joe's willingness.

There are plenty of other fighters out there on the world scene who have been in numerous huge fights, what was their secret?

I found that ITV4 docu quite surprising, when Warren went on about Joe's shyness, reluctance, his tendency to agonize over injuries, etc.

But then again you hear about Warren buggering around. By most accounts he could've got Beyer, but let Kessler beat them to it. From what I've heard, Mundine was offered a fight around '04, for peanuts plus a slave contract if he won. And asking Paul Briggs & Glen Johnson to come down to super middle, where they haven't fought for years.

And I think it was BBN that mentioned that Enzo C disapproved of Andrade.

Those are wins that Calzaghe could've done with.

I think it's a bit of everyone to blame. I recall that Woodhall was holding out for more money while WBC champ.

Mundine was offered £50,000 with 3 options if he won I believe.

cant be arsed anymore with this shit

Max- it just struck me as a bit harsh that Calzaghe would definitely beat Kessler, without a doubt.

No probs.

I'll just say that Manfredo is better than guys like Pudwill and Ashira.

Ashira was the warmup to Lacy though and he took the fight right after like he said so I still think the Kessler fight could happen next year.

Max Molyneux wrote:

Max- it just struck me as a bit harsh that Calzaghe would definitely beat Kessler, without a doubt.

No probs.

I'll just say that Manfredo is better than guys like Pudwill and Ashira.

Ashira was the warmup to Lacy though and he took the fight right after like he said so I still think the Kessler fight could happen next year.

And Bika was the warmup to a 'megafight' thats not going to happen. Just like this next fight is going to be another supposed warmup to bigger things. How many times??

Shit happens.

Too many times when it's Calzaghe.

Long as it happens.

Shit careers happen.

Damn right.

It's definitely correct to state that a Manfredo fight leading to a Taylor/Winky clash would have been acceptable in February...however, I distinctly remember Warren promising a megafight following the Bika scrap. For failing to deliver, for whatever reasons, he should most definitely have a fair bit of shite flung his way, as this is obviously not the first--nor tenth--time.

pundit wrote:

hitman_hatton1 wrote:

pundit wrote: Because he could lose.

warren don't want it in denmark cos he don't make as much out of it. no way is calzaghe going over to denmark for that fight.

it's the uk or nowhere for calzaghe-kessler.

It's in the UK with a plate of warm soup on offer for Kessler, or in Denmark with USD 3 million on offer for Calzaghe.

Actually, it's neither nor. Calzaghe could lose, so they fight won't happen.

At least that's my hunch.

nonsense.

it's all about money.

it's precisely the reason why calzaghe never ditched his wbo title and tried to force ottke in the ring by becoming his ibf mandatory.

warren faces losing out on a purse bids situation and he makes f*ck all out of it.

packing out arena's and fighting poor opponents means more profits for SN.

hitman_hatton1 wrote:

pundit wrote:

hitman_hatton1 wrote: warren don't want it in denmark cos he don't make as much out of it. no way is calzaghe going over to denmark for that fight.

it's the uk or nowhere for calzaghe-kessler.

It's in the UK with a plate of warm soup on offer for Kessler, or in Denmark with USD 3 million on offer for Calzaghe.

Actually, it's neither nor. Calzaghe could lose, so they fight won't happen.

At least that's my hunch.

nonsense.

it's all about money.

it's precisely the reason why calzaghe never ditched his wbo title and tried to force ottke in the ring by becoming his ibf mandatory.

warren faces losing out on a purse bids situation and he makes f*ck all out of it.

packing out arena's and fighting poor opponents means more profits for SN.

Spot on...no way in a million years is Warren going to lose money on a promotion if he can help it, even if it`s for the benefit of the likes of us...thats why Calzaghe and Kessler is unlikly to happen unless Kessler takes peanuts...because Frank knows if he puts on the show and Joe gets beat...he`s f ucked....he takes a loss and loes his golden goose....it`s just plain bad business.

Terence wrote:I hear they have Gareth Gates lined-up as his defining 'legacy' fight.

Less of it. He's got a fantastic repeating jab.

Talking of Catley, I'd honestly rather see him against Calzaghe than Manfredo.

Riddick Blowe wrote:If only Calzaghe had come along 13 years earlier, somehow ended up fighting in america and got wiped out by Toney/Nunn/Gerald McClellan, then we wouldn't have to waste our time talking about this guy.

You can add Eubank and Jones Jr. to that list.
Very possibly Benn and Watson too.

Although I'm not sure who would've won between Joe and Michael Nunn; interesting fight that might well have been...

Lindell Holmes was a tough guy back then as well, far less skilled than Calzaghe, but a very strong test of character nevertheless.
The latter-day Herol Graham...
Rocchigiani...
Francis...
Collins...

If he now wants a tune-up against a less dangerous opponent than Kessler, he could do much worse than Daniel Dawson.
At least he'd be forced to focus in that match.

But it's the famous gravy train for Frank.

Froch...
Kessler...

bigynzing wrote:

hitman_hatton1 wrote:

pundit wrote: It's in the UK with a plate of warm soup on offer for Kessler, or in Denmark with USD 3 million on offer for Calzaghe.

Actually, it's neither nor. Calzaghe could lose, so they fight won't happen.

At least that's my hunch.

nonsense.

it's all about money.

it's precisely the reason why calzaghe never ditched his wbo title and tried to force ottke in the ring by becoming his ibf mandatory.

warren faces losing out on a purse bids situation and he makes f*ck all out of it.

packing out arena's and fighting poor opponents means more profits for SN.

Spot on...no way in a million years is Warren going to lose money on a promotion if he can help it, even if it`s for the benefit of the likes of us...thats why Calzaghe and Kessler is unlikly to happen unless Kessler takes peanuts...because Frank knows if he puts on the show and Joe gets beat...he`s f ucked....he takes a loss and loes his golden goose....it`s just plain bad business.

If the USD 3 million offer from Palle is true this would be Calzaghe's lifteime purse -- and certainly much more than he made against Sakio Bika or Evans Ashira.

The issue is not money for the actual fight but Warren's insistence to keep control. If Calzaghe loses all his future fights will be worth a fraction only. And he could lose to Kessler.

The question though is why Calzaghe puts up with this.

The question though is why Calzaghe puts up with this.

Don't know, Hatton mentions in his book briefly about Calzaghe's lack of defining fights and he said Joe used to get frustrated a lot about it.

Got to be some reason though but surely all this can;t be all Warren and Joe's fault like it's made out to be.

Can Palle afford to pay Calzaghe that much though? They seem to be in financial trouble.

Calzaghe is clearly happy with his lot with Frank. Strange, because many years ago, he was quoted in BN as saying he didn't want to go the WBO route 'as it was too easy'. I'm sure I remember reading that.

His situation can't all be blamed on Warren, because he could quite easily have fucked him off years ago. Plus, in the recent interview he did with Buncey for The Independent, he said that he wished he'd met Frank earlier in his career, so I doubt he's unhappy at Sports Network.

What really pisses me off is that I really do rate Calzaghe as a fighter. People are mentioning him being around a decade or so earlier, and meeting the Nunn's and McCallum's of this world. Well, if he had been around then, I doubt he'd have been unbeaten. But I'm sure he'd have had some fine wins as well, certainly better than the one's he's had to date.. He's so frustrating, because he's got the talent, but it just seems like he can't be arsed to see just how good he really is. He should already be considered one of Britain's best ever fighters, instead we're all fed-up with him again, barely 6 months after his best performance.

What a shiity fight.

I thohght Bika was Joe's tune-up.... and now the runner-up from a TV reality series..?

Pfft.. Joe is shitting on boxing.

Since when is he still content on Jones and Johnson, he's clearly said he's not interested in them two.

Bika needed 4 attempts to make Super Middle as well.