GOOD ARTICLE
Boxing: Joe Calzaghe chases his very own Fairytale of New York!
Nov 8 2008 Phil Blanche, South Wales Echo
A MONTH from now the old tune will be dusted down to fill the Christmas airwaves once again.
The Pogues and Kirsty McColl’s classic Fairytale of New York will ring out as ever, but Christmas has come early to Manhattan this year.
Because there's a new fairytale of New York which could play any theatre on Broadway – the Joe Calzaghe story.
Since picking up a pair of boxing gloves for the first time at the age of nine, Calzaghe has always imagined himself fighting at Madison Square Garden.
Calzaghe’s Italian heritage guaranteed there would be a lot of natural support for him in the ‘Big Apple’.
But it was the idea of transferring his talent onto the same stage as ring legends like Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and Sugar Ray Leonard which has fired Calzaghe's dream all these years.
It is an irony in a world obsessed with celebrity that Calzaghe – one of Wales’ most recognisable figures – has had little time for the TV programmes, parties or film premieres which would have increased his profile further and swelled his bank account accordingly.
During an unblemished 15-year professional career it has just been about the boxing for Calzaghe – the power and the glory.
That’s why when he enters the ring against Roy Jones Jr here in New York in the early hours of tomorrow morning, Calzaghe will feel that he has finally arrived.
Yes, he has packed out the Millennium Stadium and dug deep to beat the dangerous Dane Mikkel Kessler and send 50,000 delirious Welsh fans home happy.
Yes, he has dazzled under Las Vegas’ neon lights and conquered a fearsome Bernard Hopkins.
But the Garden is something else and, even though the suspicion remains that another chapter will be written to this remarkable story, for now Calzaghe believes there is no more fitting end to his career.
“What a fantastic way to finish it off,” he said ahead of attempting to extend his perfect record to 46-0.
“Madison Square Garden is the mecca of boxing, so this is a fairytale ending for me.
“I always wanted to be in this position and now I’ve got to make sure it’s a fairytale result.
“Over the years I’ve struggled with injuries, I didn’t get the big fights nor the respect from the boxing world.
“But my last few fights have been incredible.
“The Millennium Stadium was amazing and it was great to do the Vegas thing, but as soon as I walked into Madison Square Garden I knew I had to fight there.
“Just standing in that venue, looking around and realising what great boxers had boxed there in the past hit me.
“I just knew this was the place to finish off. I’m really excited and can’t wait to get into that ring.
“Hopefully I will leave my mark, fight the best fight I can and win in style.”
In what is billed as the ‘Battle of the Superpowers’, Jones will be trying to prove that the skills which made him an eight-time world champion in four weight classes have not deserted him.
At 39, he is three years older than Calzaghe but the conventional wisdom is that his tank is almost empty, while his Welsh opponent is a young 36-year-old with his speed and reflexes still intact.
Jones, two inches shorter than Calzaghe and conceding four inches in reach, has won his last three fights – the most recent against Felix Trinidad in January extending his record to 52-4 (38 KOs).
But he still carries the baggage of consecutive knockouts by Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson in 2004, and you suspect the American boxing public has lost the unshakeable faith it once had in Jones.
Stateside fans are desperately crying out for a new hero, but blue collar favourite Kelly Pavlik was dismantled by Hopkins last month and Jones insists that he and Calzaghe is as good as it gets at the moment.
“Right now, this is the best fight out there,” said Jones, who was named the fighter of the 1990s by the Boxing Writers Association of America.
“You don’t know the outcome of this fight, however, so it’s a fight people are going to want to see.
“There’s suspense, and that’s what makes for a big fight.”
Jones has had a confident air about him this week, yet Calzaghe starts as the clear favourite. Just like against the veteran Hopkins, Calzaghe seems to be meeting Jones at the right time.
It’s likely that Jones will have good moments in the fight, probably early on, but the key for the American’s chances is whether he is able to sustain those attacks.
For his part, Calzaghe can count on amazing endurance levels which show no sign of diminishing.
He might never again throw the 1,000 punches he did in destroying Jeff Lacy a few years back, but those trademark flurries which wore down Hopkins should keep Jones on the back foot and Calzaghe ahead on the judges’ scorecards.
I expect Calzaghe to engineer his way to a decisive points victory, take a long holiday and then shelve talk of retirement for one more lucrative pay day.
* MERTHYR light-middleweight Kerry Hope, who was due to fight on the Joe Calzaghe under-card at Madison Square Garden had his contest cancelled at the last minute.
New York opponent Willie Lee failed to make the weight, five pounds over the limit, and the bout was called off.
