By Mark Vester

Cameron Dunkin, co-manager of WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik has hit back at the claims made a few days ago by Joe Calzaghe. During an interview with The Sun, Calzaghe lashed out at Pavlik, claiming the Youngstown fighter had turned down several opportunities to fight him the past.

“Pavlik is just trying to make a name for himself on my back. I tried to get a fight with him twice before. We approached him immediately after I beat Jeff Lacy in 2006 but he declined,” Calzaghe said.

“He fought and beat Jermain Taylor instead and immediately had a rematch with him to dodge me again. It’s easy to come out of the woodwork and mouth off when you’ve already signed to fight somebody else. It’s funny that he’s started to get a bit brave now that I’ve signed to fight Jones — but you get used to that bullsh*t in boxing.”

Dunkin, speaking with The Vindicator, says there was never any offer from Calzaghe at that time.

“An absolute lie. We never had an offer. Why would we fight them then, anyway? Kelly was fighting at 160 [pounds] and Calzaghe was at 168. Kelly hadn’t even won anything. Who was Kelly then? What were they going to pay? This guy [Calzaghe] has been hit in the head too much,” Dunkin said.

Dunkin tells the paper that he doesn't think Calzaghe is afraid of Pavlik, he knows the decision to fight Roy Jones Jr. was business. He says they are ready to make the fight as soon as Calzaghe is.

“Joe Calzaghe is not afraid of Kelly Pavlik and Kelly Pavlik is not afraid of Joe Calzaghe. That has nothing to do with this. He figured, Why fight a young, strong guy who has a lesser name? There’s no reason not to do the fight,” said Dunkin. “It’s up to Joe whether he wants to fight or not.”

Jack Loew on the other hand says that Calzaghe fired his promoter Frank Warren because Warren was pushing for him to fight Pavlik. Last week, Warren revealed in his regular column that appears in The Sun, that he wanted Calzaghe to fight Pavlik.

“Why did he fire his promoter? Because he [Warren] wanted the Pavlik fight,” said Loew. “Joe says, ‘They never offered me anything.’ What’s he talking about? We offered them in front of the world!”

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