By Cliff Rold

All bets are off.

It’s the easiest way to think about the coming weekend.  Conventional wisdom and old axioms about fresher legs, youth prevailing, or boxers mastering punchers…it’s all blah blah blah.  Bernard Hopkins dogging Kelly Pavlik and Vic Darchinyan obliterating Cristian Mijares expands the feeling of the possible.  Various and rather large numbers of Boxing’s punditry have been off in the last few weeks in their picks, and so all certainty feels suspect heading into this weekend’s mega-fight.

Leading, naturally, to the picks of the week.

Pick It: Joe Calzaghe-Roy Jones (HBO PPV, Saturday 9 PM EST/6 PM PST)

Five years ago, when both were presumed at near-prime levels, this would probably have been a better fight but not a bigger one than it is now.  Seems a little silly, but Boxing’s market is what it is.  The popular choice for Light Heavyweight champion right now, Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KO)  was what he appeared all along, a genuinely elite fighter, but the foes who could make it clear to U.S. fans weren’t in the ring with him until the 2006 shellacking of Jeff Lacy.  Add Mikkel Kessler and Bernard Hopkins to his win list in his last two fights and it results in a final question: what about Roy Jones (52-4, 38 KO)?  Any doubt about who is and will be regarded as the best of this generation can partially be resolved in the question itself.  Roy is the measuring stick for any who fought and peaked during his time and while some hardcore fans see this fight as unnecessary, the world at large will respond differently.  There are stakes in this fight.  If Roy wins, and he is decided underdog in a moment where there feels as if there is no such thing, Calzaghe suffers a setback in terms of legacy from which he can’t recover.  It’s not fair, but it’s true.  In turn, if Roy wins, it likely rates as his greatest victory in a career full of more of them than his detractors readily acknowledge at times.  Joe is 36 and still close to his best; Roy is 39 and assumed years past his…but there is something about the story of this fight which appeals.  Roy, training in relative isolation, evokes the memory of Roberto Duran doing the same for one last Herculean effort against Iran Barkley in 1989, the memory of a great fighter finding his greatness one last time.  Is it real or Memorex?  Suddenly, it seems worth finding out. 

Pick If Affordable: Arthur Abraham-Raul Marquez (PPV, Saturday 3 PM EST/12 PM PST)

Two pay-per-views in a single day is a stretch and one most won’t endure.  However, there are serious fight freaks willing to assemble their covens and spilt two bills and seeing the IBF Middleweight titlist Abraham (27-0, 22 KO) is always a good reason.  Only recently exposed to U.S. audiences on a grand scale, Abraham has had the look of the World’s best Middleweight for a couple of years and has lacked only for a chance to prove it.  There are reasons to believe he’ll get his chance in 2009 against World champion Kelly Pavlik and the fight is not to be slept on.  A lone loss to one of the greatest of all-time doesn’t make Pavlik a bad fighter and should take nothing from what could be a Fight of the Year candidate with Abraham.  A grossly entertaining war is always worth looking forward to.  First, he’ll have to get by elder statesman Raul Marquez (41-3-1, 29 KO).  This is one bout where a prohibitive favorite should come through.

Classic Pick: Ali Ringside (New on DVD)

ESPN has released their five-part “Ringside” series on Muhammad Ali and done so with over three hours of extras from Wide World of Sports featuring Ali and Howard Cossell.  Of the multitude of Ali videos available, this one rates only behind “When We Were Kings” and “Ali: The Whole Story” in terms of must-have status.  It retails for $34.95 but can be found at Best Buy and Wal-Mart for less.  This is a potential stocking stuffer as well with the holidays approaching and belongs in any serious fight library.

Back in seven.

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com