By Mark Vester
It appears that WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe is no longer sure about facing middleweight king Jermain Taylor in 2007. The South Wales Echo reports that after Calzaghe witnessed Taylor's title defense against former junior middleweight champion Kassim Ouma, he felt Taylor is just not ready for a fighter of his caliber.
Calzaghe had planned to make his American debut in the middle of next year, against Taylor, but is now looking for other options like Bernard Hopkins. He thinks Taylor should be ready to face him by 2008.
"I don't think it's fair to push him up to my level yet - maybe in another year," Calzaghe said. It's frustrating for me because it would be a big-money fight, but it's obvious he's just not ready."
But, Team Taylor does not disagree with Calzaghe. Taylor's promoter, Lou DiBella, agrees with Calzaghe. DiBella does not want to push Taylor too fast, and also feels that a few more fights before meeting Calzaghe will only do good for the young middleweight champion.
"I think he's right," DiBella said. I think Jermain needs a couple more fights. I think he hasn't looked as good in his last two fights as he did in the second Hopkins fight. I'm not going to push this kid beyond where he should be."
Calzaghe meets Contender star Peter Mandfredo, Jr in April, and a win would tie Hopkins' record of 20 title defenses. Hopkins, the best middleweight of our era, has been calling out Calzaghe in recent weeks by stating that he will not allow the Welsh fighter to break his mark of 20 title defenses.
Currently Hopkins is still trying to move up to heavyweight in order to face WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev, but that fight is unlikely to happen in the near future as Maskaev must defend against the winner of the January 6 bout between James Toney and Samuel Peter.