By Mark Vester
Super middleweight/light heavyweight champion Joe Calzaghe had a field day with WBO/WBC middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik. Calzaghe said he is tired of Pavlik trying to make name for himself by continuously calling him out. He claims that Pavlik has ducked the opportunity to fight him, and says the only reason Pavlik is calling him out is because he already signed to fight Roy Jones Jr. on November 8 in New York's Madison Square Garden.
"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 told The Sun . "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."
He further claims that even Pavlik disposed of Gary Lockett in June [Calzaghe's stablemate], he still didn't try to make a fight.
"He didn't even call me out after he beat Gary. And with no disrespect to Gary, he's a totally different kettle of fish to me. When Pavlik beat Gary, he actually didn't say anything about me at all afterwards, "Calzaghe said. "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 bulls*** in boxing."
Despite the bad feelings, Calzaghe still picks Pavlik to beat Bernard Hopkins on October 11. Not because he thinks Pavlik is better, but because he thinks Hopkins is too old. But Calzaghe says that WBA super middleweight champ Mikkel Kessler, who Calzaghe beat last November, would beat Pavlik.
"I'm surprised Hopkins has agreed to fight Pavlik as he's getting that old now he didn't even know what corner to walk to when I fought him," Calzaghe said. "He walked to the wrong corner four times and although he fought a very good tactical fight against me, I think he should retire. Pavlik will win the fight, mainly due to his youth, although Hopkins still has the ability to make it very messy. But he is definitely overhyped and I think Mikkel Kessler would beat him."
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