By Mark Vester
During a recent chat with thisislondon, promoter Frank Warren discussed his career and all of the past and present British names that he saw through the ranks. He called Joe Calzaghe one of the more selfish fighters that he ever promoted. Warren claims Calzaghe used to withdraw from fights with non-existent injuries. Warren promoted nearly all of Calzaghe's big fights. They had a bad falling out before the final fight of Calzaghe's career against Roy Jones Jr. in 2008.
"Calzaghe is one of the more selfish ones," Warren says. "He pulled out of fights because of phantom injuries."
Warren said the finest performance of Calzaghe's career was nearly crippled off by Joe. To make his point about the phantom injuries, Warren claims Calzaghe and his father tried to withdraw from the Jeff Lacy fight for a third time with less than two weeks to go before the fight. Warren thought Lacy was overhyped and had to convince Calzaghe to move forward. He notes how Calzaghe threw 1,000 punches during the fight.
"In his book he says he was going to pull out of the Jeff Lacy bout, 10 days before the contest. His father rang to tell me Joe had a hand injury. We had postponed the fight twice already. The press had built up Lacy, so I told Joe, 'You can beat this guy with one hand.' He agreed to fight and in the end he threw 1,000 punches," Warren said.
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