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At different times in his career, Showtime and Sky — especially after stinkers against Rick Thornberry and David Starrie (which weren’t his fault as they didn’t come to fight) — and more recently ITV, made a derisory offer for the Kessler fight.
Back then the only way I could get him on air was to piggy-back deals made for Ricky Hatton and Amir Khan.
During my time with Joe, he pulled out of or postponed 12 world title fights, often with 'hand injuries', some of which were his own fault .
When I became the first English promoter to stage a fight at the Garden on December 19, 1997 — a thriller between Hamed and Kevin Kelley — Joe should have been on the undercard. But he wasn’t available.
Joe has also made much of the fact he’s retained his good looks by being almost untouchable between the ropes. But I like to think some of my matchmaking and guidance also played a part. Joe won’t acknowledge that, but it’s no surprise because, before and during this dispute, he’s not once picked up the phone.
I always thought Calzaghe’s last fight should have been against Pavlik, a young, unbeaten, big-punching “name” who Joe would have taken to school, just like Hopkins did.
Calzaghe says he could have made £2m more by going to Las Vegas, but that’s nonsense. Planet Hollywood weren’t interested — like me, they wanted Pavlik
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