Benn: "Jones dodged me", Eubank: "Roy avoided my calls", Collins: "Roy ran scared!",

[JUYJUY]

I'll tell you who I think had a great career in front of him if he wasn't injured ... Michael Watson!

He was a smooth boxer.

Can't disagree with that. He would of had McCallum's ticket the night he fought Eubank in the re-match.

[JUYJUY]

For those Jones Jr nut-huggers who believe that Benn, Eubank and Collins were bums!

Jones Jr himself has respect for all of them...

Jones Jr on Benn: "At one time, Benn was 22 - 0 with 22 knock outs. That's hard to do. Oscar De La Hoya didn't do that, Roy Jones didn't do that. Nobody hardly got that far with straight knock outs, not even Mike Tyson did it. Nobody still fighting today has done it, Benn has got furthest, not De La Hoya or anyone. I got about 17, I think. So, that tells you something about his punching power." - 1996, "You discount Benn's boxing skills at your peril." - 1994, "He was truly a warrior." - 1996, "he's been one of the best come forward fighters of the last 10 years." - 1996.

Jones Jr on Eubank "Chris was a good champion, a good champion, he was great for the sport, especially in England where he was based. You see, it was that he was an amazing charactor, very colourful, made you smile, but also defended his belt over and over. It's a shame that he didn't have his second reign as champion when he moved up to Cruiser, him doing that is what gave me the idea to move up to see if I could become champ in the Heavy's - it inspired me slightly, I had that idea in the back off my head from then. Now, he didn't give me a shot when I was climbing, but I salute you Mr Eubanks!" - 2003, "His style was this curious mixture of power, skill, unorthodox movement and some downright sloppy moments that included a long, loopy overhand right that made me smile that every time I saw it thrown. No but he was a great fighter who needed more challenges. Toney gave his people a contract to sign but they wouldn't sign, that's the downside to him. But no, I like Chris." - 1997.

Jones Jr on Collins: "Stevie Collins would be a great fight because he's always there, good staying power. I think he could get some shots in on me because he's developed into being very, very competent, I think he's come a long ways from the days he was losing his shots. But ofcourse I'd be hitting back and hurting him, but he's got heart. I just think that with Collins, he'd be taking too many shots to get a win over Roy. But he is a warrior and has worked hard for a place at the top table. To send Eubanks and Benn into retirement is something that I wanted to do to make a name for myself in Europe and England, but he got there first." - 1997.

[JUYJUY]

Jones Jr on Calzaghe: "He beat Eubank, and Chris said that he's never been hit so hard." - Jan 2001. It's true that Calzaghe is an excellent fighter but he needs more challenges, but you must realise that Roy is older now and Roy will struggle to go back down to 168 because Roy is older. I just think with Calzaghe that he's a fast starter, a good finisher, great chin, great stamina, and he's a southpaw. Oh my God! He's this guy who picks you off with fast combinations, and if he gets on top of you he keeps on top of you, he won't let you up for air. We have a lot in common: he becomes World champ four years after turning pro, he thanks God after he won his World champs, his father trained him up, he won lot's of amateur stuff coming up through the weights, and most of all he has told me that his last loss was when he was on the receiving end of a dodgy decision in Russia or Romania with the judges from over there. I respect him." - Dec 2001.

[Martin (Top Knowledge)]

Cheers fella for digging out the quotes...

[RoyJonesJrp4pno1]

Jones Jr on Calzaghe: "He beat Eubank, and Chris said that he's never been hit so hard. It's true that Calzaghe is an excellent fighter but he needs more challenges, but you must realise that Roy is older now and Roy will struggle to go back down to 168 because Roy is older. I just think with Calzaghe that he's a fast starter, a good finisher, great chin, great stamina, and he's a southpaw. Oh my God! He's this guy who picks you off with fast combinations, and if he gets on top of you he keeps on top of you, he won't let you up for air. We have a lot in common: he becomes World champ four years after turning pro, he thanks God after he won his World champs, his father trained him up, he won lot's of amateur stuff coming up through the weights, and most of all he has told me that his last loss was when he was on the receiving end of a dodgy decision in Russia or Romania with the judges from over there. I respect him."

When i hear Roy himself say this i will belive that.

[JUYJUY]

It's interesting that Jones Jr said that he didn't want to fight Calzaghe, and we all know that Benn and Eubank were better than Calzaghe!

[JUYJUY]

When i hear Roy himself say this i will belive that.

It's in Boxing Monthly. Also after the Glen Kelly fight he says that he won't fight Calzaghe, so try find the interviews around that time.

[JUYJUY]

Interview with Joe Calzaghe

Donald McRae
Monday April 25, 2005
The Guardian

Joe Calzaghe should be flying. He should be blazing across the sporting skyline with his perfect arc of statistics trailing behind him. In his eighth year as world champion, and unbeaten after 38 fights, Calzaghe will make the 16th successive defence of his WBO super-middleweight title in Germany a week on Saturday. The Welshman is being paid £736,000 to face his mandatory challenger, Mario Veit, a man he knocked out in the first round when they met in 2001.

Calzaghe has not lost a fight for 15 years. His last defeat, as a gifted amateur, happened in 1990 when a trio of East European judges decided that an outclassed Romanian had done enough in remaining on his feet to be gifted the verdict. Calzaghe's sculpted face, meanwhile, remains unblemished and explains why he was recently voted the best-looking man in Wales.

"So Joe," I begin, "why has your career never really taken off?"

Sitting on the blue apron of the ring in his father's Newbridge Boxing Club - with the starkness of an ugly concrete building accentuated by the beauty of the surrounding valleys - Calzaghe shakes his head. The question does not surprise him. "I've asked myself the same thing over and over again. Why am I not a household name in Britain? Why have I not got the recognition I deserve after so long? I think the fact that none of my fights are seen on terrestrial television is significant but, other than that, I don't exactly know. I really don't."

Enzo Calzaghe, Joe's dad and trainer, jabbers darkly of a media conspiracy against the most naturally talented British fighter of his generation. The real reasons are more tangled and have become synonymous with the malaise that marginalises boxing around the world, with the hard-core Hispanic exceptions of countries like Mexico and Puerto Rico. Boxing's raw power has been diminished by corruption and confusion.

As a result Calzaghe's fight record and his long reign - as holder of a lightly regarded belt he won after defeating Chris Eubank in a fierce battle in October 1997 - have been undermined by boxing's sleazy politics and bewildering plethora of titles. It was not always this way.

"When I was 14," Calzaghe recalls, "I told my careers adviser that I was going to be a world champion boxer. Of course she laughed. I wasn't bad academically at school and so she said: 'Seriously, what skills are you going to use to build a career?' I told her I meant it, I replied by saying 'My left hook, my timing, my confidence to succeed in the ring'. Instead of revising I was already fighting for ABA titles. I was heading for the world championship.

"That was my dream. It's just turned out different than I expected. You think that after becoming world champion you're going to be a massive superstar with lots of lucrative bouts against great fighters, but that never materialised for me. Boxing has given me a very good lifestyle and I've beaten five former world champions but none have given me the defining fight I need. I still feel like, at the age of 33, I'm waiting for my big chance."

His disillusionment has intensified. While four out of his last five fights have been cancelled or postponed - against a backdrop of ludicrous machinations, injury and personal trauma - his closest British contemporary has been given the kind of challenge for which Calzaghe himself has yearned so long. Ricky Hatton is preparing for the fight of his life, against the formidable light-welterweight Kostya Tszyu in Manchester on June 4. It's a compelling contest that will give the younger British fighter an opportunity to break into the higher echelons of mainstream sport while testing himself against one of the few masters of modern boxing.

It is still impossible, however, to know how good Calzaghe may, or may not, be in the ring while he trains aimlessly for bouts against journeymen like Veit and Brian Magee, who was meant to be his latest opponent. Frank Warren, Calzaghe's promoter, withdrew him from that contest 36 hours before the bell was due to ring in Belfast last month after the WBO claimed to be unable to sanction it as a title defence without the consent of Peter Kohl, Veit's promoter. It was yet another example of boxing's unending and alienating chaos.

Two further title fights were cancelled last year when Calzaghe pulled out with back and hand injuries. The most damaging occurred in June when he pronounced himself unfit to meet Glen Johnson, the Jamaican who went on to become the world's dominant light- heavyweight, and the Boxer of the Year, by knocking out the great Roy Jones Jr and beating Antonio Tarver.

The fact that Calzaghe called for a postponement so close to the Johnson fight fuelled rumours that he was struggling amid the collapse of his marriage - Calzaghe was arrested at his former home after his wife Mandy called the police in the days following his withdrawal from the Johnson bout.

"I had a really good week then, didn't I?" he smiles thinly. "I topped it off by getting done for speeding a day or two later.

"It was horrible because I was ready for Johnson. My weight was good and I'd trained hard. Then in the last 30 seconds of my final 12 rounds of sparring I suffered a back spasm. The timing was terrible.

"But fate moves in mysterious ways. If I had beaten Johnson he would not have fought Jones or Tarver and people would have said I'd beaten an unknown journeyman rather than someone we now know is a very good fighter. So if I beat him later this year I'll get 10 times the respect."

Despite Johnson's insistence that he now has no interest in the fight, Calzaghe attempts to remain upbeat. "I've got a lot of faith in Frank [Warren]. He got Hatton his fight and he's chasing the same for me. I'd fancy my chances because Johnson's short and a come-forward fighter. I'd pick him off with fast combinations. So, yeah, that's the fight I really want."

Calzaghe laughs bleakly. "That's the irony. My ideal fight for a long time was Roy Jones. Eubank and Steve Collins were chasing Jones before me but they never got that fight so I knew that I may not get it either. But all I had in my head as my target was Roy Jones, and then he got beat by Tarver. I was then chasing Tarver and he got beat by Johnson. Now we're chasing Johnson again so that probably means Tarver will win their rematch and I'll be back to square one."

That dearth of meaningful fights, combined with his domestic turmoil, has led to accusations that Calzaghe has lost his way. He has fought only three times in the past two years and admits that his most recent performance - when he was knocked down before overcoming a limited spoiler called Kabary Salem six months ago - "was my worst in the ring. Mentally, I was all over the place. I've seen the tape and it's embarrassing."

With the bitter legal battle surrounding his divorce set to rumble on there is a danger that Calzaghe could be diverted further.

"It's been incredibly tough and I'm still going through the worst. Unfortunately for me her lawyers have dragged up the Ray Parlour case. According to that [legal precedent] your ex-wife not only gets half your money but half your future earnings as well.

"It just doesn't make sense. If I'm made to pay her 50% of all my future purses then what's the point of boxing? The tax man already takes the other 50%. I think it's disgraceful. She's keeping her 24-hour-a-day toyboy in the house and he's actually given up work. So I'm paying for him too. It's ridiculous."

Calzaghe's young girlfriend accompanies him to the gym in yet another sign of the irreversible breakdown of his marriage. "I've been with Joanna about a year and she's been really great and supportive. But I'm not a steady 50-grand-a-week Premiership footballer like Ray Parlour. I'm a boxer and every fight could be my last. You just have to remember Michael Watson to know what boxing can do to you. So for me to have to hand over 50% of my future earnings makes me wonder if I can carry on. I don't really want to think about if she gets her way."

[JUYJUY]

This is hardly the sort of serene preparation a fighter needs before travelling abroad to defend his title, even if it's against a fighter he once crushed. Calzaghe acknowledges the risk. "I'm training for Veit as if I'm fighting a different man. Four years on he's much improved after 15 successive wins. He stopped Charles Brewer last time out and, after Eubank, Brewer gave me my toughest fight. Brewer's shopworn now but Veit still put in a good performance. You also know the home-town reputation of judges and referees in Germany. So I'm going to have to dominate him again."

The prospect of fighting Veit, even in Germany, is a desolate reminder of how much Calzaghe's career has stagnated despite his undoubted ability and the exhilarating way in which he won his title. For all his pompous flaws there were half-a-dozen nights in the ring when Chris Eubank proved the depths of his fighting heart - not least against Calzaghe. Eubank's earlier gripping battles against Watson and Nigel Benn - screened live on ITV before audiences in excess of 20 million - had captured British boxing at its zenith in the early 1990s.

"I watched those fights as a kid and they were magical. They were excellent fighters and as good as each other so that produced some tremendous fights. I loved Eubank because he was this incredible character, and you know Eubank, he didn't push himself in boxing like I'm trying to do so I think he fell short of his potential. But he could get away with doing 50% each round and still keep his belt. I have to give 100% each and every round to keep hold of my belt. I don't think he went looking for the likes of Roy Jones until he was near the end of his career, but with me I've always been looking for the biggest fights and that's what's so frustrating. Apart from Eubank, there was also Watson who was so classy and such a smooth boxer, he was dedicated to improving his boxing. The most exciting of the bunch was Benn, he was risky, ragged, even wreckless, but he could whack and was very effective in what he did. As for Eubank, he was an awkward, slippery fighter, and he was a great fighter with his back to the wall. That's why, when I fought him, he gave me some of the fear you need to inspire you. I wasn't afraid of Eubank, I was more frightened of losing."

Eubank might have been near the end of his own career but, against Calzaghe, he dredged up the same resolve that sustained him against Watson and Benn.

"It was a draining night," Calzaghe remembers. "Everything I'd dreamed of came down to me beating Eubank. People were saying that it was my fight to lose because he'd drained his weight and took the fight at short notice and all that, that did me no favours because it pressured me even more. I had no money and we had a kid and so I put incredible pressure on myself.

"I knocked him down in the first 15 seconds but Eubank fought back. At the end of the first round I was knackered. After three rounds he started smiling at me and I felt exhausted. At certain points of the fight I managed to hit the guy harder than I've hit anybody, and he just stood there and smiled. I had to dig deep because it was a war.

"I really thought that win was going to be the start of something special but, since then, I've been looking for that same kind of fear. That's when you feel most alive as a fighter. Eubank brought the best out of me because I had to stay concentrated and alert, you don't know what your getting with him and he can throw you off, that's why a lot fighters stayed clear of him."

He smiles sadly when I reflect again on his missed opportunities against fighters like Jones - who, at least in private, admitted his deep respect for Calzaghe. "That's the kind of acknowledgement I've always wanted," he says as he looks back into the empty ring. "I've always wanted to define myself in there because it's who I am. I'm a fighter. I don't want to end my career thinking that my toughest and sweetest fight was the night I beat Chris Eubank. That was eight years ago. I want to feel that same fear again. I want a real fight."

[Martin (Top Knowledge)]

Right, I'm gonna search the internet for that interview that was posted on Skysports a few years back when Roy said that he was never gonna fight Calzaghe!

Coz' Calzaghe refer's to it from time to time!