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I'd take Tarver
by Joe Calzaghe (thisisgwent.co.uk)
Boxing is a sport that feeds on hype and speculation and there has been much talk this week about the prospect of me fighting world number one light-heavyweight Antonio Tarver.
Tarver's promoter Joe DeGuardia has suggested we might meet on February 4 should my proposed world super-middleweight unification bout with Jeff Lacy fail to materialise.
My promoter, Frank Warren, has welcomed the Tarver option, though he reportedly remains confident the Lacy fight will go ahead should he beat Scott Pemberton on November 5.
For my part, all I can say is I will happily fight Tarver or Lacy, I don't really mind which one, provided my injured left hand has recovered and that any obstacles can be overcome - and there are usually obstacles.
In Tarver's case, one is whether he would want to fight me for, despite what his promoter says, he has virtually dismissed the prospect.
In an interview with an American website he has accused me of avoiding big fights and claims to want to move up to heavyweight to fight Mike Tyson (presumably for the money, as Tyson's finished), James Toney and world champion Vitali Klitschko.
And then there is what is always the biggest obstacle of all in arranging the major fights at the end of the day, the money.
I haven't spoken to Frank Warren recently and probably won't do so for a few weeks until I know exactly how my hand is.
I saw the specialist again this week and he said he expected I could start punching again in three to four weeks so, hopefully, if things progress well, I will be ready to fight again in February.
It that proves the case, a fight against Tarver is definitely one I would consider. It would be a major fight, bigger than Lacy because Tarver has achieved far more.
Lacy has done well and is deservedly a world champion but Tarver has fought and beaten big names like Roy Jones junior and Glen Johnson and for me to beat a guy like that would be a bigger feather in my cap. And I honestly think, having watched Tarver fight, I would definitely beat him.
He's taller, he's a bit gun shy, he hasn't got a great work-rate and I think my style would give him all sorts of problems.
And despite what Tarver has said about me preferring to fight in my own back yard, if the money was right, I'd consider going to America.
Meanwhile, I maintained the accuracy of my big fight predictions in last week's column when I said Jose Luis Castillo would gain revenge for his previous stoppage at the hands of world lightweight champion Diego Corrales.
I said the fight wouldn't match up to the first, fantastic contest and that this time Castillo's superior strength and punching power would win the day and it did when he knocked out Corrales in the fourth round of a pretty one-sided affair.
Unfortunately, because Castillo did not make the lightweight limit the fight was not for the title and Corrales remains champion and I have to say it was a bit naughty of Castillo.
There have been some suggestions that he may have deliberately failed to make the weight, knowing there was a rematch clause, but no-one knows if that was the case.
If that rematch comes off, however, and Corrales says he wants it to and even that he'll win if they stick to the 135lb limit, I still think the result will be the same.
It does make a huge difference to your power if you come in even two or three pounds overweight because when you are struggling to make a weight, trying to shed those final two to three pounds makes all the difference.
But I fancied Castillo to knock Corrales out last Saturday and now that he has got Corrales' number I believe he would knock him out again - even at the proper weight.
by Joe Calzaghe (thisisgwent.co.uk)
Boxing is a sport that feeds on hype and speculation and there has been much talk this week about the prospect of me fighting world number one light-heavyweight Antonio Tarver.
Tarver's promoter Joe DeGuardia has suggested we might meet on February 4 should my proposed world super-middleweight unification bout with Jeff Lacy fail to materialise.
My promoter, Frank Warren, has welcomed the Tarver option, though he reportedly remains confident the Lacy fight will go ahead should he beat Scott Pemberton on November 5.
For my part, all I can say is I will happily fight Tarver or Lacy, I don't really mind which one, provided my injured left hand has recovered and that any obstacles can be overcome - and there are usually obstacles.
In Tarver's case, one is whether he would want to fight me for, despite what his promoter says, he has virtually dismissed the prospect.
In an interview with an American website he has accused me of avoiding big fights and claims to want to move up to heavyweight to fight Mike Tyson (presumably for the money, as Tyson's finished), James Toney and world champion Vitali Klitschko.
And then there is what is always the biggest obstacle of all in arranging the major fights at the end of the day, the money.
I haven't spoken to Frank Warren recently and probably won't do so for a few weeks until I know exactly how my hand is.
I saw the specialist again this week and he said he expected I could start punching again in three to four weeks so, hopefully, if things progress well, I will be ready to fight again in February.
It that proves the case, a fight against Tarver is definitely one I would consider. It would be a major fight, bigger than Lacy because Tarver has achieved far more.
Lacy has done well and is deservedly a world champion but Tarver has fought and beaten big names like Roy Jones junior and Glen Johnson and for me to beat a guy like that would be a bigger feather in my cap. And I honestly think, having watched Tarver fight, I would definitely beat him.
He's taller, he's a bit gun shy, he hasn't got a great work-rate and I think my style would give him all sorts of problems.
And despite what Tarver has said about me preferring to fight in my own back yard, if the money was right, I'd consider going to America.
Meanwhile, I maintained the accuracy of my big fight predictions in last week's column when I said Jose Luis Castillo would gain revenge for his previous stoppage at the hands of world lightweight champion Diego Corrales.
I said the fight wouldn't match up to the first, fantastic contest and that this time Castillo's superior strength and punching power would win the day and it did when he knocked out Corrales in the fourth round of a pretty one-sided affair.
Unfortunately, because Castillo did not make the lightweight limit the fight was not for the title and Corrales remains champion and I have to say it was a bit naughty of Castillo.
There have been some suggestions that he may have deliberately failed to make the weight, knowing there was a rematch clause, but no-one knows if that was the case.
If that rematch comes off, however, and Corrales says he wants it to and even that he'll win if they stick to the 135lb limit, I still think the result will be the same.
It does make a huge difference to your power if you come in even two or three pounds overweight because when you are struggling to make a weight, trying to shed those final two to three pounds makes all the difference.
But I fancied Castillo to knock Corrales out last Saturday and now that he has got Corrales' number I believe he would knock him out again - even at the proper weight.
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