COLIN LINNEWEBER
Big City Bias Without the Boston Bullshit

Light Heavyweight Champion Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) will defend his crown and fight Roy Jones Jr. on September 20 at New York’s Madison Square Garden it was announced Tuesday.

After Calzaghe, 36, defeated the legendary Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins (48-5-1) in April, “the Pride of Wales” positioned his sights on fighting Jones, 39.

“Joe called me out and it’s hard for me to turn that down,” said Jones, the man who the Boxing Writer’s Association of America chose as the 1990’s Fighter of the Decade.

“I didn’t need the fight, but he asked for it and it’s hard to turn down that opportunity when he’s such a credible and worthy champion. You ask me to fight, you’re a champion and you’re 45-0? That’s the kind of stuff I like to do, you feel me? I think Joe is a true champion and I think he really is going to fight me. I want to get back to the pound-for-pound list and this is the shortcut. I beat Joe, I’m back on top.”

Junior, who resurrected his career by dominating Felix Trinidad (42-3) in January, is already looking past his fight versus Calzaghe and claiming that he wants to box WBC Champion Samuel Peter (30-1) after he dethrones the British southpaw in the fall.

“They call Samuel Peter ‘The Nightmare,’” Jones said. “I’ll give him a nightmare. I like to do stuff people think I can’t do.”

There is zero dispute that Jones, who became the first middleweight to win a piece of the heavyweight championship when he outclassed former titleholder John Ruiz in 2003, is a pugilist for the ages. Nevertheless, Junior suffered two savage knockouts in 2004 against light heavyweights Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson and he needs to proceed with his future plans with greater caution than he currently is.

Peter is one of the strongest punchers in the heavyweight division and any one of his haymakers could make Jones forever speak like that poor sap Reginald Denny. For a bright and sharp-witted man like Junior, that should be his biggest “nightmare” of all.

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