By Cliff Rold

The recent upset wins in Bernard Hopkins-Kelly Pavlik and Vic Darchinyan-Cristian Mijares created a feeling among some in the Boxing community that Roy Jones Jr. (52-5, 38 KO) had a real shot at an upset of his own this past Saturday night.  Those members of the Boxing community forgot that the 36-year old Ring Magazine Light Heavyweight titlist Joe Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KO) isn’t Pavlik or Mijares. 

It’s unlikely they’ll forget again.

The world will never know what would have happened had Calzaghe-Jones had happened six or seven years ago when both were in their prime.  The 2008 pairing was merely a case where the favorite was much less past his and showed it.  Beyond defeat, Calzaghe’s worst case scenario would have been to win a nip-tuck affair, leaving Calzaghe cynics to say “See, he struggled with a 39-year old Jones.  What would the young one have done?”  After a tough win over a 43-year old Hopkins in April 2008 which provoked similar questions, it was a result the Calzaghe legacy didn’t need.

No, what Calzaghe needed was a dominant beating of Jones which would leave fans wondering what might have been.  Rising from an awkward first-round knockdown, Calzaghe swept the remainder of the bouts twelve rounds and did just that.  Jones, cut for the first time in his career and regularly shown the other side of a career habit of showboating against overmatched foes, didn’t have enough left to make Saturday’s result a definitive statement about the better man on better days, but his defeat was enough to create a legitimate question about what might have been.  Nearly all agreed by the end of the night that Boxing missed out on a classic ‘could have been’ even if it didn’t appreciate the fact when it mattered. 
 
It was Calzaghe’s best case scenario, powerful evidence that on both men’s best day he would have been a handful for Jones and logically further evincing that he would have had a chance to win.  Debate can continue ad infinitum from there.  Beating Jones this weekend didn’t create greatness for Calzaghe; it confirmed the obvious.

Let’s go to the report card.

Speed - Pre-Fight Grades: Calzaghe A-; Jones B+/Post-Fight: Same
Power - Pre-Fight Grades: Jones B+; Calzaghe B/Post-Fight: Same
Defense - Pre-Fight Grades: Jones B+; Calzaghe B/Post-Fight: Jones B-; Calzaghe B+
Intangibles - Pre-Fight Grades: Calzaghe A; Jones A-/Post-Fight: Calzaghe A; Jones B

Those who viewed the fight on Saturday can attest to the nature of the bout and unanimous scores of 118-109 assist.  Breaking it down by category isn’t of much use.  In every category, it was almost all Calzaghe.  Perhaps due to the training footage on HBO’s 24/7 lead-up to the bout, some felt Jones would have at least a speed advantage over the reigning titlist.  On a single blow, or in shadow boxing, he might always appear faster than Calzaghe but, in terms of what in Football is called game speed, it was no contest.  Take away the right hand/forearm which dropped Calzaghe in the first and he beat Jones to the punch all night.  When he wasn’t doing that, he was making Jones miss.

Jones was believed to have the power advantage in the bout and did, but power is of little use when it doesn’t land enough or at the right time.  It also didn’t help that Calzaghe again showed off a world class beard.  Beyond the opening frame Roy landed some big shots, right uppercuts and lead left hooks which caught Calzaghe clean if one at a time.  Once he’d really broken a sweat, Calzaghe shrugged them all off.  Post-fight comments from Jones that Calzaghe’s slaps hurt more than they look like they do from outside the ring was shown in the bruises and blood on the once pound-for-pound king’s face.  Jones also appeared hurt in the seventh round but Calzaghe found Jones too proud to accept another loss inside the distance.   Jones’ legendary defensive prowess was just good enough to keep him on his feet but just bad enough to allow him to endure a lasting beating. 

Fans tuning in for Boxing on HBO can leave this weekend hoping Joe might have at least one more great performance left on the world stage after the show he put on against Jones.  It was a long time coming and, for Calzaghe at least, well worth the wait.

For a complete recap of the fight itself, BoxingScene’s post-fight coverage can be found at: https://www.boxingscene.com/index.php?m=show&id=16856

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com