Boxing: Calzaghe gets his American dream

Apr 15 2008 by Delme Parfitt, South Wales Echo

IF Joe Calzaghe needed confirmation that more than a decade of American indifference to his talents is over, then he found it on Las Vegas Boulevard yesterday.

The sign was about 50 feet square and stood proudly fixed to the front of the Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino.

“Bernard Hopkins and Joe Calzaghe come face-to-face for the first time” it flashed, “come in and see it on the main casino floor”.

In the boxing capital of the world, amid an audience that marks true pugilist greatness more harshly than any other, Joe Calzaghe is box office at last. Headline news.

“As soon as I won the world title in 1997 I wanted to head up a fight show in Las Vegas, now I am doing that,” smiled Calzaghe.

It was a deserved piece of self-congratulation – and it hardly mattered that what punters read outside wasn’t strictly accurate.

Calzaghe and Hopkins, the light-heavyweight king he will challenge on Saturday night, did not actually come “face-to-face”.

Instead they were led from separate rooms, at separate times, along a roped off pathway towards a specially erected stage at Planet Hollywood, the Sylvester Stallone backed brand that is the main sponsor of this show.

The whoops and cheers from an ever-increasing following of Brits drowned out the chiming of legions of one-armed bandits as the man from Newbridge made his entrance looking as healthy, relaxed and contented as I have seen him so close to the big night.

Thirty minutes later the American made a somewhat more muted appearance to the strains of James Brown’s Living in America, just to remind us all of the Stallone-Rocky connection.

If Hopkins looked a bit like Apollo Creed in his garish white denim suit, then Calzaghe with his Italian heritage would have fitted comfortably into the role of Balboa – and we all know who triumphed in that encounter.

The pair were there ostensibly to plunge their respective fists into blocks of cement, the indentations being planned for display in the street outside the hotel in the near future.

But Calzaghe clearly believes the timing of such permanent reminders will be appropriate to what awaits his opponent in four days time.

“Make no mistake about it, I am not just out to beat this guy, I am out to destroy him,” said the Welsh-Italian.

“Moving up to light-heavyweight will give me more punching power and I want to knock him out and finish his career.

“I won’t be going in there on Saturday to stand back and give him too much respect.

“At the end of the day he is a dirty fighter and I cannot afford to pussy-foot around the place.

“The reality is that I have to go in there and take that title from him. There will be no other way.

“I will be careful, but I know this is about me using my boxing skills and doing my own thing.”

Much has been made about Calzaghe needing a win in Vegas to tick a box supposedly required of all boxing greats, and to be fair to the 36-year-old he seems to concur with that view.

Yet if the build-up to the biggest test of his career is getting to him in any way, he was doing a damn good job of masking it yesterday. And he was at pains to stress he is feeling settled and contented.

“I always perform better when I am relaxed and I am relaxed now.

“I am in great shape, I know what I have to do and I am 100 per cent confident in my own ability.

“I have enjoyed my time out here, training has gone brilliantly.

“I am used to the air, I am used to the time difference.

“The environment I have been in has been perfect. This is the first time I have actually been in a casino since I have been here and that is good because these are not the sort of places you want to be when you are preparing for a fight.

“I have been at my villa which is in a gated-community about 30 miles from here. It has everything I could possibly want, lovely runs on flat ground and in places that I am not bothered by anyone.”

Clearly the extra seven pounds he is permitted to carry at light-heavy agrees with him – outside the ring at least. So often in the past Calzaghe’s struggle to hit the 12 stone mark required at super-middle has left him looking somewhat gaunt and pale at this stage, and he has owned up himself to struggling in his battle with the scales.

In a word, he looked happier, which bodes well in a week that will test him mentally as much as it will physically.

Calzaghe would not be human if he did not have inner anxieties about his first fight at a heavier weight.

But there is also the Vegas factor. Nothing can prepare you for Sin City where you simply have to expect the unexpected.

That’s fine when you’re here on holiday, but when you have a life-changing career hurdle to negotiate it can only add to the challenge. That is why Calzaghe was pleased with the support he received yesterday.

While in no way as boisterous as the mass-migration that followed Ricky Hatton to Vegas for his ultimately fruitless clash with Floyd Mayweather, the Welsh accents were still making themselves heard to a far bigger degree than the odd lone voice from Philadelphia that piped up in support of Hopkins.

“What does it say when the guy who is supposed to be the visiting fighter gets support like that? What does it say about Hopkins?” asked Calzaghe.

“At the end of the day it is nice to hear Welsh people shouting for me already.”

On Saturday night those voices will go up a good few decibels. Just how much Calzaghe will need them, only time will tell.

delme.parfitt@mediawales.co.uk