A lot of fans right now are clamoring for a Joe Calzaghe-Kelly Pavlik superfight. With Pavlik's rematch win over Jermain Taylor and Calzaghe's split decision over Bernard Hopkins, Calzaghe-Pavlik is (according to them) the fight to be made and anything else is unacceptable. Internet boxing writers are, depending on your point of view, either leading this charge or jumping on this bandwagon. Everyone wants to see the big fight, and everyone claims there are no other fights to be made for either man. Well, everyone except those Roy Jones fans who refuse to admit that he's not the same fighter who bulked up to heavyweight to outbox a pretty bad heavyweight fighter and claim a spurious belt to such loud acclaim.
Everyone but me. I'm not in any rush to see Calzaghe-Pavlik. Both men have plenty of contenders in their own weight class that they have yet to fight and, once upon a time, it was considered 'the thing to do' to clean out your own division before you moved up in weight or accepted a challenge from a champion in a lower weight class. Sugar Ray Leonard set the modern day template of establishing one's self as a superstar and then only fighting in the big, splashy, big money fights and the Roy Joneses, Oscar De La Hoyas, and Floyd Mayweathers of the world have eagerly followed his example. I can't blame anyone for wanting to make the most money, but I'd like to see some good title defenses against deserving contenders now and again.
Chad Dawson, Zsolt Erdei, Adrian Diaconu, and Chris Henry are all younger contenders with a legitimate claim on a shot at Calzaghe. Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson are experienced guys on the way down who still might deserve one last shot. While all the fans and experts are busy denouncing the idea of a rematch with Bernard Hopkins (and I admit that Calzaghe has all but said it won't happen), I think a second fight would give Calzaghe more in the way of bragging rights than one controversial split decision.
Kelly Pavlik doesn't have the same wealth of deserving-but-less-well-known contenders at middleweight, but he has some people he really has to fight before moving up in weight in order to be considered for the Hall of Fame or called an all time great. Arthur Abraham is an undefeated claimant to a spurious belt stripped from Pavlik's predecessors. Ditto for Felix Sturm, and he was good enough to draw boos from the crowd when Oscar De La Hoya won the decision in their fight. Winky Wright was robbed in his previous championship fight with Jermain Taylor and if Pavlik doesn't fight him, that would leave a huge question mark on Pavlik's resume. There are some young guys who either do or will soon deserve a shot, even if they are even less well known than the light-heavyweight contenders.
Both men could restore badly needed stability to divisions that have been in disarray for some time. Jermain Taylor's refusal to face top middleweights after his draw with Wright, until the Pavlik fight, was the subject of much criticism. Pavlik can settle all that by fighting the top middleweights and clearly sorting the division out. The situation in the light heavyweight division was even more chaotic, with none of the alphabet organizations even recognizing the legitimate champion as their titlist. Calzaghe could settle all of that.
If they rush into a superfight with each other instead, little is accomplished beyond a big payday for their promoters.
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