Calzaghe and Pavlik continue verbal sparring

You know, Joe Calzaghe doesn't get many mentions when the sport's top talkers come up, but he ought to.

Speaking with Sky Sports, Calzaghe again got his jive talk on in the direction of middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik.

But while Calzaghe believes The Ghost will beat Bernard Hopkins in October, he also thinks the man from Ohio would struggle against stronger opposition.

He said: "I'm surprised Hopkins has agreed to fight Pavlik as he's getting that old now he didn't even know what corner to walk to when I fought him.

"He walked to the wrong corner four times and although he fought a very good tactical fight against me, I think he should retire.

"Pavlik will win the fight, mainly due to his youth, although Hopkins still has the ability to make it very messy.

"But he is definitely overhyped and I think Mikkel Kessler would beat him."

He also again brings up the claim that he challenged Pavlik to fights before, only to get turned down. My favorite is still the claim that Calzaghe challenged Pavlik directly after the Lacy fight, a point in time when no one on earth would've bought middleweight, unproven Pavlik as a challenger for super middleweight champion Calzaghe.

But Pavlik has finally answered, in an article at Setanta:

"Calzaghe's pops keeps throwing shots out," Pavlik said on Steve Bunce's Boxing Hour. "He has Roy Jones and the chances of him getting past Roy Jones are slim.

"There might not be talk of me fighting Calzaghe if he can't get past Jones.

"No, they never offered a fight. They did everything but offer a fight with us. They didnt have to take the fight with Jones, it could have been with us.

...

"There wasn't talk of Calzaghe until I beat Taylor twice. There is a great chance of Roy Jones beating him. There might not be any talk of me fighting him in the future."

...

"I would like the fight. I've said that on every interview I've said. It is what it is. It would be a great fight. I've got October 18 to worry about."

It's getting to be that there's far, far more attention paid to the media back-and-forth between Calzaghe and Pavlik than on either the Calzaghe-Jones or Pavlik-Hopkins fights, which are real, and are really happening this fall. And neither is a gimme win for either man.

I think Calzaghe-Pavlik would be an excellent fight, too. But it's time for these guys to do a little less talking about each other. If they don't, they might have to fight each other out of necessity while two old men talk about their recent triumphs.