NEW YORK (AP) -Joe Calzaghe climbed into the ring at a staid boxing gym and went to work, his feisty Sardinian father and trainer pushing him to exhaustion.
``One, two,'' Enzo would say, and his son would fire off a pair of jabs. ``Give me five,'' and a blur of hands would hit Enzo's pads with such speed that only by listening could onlookers count the punches.
Yep, five. Each accompanied by the camera shutters of the British press.
A familiar scene in Newbridge or some other out-of-the-way boxing club in Wales, where Calzaghe is a sports icon who commands rock-star treatment. But this was a dimly lit gym on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, where it takes more than an easy smile and good looks to create a sensation, and where Roy Jones Jr. is still the big draw on the Madison Square Garden marquee.
``For years and years and years I've been fighting guys with names you couldn't even spell, even fighters I've never even heard of,'' Calzaghe said. ``The biggest fights I've been in have been the ones I put my foot down and taken.''
Such was the case when he dropped longtime promoter Frank Warren over the summer, choosing instead to negotiate with Jones directly. Together they worked out a deal that will result in the biggest fight of Calzaghe's career on Saturday night at the Garden.
``Joe was the first to say to me, 'Dad, I want to box Roy Jones. Dad, I want to box in America,''' Enzo Calzaghe recounted. ``I said, 'Man, you don't want to go a different route?' He said, 'No. Dad, I want to go to America.''
It wasn't always that way.
Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) has long carried the reputation of being a protected fighter, taking mandatory defenses of his super middleweight belts rather than the big fights outside f Europe. He held a 168-pound title that was days short of 11 years, one of the longest runs in boxing history.
But until taking on Bernard Hopkins last spring, Calzaghe had never fought off the continent. Only twice had he fought outside Britain.
A lot of it had to do with economics. Sure, Calzaghe could come to the U.S. and fight in front of a hostile crowd. But he'd end up making less money than in Europe, where he easily drew more than 30,000 singing countrymen to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
He partly blames promoters and sanctioning bodies, saying they prevented him from fighting Jones or Hopkins in their prime. The rest of the blame he shoulders himself.
``The way I've struggled in my career, four, five years ago fighting in small halls, struggling with injuries, not getting any big fights, not getting any respect from the boxing world because I wasn't allowed to fight a unification fight or not getting an opportunity to fight a unification fight,'' he said, ``I had to take control of my own career.''
So he eagerly accepted a matchup against dangerous up-and-comer Jeff Lacy and sought previously unbeaten Mikkel Kessler, the last step in unifying the super middleweight division. Then came his biggest coup to date, a close and messy decision over Hopkins in Las Vegas.
All of it has been building to this, a light heavyweight bout against Jones (52-4, 38 KOs) in what the 36-year-old Calzaghe is calling his final fight.
His skills are still sharp, the incredible hand speed still there. His stamina is still enough that he threw 10 more punches per round over the second half of the Hopkins fight than the first.
But Calzaghe admits his desire is beginning to wane.
``I'm in tremendous shape, but psychologically it's hard to motivate myself,'' he said. ``How does it get any bigger? What's going to motivate as much as this time? Only money? Then you shouldn't fight. You're going to get beat.''
Calzaghe was made a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) by the queen for his service to sports and Wales. He doesn't want to end up like so many other fighters, injured or embarrassed after hanging on too long.
``At 26, I said I was going to retire at 30. I'm 36,'' he said. ``The thing is, I don't want to fight until I can't fight anymore. I don't want to go to the well and there's nothing there. I'm intelligent enough to respect fighters like Lennox Lewis who say that's enough and walk away. I like to finish on top, not let boxing finish me, you know what I mean?''
