JOE CALZAGHE W12 ROY JONES Jr.

All the clowning and showboating was a bit over the top, but Joe Calzaghe was clearly having fun as he got up from a first-round knockdown to dominate Roy Jones Jr. on HBO PPV from Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.

I don’t think that Calzaghe was intentionally trying to humiliate Jones. He was so bursting with energy, so completely in command, that I think he was just in the mood for showing off, while in his own mind he might have thought he was being an entertainer. Thus we had the fake wobbles, the winding up of his left arm in the manner of Muhammad Ali or Sugar Ray Leonard (or Popeye the cartoon big-hitter). The fact that Calzaghe was smiling at Jones as rounds ended and slapping gloves with him, showed there was no real malice there, I think. The trouble was, the light-heavyweight 12-rounder was no fun for Jones — no fun at all.

There was even the hint of Calzaghe actually “carrying” Jones, which is to say not going all out to try to stop him. It suited Calzaghe to keep winning the rounds. Put it this way: If Calzaghe had gone after Jones the way that he attacked Jeff Lacy in the later rounds, I do not think that the bloodied, bemused ex-champ would have heard the bell for the final round. In the Lacy fight, though, I think that there was a certain meanness of spirit about Calzaghe — he had heard a lot of criticism about supposedly avoiding the really dangerous fighters, he was meeting an unbeaten slugger who had been made the betting favourite, and I believe he wanted to prove a point, which meant unleashing the type of assault that was almost overwhelming in nature. In Saturday’s fight, though, Calzaghe was content to put on an exhibition. He was slapping Jones around, at times almost toying with him, but I had the impression that he wasn’t really trying to hurt him.

It reminded me a bit of Sugar Ray Leonard's points defeat against Terry Norris at the Garden in 1991 when a once superb, modern-era great fighter was beaten out of sight in what had seemed, on paper, to be a competitive match.

As was the case with Sugar Ray, it was as if Jones didn’t quite know what to do. The combinations weren’t there, the reflexes had dulled, and there was that look of confusion when the pressure was on.

At least, unlike Leonard, Jones did have one shining moment, when his right hand dropped Calzaghe in the opening round. It immediately brought back memories of Calzaghe getting dropped in the opening round by Bernard Hopkins in April, but this seemed a heavier type of knockdown. Yet the moment soon passed. By the end of the round Calzaghe was fighting back strongly, and in round two, he simply took over the fight. Has there ever been a fighter who has been able to rebound so quickly after getting dropped?

By the middle rounds it had ceased to become a contest. Jones still landed the occasional sharp shot, in particular a lovely right uppercut, but it was one punch at a time — and Calzaghe could take the punches. It might have seemed that Calzaghe was dicing with danger as he stood in front of Jones with his arms dangling by his sides, but the Welsh boxer knew exactly what he was doing and knew, after the first few rounds, that the risks were negligible. Also, as he said afterwards, he was able to “read” Jones — he saw everything coming. (Well, almost everything.)

Jones showed a fighter’s heart in sticking it out after he was sliced over the left eye in round seven. Blood flowed, but there wasn’t even a hint of surrender. He went out with dignity.

Calzaghe is now suggesting that he might not retire after all, despite pre-fight comments that this would be the last time we will see him in the ring. After such an easy win, and looking as good as he did at the age of 36, it might be tough for Calzaghe to walk away. HBO analyst Max Kellerman was pushing the claims of Chad Dawson in the post-fight interview (“You ought to be a promoter,” Calzaghe chided him) but if I was doing Calzaghe’s business this is not a fight I would want. Dawson, a fellow-southpaw, is young, fast and athletic. It would be a great fight for the boxing public, and a fight Calzaghe would be favoured to win, but I think it would be desperately hard fight for him. People in boxing know how good Dawson is, but outside of the serious fight fraternity I would say that Bad Chad isn’t well known. There would be bigger money, less risky fights for Calzaghe should he choose to take them, such as a rematch with Hopkins in Cardiff — a sort of set-the-record straight type of fight.

Inevitably, looking back at Saturday night, people will now be saying that Calzaghe beat an old, “shot” Roy Jones Jr. The fact is that a lot of people who I believe have sound boxing knowledge were giving Jones a great chance or even flat out picking him to win. The odds on Calzaghe were dropping as the fight got nearer and the betting public jumped on Jones. I must admit that I had expected a stiff challenge from Jones. After that shaky opening round, though, the fight was virtually a rout. There are always going to be the detractors, but Calzaghe is an astonishingly good fighter and if this latest performance doesn’t convince people of that, I don’t know what will.