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Leading up to Saturday's PPV match between Joe Calzaghe and Roy Jones, Jr. we are going to be posting some recaps of their recent matches beginning with this recap of a recent Joe Calzaghe match:

HBO World Championship Boxing Recap

April 7, 2007

Millennium Stadium-Cardiff, Wales

Millennium Stadium is usually a rugby stadium, but for this event has been converted into a giant boxing arena. There are 35,000 people in attendance.

WBO Super Middleweight (168 pounds) Championship 12 round Match:

Joe Calzaghe (42-0, 31 KO's, 167.75 pounds)vs. Peter Manfredo (26-3, 12 KO's, 166 pounds)

Manfredo was a finalist on The Contender reality show. Calzaghe is from Wales and attempting to defend his title for a twentieth consecutive time. That would tie him for fourth all time in consecutive title defenses with Bernard Hopkins. Calzaghe has only fought outside of the UK twice and never outside of Europe. The knock on him is that he is a protected European fighter who never leaves home. Even after, Calzaghe onlylost oneround in defeating Jeff Lacy via unanimous decision in Manchester, when that label should be long gone. The subject of who Calzaghe should fight next is brought up and at the top of the list again is Mikkel Kessler. Kessler is not there to dare Calzaghe to fight him at the show, which is disappointing. Kessler instead issued his dare to Calzaghe from the ESPN studios in Bristol, Connecticut the day before. Rumor has it Manfredo has a hard time making the weight minimum for fights at super middleweight, which could be a bad sign of things to come.

Rules of the match tonight to be contested under the unified rules: No 3 knockdown rule. Only the referee can stop the fight. In case of a cut resulting from an accidental clash of heads the match will go to the scorecards after 4 rounds, before that the match will be ruled a draw. A fighter cannot be saved by the bell in any round.

Manfredo enters to the theme song to the Contender. Calzaghe is as such a huge favorite that a bet of $33 on Calzaghe to win, will return a $1 profit if the wagerer is correct. Calzaghe has not lost even as an amateur since, 1990. Before the fight, in a classy move, the peoplein attendanceare booing and whistling during the American national anthem. The judgesfor this contest arefrom Canada, Puerto Rico, and Belgium.

With one minute left in round 1 it appears a bruise is already developing near the left eye of Calzaghe. It is the result of an unintentional clash of heads. Head clashes may be a common occurrence in this fight with the southpaw Calzaghe and the orthodox fighting Manfredo trying to fight on the inside. Round 1 will likely go to Calzaghe, 10-9. Round 2 goes Calzaghe, 10-9. Joe Calzaghe is really good. The referee stops the fight in round 3, prematurely, but it was inevitable. Calzaghe was way too fast for Manfredo. Manfredo may complain about a premature stoppage later, but had the fight continued longer the outcome would have been the same at some point. Calzaghe is just really good and much better than Manfredo.

The official decision is: at 1:30 of round 3 the winner by TKO and still WBO Super Middleweight Champion, Joe Calzaghe. Calzaghe moves to 43-0 with 32 KO's. Calzaghe threw 92 punches in the 1:30 of round 3 before the stoppage. Manfredo had only thrown 13 in that same amount of time. It isunderstandable what the referee was seeing when he stepped in with the disproportionate punch stats and Manfredo up against the ropes not punching. It was definitely time for the referee to take a close look at the situation to see if Manfredo was still able to intelligently to defend himself. Replays show that right before the stoppage, Manfredo was actively avoiding punches and hoping Calzaghe would punch himself out. It was not the best strategy, but it was at least coherent. The referee however, when he should have been taking the close look, moved in to stop the fight instead. It was the wrong call, but not a robbery in this fight. Joe Calzaghe won this fight. Peter Manfredo lost this fight. It's hard to reasonably argue anything else.

Immediately, after the fight ends Jim Lampley and the rest of the HBO announcing crew continue to campaign for a Calzaghe-Kessler match.

Peter Manfredo shows totalclass in the post fight interview. Manfredo noted it was a premature stoppage, but openlyadmits he was beat tonight. Manfredo wants to move back down to 160 pounds, where he is a much better fit. This was a tough fight for anyone to take especially with this being only Manfredo's third fight at 168 and going into a very hostile environment. Manfredo wants to be given credit for facing this big a challenge and hopes it will lead to big opportunities back down at 160 pounds.

The only thing of note coming out of Calzaghe's interview is that he says, Kessler has turned down a contract offer to fight. Calzaghe claims that Kessler is refusing to fight him, so he is going to look to go fight Americans.