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Taylor wants Calzaghe fight

13/12/2007

Former middleweight king Jermain Taylor is eyeing up a clash with undisputed super-middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe.

Talyor lost his WBO and WBC world middleweight belts in surprise defeat to fellow American Kelly Pavlik in September. The pair will face each other again in a non-title match in February and if he wins that, then Taylor reportedly wants Calzaghe.

"It's hard to look past this fight but, knowing Jermain, if he wins, Joe would be the fight he wants," said Taylor's promoter Lou DiBella.

"If he succeeds in this rematch I would be very surprised if he didn't say 'Go pursue Calzaghe'.

"I think Calzaghe has had a tremendous year and has stamped his status as one of the great super-middleweights of all time."

Calzaghe is close to agreeing a mouth-watering clash against the legendary Bernard Hopkins, with the pair almost coming to blows during the weigh-in for the Ricky Hatton vs Floyd Mayweather fight.

But DiBella thinks a fight against Taylor will be a much more difficult battle for the undefeated Calzaghe.

He said: "I don't even think it's competitive. That's no disrespect to Hopkins who was one of the great fighters of all time, but I just don't see Calzaghe losing to a 43-year-old man who can't punch.

"I think Hopkins can frustrate him and maybe win a few rounds, but Calzaghe has too much and is too young."

Hopkins is known as a tough negotiator, but Calzaghe's promoter Frank Warren said earlier this week he was confident of sorting out the fight.