Joe Calzaghe came in just over a pound light of the 12-stone limit at the public weigh-in, but Mikkel
Kessler had to strip naked to make the weight. Calzaghe weighed 11st 12lb 7oz ahead of their
super-middleweight unification bout in the early hours of Sunday. But Kessler was initiallly two
ounces over before shedding his underwear to weigh-in at exactly 12-stone.
The pair were pulled apart when their head-to-head threatened to get heated as they rubbed
foreheads together.
For all Calzaghe's supposed problems with making the weight, the Newbridge fighter looked
comfortable on the scales. With the limit made, the 35-year-old can now build towards the Saturday
night-Sunday morning cracker at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. "Forget about the fight. All I care
about is my fridge," Calzaghe joked. "Cakes, chocolates, sweets, pies - at this stage the only thing
that matters is what you can eat out of your fridge!"
Kessler's US agent, Mike Marley, believes his fighter will herald the dawn of a new era in the super
middleweight division when he faces Calzaghe. "A Great Dane always beats a Welsh terrier," said
the colourful Marley. "It's Kessler's time. How do you get to be a superstar in boxing? You beat one.
Calzaghe won't hurt Kessler, but I know that Kessler will hurt Calzaghe. "Calzaghe was a great
champion, but Tony Blair was a great PM and he's gone, everyone's time has to end."
Speaking at the head-to-head media session before Saturday's unification bout at Cardiff's
Millennium Stadium, promoter Frank Warren hailed the event as one of the best he has ever been
involved in. But Warren's comment that undefeated WBA and WBC champion
Kessler was similar to two-time Calzaghe victim Mario Veit prompted an angry
response from the Dane's camp. "Mikkel is nothing like Veit, but it's good to
know that's what they think," said Kessler's promoter Mogens Palle, who hopes
to see her fighter end Calzaghe's 10-year reign as WBO champion.
Marley - who got involved in boxing with Muhammad Ali at the age of 13, was
on Don King's pay-roll for over a decade, and worked with Mike Tyson - then
took over. "Mikkel is not a Tocker Pudwill, Kabary Salem or a one-dimensional
robot like Jeff Lacy," said Marley. "It's a shame that Joe never fought the great
Roy Jones Jr or Bernard Hopkins. Whether that's because 'stay-at-home Joe'
wanted to stay in Wales, I don't know. "We wanted this fight in Copenhagen, but
had to come here. Mikkel said 'get the contract signed' and I thought we'd have
to fight in Joe's kitchen. "It's a great fight. To borrow a phrase from my old
employer Don King 'they're white, but they can fight' and this will catch the
imagination of the US public when it goes out..." full story on news.bbc.co.uk