Hey Joe, you know it ain’t so

Pavlik and Hopkins Youngstown rally

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In an interview with The (U.K.) Sun this week, boxer Joe Calzaghe once again fired back at allegations that he ducked Kelly Pavlik this fall in order to take a safer bout with Roy Jones Jr.

As a public service, we’ll break down Calzaghe’s comments with our patented “Truth-O-meter,” ranking them from 1 (his pants are on fire) to 10 (exactly right).

U“Pavlik is just trying to make a name for himself on my back.”

Truth-O-meter: 3

Like all top fighters, Pavlik wants to build a legacy and the way to do that is fight the best.

Since Calzaghe is considered one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, beating him would certainly burnish Pavlik’s legacy. But to say Pavlik — already one of boxing’s biggest names — is “just trying to name for himself” is a stretch.

U“I tried to get a fight with him twice before. We approached him immediately after I beat Jeff Lacy in 2006 but he declined.”

Truth-O-meter: 1

Pavlik’s co-manager, Cameron Dunkin, calls this “an absolute lie.

“We never had an offer. Why would we fight them then, anyway? Kelly was fighting at 160 [pounds] and Calzaghe was at 168. Kelly hadn’t even won anything. Who was Kelly then? What were they going to pay? This guy [Calzaghe] has been hit in the head too much.”

U“He fought and beat Jermain Taylor instead and immediately had a rematch with him to dodge me again. It’s easy to come out of the woodwork and mouth off when you’ve already signed to fight somebody else.”

Truth-O-meter: 1

Since Pavlik is a middleweight and Taylor was the middleweight champion, that fight was a no-brainer. As the super middleweight champ, Calzaghe wasn’t on the radar. As for the rematch, that was Taylor’s choice.

U“He didn’t even call me out after he beat Gary. When Pavlik beat Gary, he actually didn’t say anything about me at all afterwards.”

Truth-O-meter: 5

It is true that Pavlik didn’t call out Calzaghe after the Lockett fight (that’s not his style), but his promoter, Bob Arum, did.

At the post-Lockett press conference, Pavlik said he’d leave the decision on his next opponent to his promoters.

“I get the phone call that says, ‘Kelly, you got to fight Joe [Calzaghe] or you gotta fight Arthur [Abraham] or you got to fight Joe Blow,’” Pavlik said at the time. “That’s what I do.”

U“It’s funny that he’s started to get a bit brave now that I’ve signed to fight Jones — but you get used to that bull [expletive] in boxing.”

Truth-O-meter: 1

Pavlik and his camp said repeatedly they wanted to fight Calzaghe weeks before the Jones fight was finalized. Arum was in discussions with Calzaghe’s promoter, Frank Warren, immediately after the Lockett fight to put a Pavlik-Calzaghe bout together for the fall. Calzaghe then fired Warren and pursued the Jones bout.

“Why did he fire his promoter? Because he [Calzaghe’s promoter] wanted the Pavlik fight,” said Loew. “Joe says, ‘They never offered me anything.’ What’s he talking about? We offered them in front of the world!”

U“I’m surprised Hopkins has agreed to fight Pavlik as he’s getting that old now he didn’t even know what corner to walk to when I fought him. He walked to the wrong corner four times and although he fought a very good tactical fight against me, I think he should retire. Pavlik will win the fight, mainly due to his youth, although Hopkins still has the ability to make it very messy.”

Truth-O-meter: 5

Hopkins’ former trainer, Freddie Roach, expressed concern about Hopkins apparently going to the wrong corner a few times during the Calzaghe bout. Calzaghe gets truth points for saying Hopkins fought a good tactical fight (it was a split decision), and for saying Hopkins should retire (no one should be boxing at 43), Pavlik will win (most observers agree) and Hopkins can make the fight very messy. Calzaghe gets points deducted for criticizing Hopkins — who was apparently fit enough in April to fight Calzaghe and knock him down in the first round.

What’s the difference between Hopkins now and Hopkins then? Well, for one thing, Calzaghe isn’t going to make any money off Hopkins now. And if Pavlik knocks him out? That doesn’t do much for Calzaghe’s legacy, does it?

Total: 16 out of 60.

At age 36, Calzaghe chose to fight the 39-year-old Jones because it offered him a bigger name, less risk and the chance to fight at a higher weight (175, rather than 168). It was his choice.

“Joe Calzaghe is not afraid of Kelly Pavlik and Kelly Pavlik is not afraid of Joe Calzaghe,” said Dunkin. “That has nothing to do with this. He figured, Why fight a young, strong guy who has a lesser name?”

Calzaghe said this will be his last bout. If it’s not, Calzaghe’s comments will be quickly forgotten if he wants to fight Pavlik.

“There’s no reason not to do the fight,” said Dunkin. “It’s up to Joe whether he wants to fight or not.”

In the meantime, don’t chide Calzaghe for half-truths.

(They’re more like quarter-truths.)

XJoe Scalzo is a sports writer for The Vindicator. E-mail him at scalzo@vindy.com.