Warren: Calzaghe v Taylor can happen in September by Ian McNeilly Apr 11th 2007

Frank Warren has revealed to BBN that a proposed July date is NOT set in stone for his man Joe Calzaghe and it will not be allowed to scupper a proposed fight with middleweight boss Jermain Taylor. “Taylor has a fight in May so the July date can't happen. We really want to make this fight so not only have I offered him a $4 million dollar purse but I'm prepared to wait until September to get the fight on. “What I do want is a yea or nay from Lou DiBella (Taylor's promoter) soon because if it is a no, I don't want my man hanging around until September and I'll look for another opponent for a July date.” Warren was also keen to clarify the situation regarding his offer to Mogens Palle, Danish promoter of his countryman and the biggest rival to Calzaghe at 168lbs, Mikkel Kessler. The head of Sports Network told the viewing public on Saturday that he had made a good cash offer to Palle for Calzaghe-Kessler to happen in July but had been turned down flat. Palle goaded Warren today with barbed comments which included: “I find Calzaghe and Warren to be like ‘Alice in Wonderland' as things just get ‘curiouser and curiouser'. Maybe I should say it's ‘Joe in Warrenland'. Warren's next trick will be Denis Inkin or someone of his limited ilk who Joe can beat up with his injured left hand tied behind his back. “We know the public badly wants this fight. I think Joe and Enzo Calzaghe, being sportsmen really want it also. The burr in the saddle, the unreasonable man stopping this from taking place is Fearless Frank Warren. My phone, my fax machine and my email remain open to a reasonable offer. If he turns into Fair Frank Warren, it will be a done deal.” Palle stated that he would accept a 50-50 all revenue split for the fight to take place. Unsurprisingly, Warren was not going to take such criticism lying down. “The week before Joe's fight with Manfredo – as I was confident Joe was going to win – I made a cash offer to Palle for Kessler to fight Joe which included letting him (Palle) have the Scandinavian and German TV rights. The TV rights alone must be worth a minimum of $3 million dollars, maybe even $4 million. But I was told Kessler would not be available to fight in July which seems strange to me. “Palle came back and said it would have to be 50/50 but that can't happen. When I was trying to negotiate a fight for Joe with Bernard Hopkins, I was prepared to take the shorter end of the purse at 60/40 because at the time that was fair enough. I'm not sure how many defences Kessler has had but it's not 20. (A check shows it's four of his WBA belt and one of his WBC – Ed.) Joe is unquestionably the number one in the division. “I've made Palle a very good offer and there's no way that Kessler has ever received 3 or 3 ½ million dollars before. “They want to do a joint promotion but I've done two with Palle before, in the Joe Bugner days, and they were an absolute nightmare. I'm not getting into all that. “I tell you what,” said Warren in typical bullish style, “I'll keep Danish and German TV and he can have $4 million dollars instead.” Calzaghe's career has been a litany of proposed big-name fights falling through for one reason or another. If neither Taylor nor Kessler came off, does Sports Network have any names in mind for that July date in Cardiff? “I do but I want to keep those close to my chest,” replied Warren. Knowing the British slant of BBN, the promoter put forward the name he knew I was about to press him on. “Carl Froch? Yeah, I've got no problem making that fight but I sat down with Carl 12 months ago and at that time he didn't seem to want to know. “I have to say at this stage of Joe's career, we are looking for bigger fish to fry than Froch.”

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