Calzaghe Keen to Pit Jones the Legend Against the Millennium Man

Joe Calzaghe has said his preferred option for his next fight would be a showdown with the 39-year-old American Roy Jones Jr. The undefeated Welshman says the contest is likely to be his last and that it will almost certainly take place in November in the United States.

Victory over Bernard Hopkins in April put Calzaghe, 36, the world's No1 super-middleweight, top of the light-heavy-weight world rankings but there had been speculation that he could choose an October fight with the world middleweight champion, Kelly Pavlik, rather than Jones after Pavlik's knock-out victory over Calzaghe's training partner, Garry Lockett, earlier this month. But Calzaghe told BBC Wales: "What a perfect way to finish, fighting one of the greats of this generation [Jones]. I'd love my last fight to be in Cardiff but it comes down to business and what the TV companies want. Kelly is just establishing himself and is not as big a star as Roy Jones, who's a legend.

"Pavlik's got the world at his feet at middleweight and will want to build his unbeaten record. Me and Roy Jones wouldn't just be a fight, it would be a spectacular event. It'll be the fight of my life. Fighting the greatest fighter of the 1990s would be the perfect way for me to finish off my career. But he'll be fighting the greatest fighter of the millennium."

As Calzaghe contemplates the end of his glittering career, the 22-year-old Sheffield prospect Kell Brook - hailed by his former trainer, Brendan Ingle, as being "as good as Naseem Hamed" - recorded the most significant win of his 17-fight professional career when he stopped the Welshman Barrie Jones in the seventh round at York Hall, Bethnal Green, to win the vacant British welterweight title.

Brook was too quick and accurate for the game Jones, 23, who was systematically unraveled by a succession of accurate right-hand punches that bore marked similarities to Hamed's style and that of the watching British light-middleweight champion, Ryan Rhodes, with whom Brook regularly spars.

"This is the best day of my life," Brook said afterwards. "Clinton Woods and Junior Witter are both Sheffield fighters who have lost recently. Me and Ryan can do great things for the city. I believe I can go all the way in the next two years."

The promoter Frank Warren cautioned against hurrying Brook to world level. "He has some technical things that still need to be addressed," he said. "Kell looked good but he's sometimes too upright and leaves his chin exposed but he has real talent. With the right matches he can keep learning and I think he could be the real thing. This is one young British fighter who could go all the way."