This is My Last Fight, Reiterates Calzaghe

Joe Calzaghe says he has promised his mother he is walking away from boxing this Saturday night after 15 spirit-draining years of professional fighting, most of them glorious, a few of them tough, all of them mentally and physically debilitating.

"I promised my mum this would be my last fight," he said in New York on the eve of his light-heavyweight showdown with Roy Jones Jnr at Madison Square Garden.

At a brief workout in a gym 10 minutes from the Garden, Calzaghe looked sharp and relaxed, and he did not spare his delicate hands in three rounds of pad work with his father and trainer, Enzo. The unbeaten Welshman looks in great shape to leave the business on a high, against one of boxing's genuine legends at a venue wreathed in history.

But suspicions persist. Calzaghe admitted he has made noises before about retiring, only to go back on them. "There are loads of ifs and buts," he said. "At the moment, I don't want to fight on. I don't want to go to the well once too often. I'm nearly 37 and in tremendous shape but, if you fight just for the money, you get beat.

"I've run out of big names: [Jeff] Lacy, [Mikkel] Kessler, [Bernard] Hopkins ... now Roy Jones. There is no one else."

Except Jones again. If Calzaghe loses, he will find it hard to resist the urge to get square. If he wins in a dramatic fight, the commercial imperatives to cash in on a second fight will be considerable. An insider told me he believes there is a re-match clause already inserted in the fighters' contracts. For now, just being in New York and getting ready to fight in the Garden is sufficient incentive for Calzaghe to be at or near his best.

He knows Jones is still dangerous. "Great fighters can prove a lot of people wrong," he observed. "He is going to be very, very hungry for this fight. To fight at Madison Square Garden is great. I've done the Vegas thing, now the Garden. It takes two to tango, but I like to entertain, Roy likes to entertain.

"I've heard so much about the atmosphere and it is going to be such a sensation just walking into the ring. I am doing what I always wanted to do: fighting the biggest names in the biggest venues. I knew straight away [after negotiating with Jones], regardless of the financial aspect, that this is where I wanted it to end.

"In the end, it has become hard work, but I have enjoyed boxing again since the Kessler fight [last November]. Kessler was harder than Hopkins, which was a messy fight. Going up to light-heavyweight here is something I wanted to do for a change but, if I turn up like I did in my last fight I am in for a hard night's work. If I fight like I did against Kessler, fight over."

And if it is over, if he does walk away, his mother will know he meant what he said when he wrote in his autobiography: "Mum, I know you've always worried but you won't have to worry much longer. I'll be retired soon."