Calzaghe quashes talk of comeback fight

JOE Calzaghe has denied claims that he is set to come out of retirement for a rematch with Bernard Hopkins.

Undefeated world super- middleweight and light-heavyweight champion Calzaghe called time on his glittering boxing career last February after outpointing Roy Jones Jnr to take his unbeaten record to 46 fights.

Last month Golden Boy chief executive Richard Schaefer claimed Calzaghe was keen on a return to the ring to face Hopkins, whom he beat on a split decision in the penultimate fight of his career.

The Welshman admits he held tentative talks over a fight against the controversial American, and even resumed training at his Newbridge Gym in preparation for a potential fight.

But the 38-year-old decided against coming out of retirement, claiming that he no longer has the fire in his belly to justify a comeback. "There's no truth that I'm coming back," said Calzaghe. "A lot of boxers come back from retirement but when I retired from boxing, I said I intended to retire and nothing has changed from that.

"A lot of boxing fans would want to see me come back but at 38, after 27 years in the sport, being a world champ for 11 years, my time is up. I have no desire to fight, to be honest.

"Richard and I spoke about it a few months ago when I was in LA. I said: 'possibly' and I went away to have some time to think about it, whether I wanted to do it, who the potential opponents could be. But I went to the gym a couple of times and I realised that I didn't want to.

"There's always the chance that some big money will be on offer but you shouldn't fight for the money. That would be the wrong reason to go back into it.

"I have come out of my career relatively unmarked and I have ended undefeated world champion so it's a blessing that I can end my career like that and I don't want to push it and get greedy and fall back into that temptation that you would regret for the rest of your life."