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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Quick Facts: Calzaghe-KesslerFight, Economics, Geography, and Punching Power



The fight is to be held at the legendary Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. That’s part of the English speaking world, in the U.K, I’ve heard. From the description, Millennium Stadium is supposed to be one swell place.

The expected crowd of 50 to 60 thousand may beat the record of 47 thousand for a fight in October 1993 between Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank.

Americans have paid little attention to European fighters unless they came to the U.S. Now, all that seems to be changing with HBO’s investment of more than a million bucks in this one.

This is a super-middleweight category where Kessler holds the WBC and WBA division belts. Kessler gets 2 million for this fight and Calzaghe gets 2.5 million. Uh, that’s pounds, not dollars. Yesterday when I checked it out, the British pound was worth $2.07 approximately. For a rough count of the purse, multiply by two. Do the math. Duh!

The fight starts at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday—that’s Cardiff Time. Preliminaries begin 9:00 p.m. on the East Coast and 6:00 p.m. on the West Coast. Hell, does that mean that all those loopy people in Lost Angeles will know who won before we do?

Hotels and restaurants are fully booked. Unless you’re loaded, there will be no room at the Inn.

Calzaghe is aged 35. This is his 21st defense. He’s 43 and 0.

Kessler’s fought only once in the U.S. He’s mostly unknown but he’s no joke.

Thank you, HBO! It’s not PPV. You can watch it free with your subscription to the HBO channel.




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