Leonard: Manfredo can exploit Calzaghe’s flaw

In golf, when someone has done what Joe Calzaghe’s done, even the legends of the game call him “Mister.” It’s “Mr. Hogan” or “Mr. Nelson.” Never Ben or Byron.

In baseball, when they’ve accomplished what Calzaghe has, they pack his uniform away, never to be worn again, and often seem as though they want to call the pope to see if beatification is in order.

Not so in boxing. It takes a lot to impress those wily boxing folk.

Nobody in boxing is deifying Calzaghe or even talking about him as one of the sport’s legendary figures.

Yeah, they sniff, so he’s won all 42 of his fights, 31 by knockout. So what? Who’s the last Hall of Famer he’s beaten?

Big deal, they grunt, that he’s been a world champion for nearly 10 years. After all, it’s only the WBO.

And they’re hardly wowed by his 19 successful title defenses in a row, particularly when that list includes the less-than-immortal Tocker Pudwill and Branko Sobot.

No less an authority than Sugar Ray Leonard — who 20 years and a day ago defeated legendary middleweight champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler in one of the most significant upsets in boxing history — looks at Calzaghe and comes away unconvinced.

Calzaghe will defend his WBO super middleweight title today in Wales against Peter Manfredo Jr., runner-up in the first season of the reality TV series “The Contender.”

If there’s a fighter with fewer credentials than Calzaghe, it’s Manfredo, whose biggest win to date was in 2002 over then-41-year-old Frankie Randall.

But, just as he did when he watched Hagler stop John “The Beast” Mugabi in a surprisingly competitive bout in 1986, Leonard believes he spotted a flaw in Calzaghe’s game in his last outing against Sakio Bika.

“There are a lot of similarities between the fight between Marvin and myself and this fight between Peter and Calzaghe,” Leonard said by telephone Friday from Wales, where interest in the Calzaghe-Manfredo fight is so high that 35,000 are expected to attend live and television ratings are expected to reach World Cup soccer numbers.

“Peter’s a major, major underdog,” Leonard said. “Not a lot, if anybody, is giving him a chance. But you know what? Nobody gave me a chance against Marvin, either. They said, ‘Oh, Ray, don’t do it. Don’t let your ego get in the way. You’ll get hurt.’ But I saw something. And I’m glad I didn’t listen to them.”

What Leonard saw in Hagler against Mugabi were subtle signs of Hagler’s mortality, but all too obvious to the trained eye. Hagler was being hit by punches he hadn’t been hit with before. Openings to land shots he would have blown through previously were being blocked by Mugabi.

Leonard now sees signs of weakness in Calzaghe, though he coyly declines to offer specifics, probably because he is Manfredo’s promoter and has signed on as his chief strategist for the bout.

Calzaghe won every minute of every round in a hyped unification bout against Jeff Lacy last year. But Leonard says he saw something. Calzaghe won going away over Bika in his first post-Lacy bout, but Leonard said the fight confirmed his suspicions that Calzaghe is beatable. More important, he claims, he’s beatable by Manfredo today.

“Peter is bigger and stronger than people give him credit for,” Leonard said. “He has a greater chance to land some body shots than anybody Joe has fought. He’s rarely been attacked to the body, even against Lacy.”

Perhaps that’s because few opponents are willing to pay the price and come inside against Calzaghe, given his blazingly quick, hard jab and the concussion-inducing left hand that frequently follows.

But Calzaghe is 35. And the fight doesn’t mean as much to him as it does to Manfredo.

Manfredo has done nothing but exude confidence and has shrugged off comparisons between himself and Lacy, the last American to venture across the pond who dared believe he was the world’s best super middleweight.

Leonard believes, though. And not, he insists, because a Manfredo win would inject a significant dose of credibility into “The Contender.”

“You think about my fight with Marvin now, 20 years later, but you know the result,” Leonard said. “Think about what you were thinking before that fight. If you’re honest, you probably didn’t think I had a chance, just like you may not think Peter has a chance.

“But I’ve seen something, and I’m telling you, I know Peter can win this fight.”

Maybe. But I’m thinking that sometime around 3 this afternoon, Peter Manfredo Jr. is going to be singing the praises of “Mr. Calzaghe.”

Kevin Iole’s boxing column is published Saturday. He can be reached at 396-4428 or kiole@reviewjournal.com.