Boxing: Boxing:Calzaghe Ready for Joppy Test

JOE CALZAGHE has agreed to defend his world super-middleweight title against William Joppy at the Telewest Arena, Newcastle-on- Tyne, on Saturday, May 24.

The bout is subject to official confirmation from the American's promoter and manager, but Frank Warren is confident Calzaghe will make the 13th defence of his crown before another 10,000 sell-out crowd on Tyneside.

"The fight has not yet been confirmed but I am 90 per cent it will go ahead," said Warren.

"Everything has been agreed in principal and I expect to be able to confirm the fight in the next few days."

Calzaghe has made a dozen successful defences of the title since beating Chris Eubank five and a half years ago and he is looking for a good performance against the three-time WBA middleweight champion of the world in the hope of meeting Bernard Hopkins.

His last fight against Tocker Pudwill four months ago lasted less than two rounds, but Joppy, with 34 wins from 37 fights, is expected to provide much tougher opposition.

"Joppy is a world-class fighter," said Calzaghe. "This should be one of my toughest fights but I am in the best shape of my life.

"I see this fight though as a stepping stone to Hopkins."

This should be a good fight. I haven't seen Joppy fight in a while.

"I see this fight though as a stepping stone to Hopkins."

Calzaghe is a quality fighter i think he should win comfortably as he say's he's going after Hopkins.

Joe Calzaghe's frustration at failing to find meaningful challengers for his WBO super-middleweight title is set to continue.

Calzaghe now looks extremely unlikely to take on William Joppy in Newcastle on May 24 after moving closer to a dream fight with Bernard Hopkins.

But the fact remains that Joppy was a division-and-a-half lighter than Calzaghe and had been decked by Howard Eastman during a controversial title defence in Las Vegas in 2001.

Hopkins v Calzaghe bring it on!

[Edited on 19-4-2003 by TRD]