01.11.07 – By Matthew Hurley: The officials assigned to the super middleweight unification bout between WBO champion Joe Calzaghe, 43-0 with 32 KOs and WBA/WBC champion Mikkel Kessler, 39-0 with 29 KOs have been announced. The referee will be Mike Ortega from Connecticut, USA. The three judges include Raul Caiz from California, USA, John Stewart from Pennsylvania, USA and Massimo Barrovecchio from Rome, Italy. Representing the sanctioning bodies will be John Duggan for the World Boxing Organization, Renzo Bagnariol for the World Boxing Association and Bob Logist for the WBC..
Both fighters will weigh in on Friday, November 2nd at St. David’s Hall in Cardiff at 2 pm.
According to the fighter’s camps Calzaghe will wear black and white trunks and Kessler will wear red and white.
Kessler has recently waved off concerns about a possible injured right hand. Reports have circulated that Kessler injured the hand during training camp and had to discontinue sparring two weeks before the opening bell. His camp has been tight-lipped about the alleged injury maintaining only that their charge will be fully prepared and ready to go on November 3rd.
Calzaghe has suffered through multiple hand injuries during his career. His left hand has been broken either in training camp or in the ring three times and many point to these injuries for hampering Calzaghe’s career. He was forced to cancel or postpone several potentially lucrative bouts in the last several years. For this bout however Calzaghe and his team have reported no such problems and insist the fighter is in the best shape of his long career.
Las Vegas Sports Books are listing Calzaghe at –160 and Kessler at +130.
The undercard for the main event has left many fans wanting. In fact promoter Frank Warren has been criticized mercilessly for his consistently bad undercards, which culminated in a particularly bad show when Calzaghe took on Peter Manfredo in April. The final preliminary bout will be between World Boxing Organization Cruiserweight titlist Enzo Maccarinelli, 27-1 with 20 KOs and challenger Mohammad Azzaoui, 22-0-2 with 8 KOs.
The telecast will begin at 9 pm in the United States on HBO.