Reports: Calzaghe Calls It a Career, Mayorga Backs Out of Angulo Fight

It looks like the gaudiest undefeated record in boxing will be staying that way.

Citing a lack of further career goals to shoot for, Joe Calzaghe told the media today that he was retiring from boxing. The longtime super middleweight champion from Wales hangs up his gloves with a 46-0 record that includes victories over Roy Jones Jr. and Bernard Hopkins.

Keeping in mind that boxer retirements often last about as long as a 2009 stock market rally, the announcement was hardly surprising. Calzaghe was short on big money fights to pursue, with only a rematch with Hopkins a real possibility - and their first fight didn't exactly set turnstiles ablaze.

Potential fights with younger champions like Chad Dawson offer a lot for Calzaghe to lose and very little to gain, at least financially. His snarky recent comments about the state of boxing suggest that his heart isn't really in it going forward, and he'll get to keep that '0' in the loss column, which always appeared very important to him.

I enjoyed watching JoeCal fight during the brief portion of his career he spent in the United States, and I definitely admired his ability to make mid-fight adjustments. It's a shame he didn't decide to come over a little sooner, because I'll always wonder if he could have made the leap from someone who was really good for his time to a potential all-time great.

Switching gears from boxers who are retiring to boxers who should be retiring, Dan Rafael of ESPN says that Ricardo Mayorga has pulled out of his Feb. 14 fight with Alfredo Angulo. Nothing like waiting until ten days before your fight to decide you aren't happy with your purse, right?

Not that this kind of thing is new to El Matador, as Rafael points out he tried to hold up Oscar De La Hoya for a bigger piece of the pie three years ago. As tempting as it may be to jump in on the Mayorga bashing though, I think I actually understand what he's doing here, even if I don't condone it.

It's pretty clear that Mayorga is on the downside of his time as a main event-caliber fighter (some would argue he's already past it), and he was likely headed for something akin to My Bloody Valentine 3-D on the 14th. Why not try to make one more grab for as much dough as you can get before you get your head knocked in?

As distasteful as it is, it makes sense to me. Only all parties involved seem pretty content to move on without Mayorga, so unless he sees his gambit has backfired and pulls an abrupt about-face, he's likely to end up with nothing.