Calzaghe weighing up his future after trumping Jones

TALK of Joe Calzaghe retiring already appears to have been shelved after his comprehensive triumph over Roy Jones Jr at Madison Square Garden, with bookmakers making him odds-on to fight again and his father and trainer Enzo warning potential challengers to make a big offer quickly.

The Welshman proved in New York in the early hours of yesterday that he can live up to his father's claim to be the best active pound-for-pound fighter in the world when he climbed off the canvas in the first round to dismantle ring legend Jones over 12 rounds, scoring a decisive, unanimous decision victory.

The win extended the 36-year-old's perfect record to 46-0, but having pledged during the pre-fight build-up to retire following his showdown with Jones, the 'Pride Of Wales' kept the door open to keep on fighting.

Enzo wanted his son to retire undefeated and go down in history as one of the all-time great champions to quit the sport with an unblemished record. Yet he warned that if anyone wanted to fight the Newbridge boxer they would have to move swiftly because once Calzaghe did retire he would stay that way.

"His mum is begging him to retire and he has nothing more to achieve," Calzaghe senior said. "Whatever he wants to do, I'll back him. If he doesn't want to box, he gets my blessing because there's no more to achieve. But if he wants to carry on boxing, keep boxing now, don't retire. Once he's retired there's no coming back, I don't want him coming back. Retired means retired. Not retired for two years and come back after. No way. If he stays on I'm fully behind him.

"I hope the offers come now, then he doesn't have to retire. Once he's retired and they come with the offers it's no good."

By saying he would rule out any rematches, Calzaghe junior effectively discounted fights against Jones, Bernard Hopkins, whom he beat in April by split decision, or Denmark's Mikkel Kessler, whom he fought in 2007. Yet he refused to confirm that he would now retire. "I'm 36, nearly 37 and I'm not going to announce anything right now," Calzaghe said.

"I said before the fight it would possibly be my last fight, but I'm just really happy. I enjoyed it, except the first round of course."

Having achieved his emphatic victory over Jones, however, Calzaghe conceded there would not be a more perfect time to bow out. "I don't think there's a better ending," he said. "A fairytale fight, fairytale ending. I enjoyed the fight except for the first round. I was having fun, being a bit flashy myself. To come over here and beat two American legends – Hopkins and Roy Jones tonight – I'm so proud of that. But I'm not going to make a decision until I go away and have a good think. I just want to spend some time with my family and have a rest."

Boomakers don't think he will need to think much and offer odds of only 1-3 that he will fight in 2009, while Lennox Lewis urged his fellow Briton to call it a day. "Joe has beaten everyone there is to beat and has nothing else to prove so I think he should retire," said Lewis, who quit as world heavyweight champion after defeating Vitali Klitschko in 2003 and resisted all temptation to return. Calzaghe was at the very top of his game in New York, apart from his first-round blip. Scoring a 118-109 victory on all three judges' scorecards, the former undisputed super-middleweight champion won the remaining 11 rounds to retain his de facto world light-heavyweight title, the Ring Magazine Championship belt he won in April with a split decision victory over Hopkins in Las Vegas.

Like the Hopkins fight, Calzaghe was floored in the opening round, this time by a jolting straight left from 39-year-old Jones that momentarily stunned his travelling fans from Wales who formed roughly half of the 14,152 crowd inside the legendary venue.

Calzaghe came back to wear down the American, causing a damaging cut above the former four-division champion's left eye in the seventh round that Jones' corner could not stop pouring blood.

Jones went to hospital shortly after the fight to be stitched and did not appear at the post-fight press conference.