Joe Calzaghe, it seems, just can't win.

The Welshman has beaten 26 opponents, won the WBO world super-middleweight
crown and earned universal respect.

Yet in his own land the 27-year-old southpaw from Newbridge is no more than a
sporting sideshow. Ticket sales are sluggish for his defence against Australian
Rick Thornberry in Cardiff on Saturday.

"What the hell does Joe have to do to be a hero in his own country?" stormed
his father and trainer Enzo.

"He's regarded as the best fighter in the world in his division, yet all we get
is criticism in the media and lack of interest from the fans.

"Even when he wins, he loses. He beat Chris Eubank to win the title, yet it was
Eubank who came out with all the credit."

There is talk of Calzaghe flying across the Atlantic to further his career.

"I'd rather Joe had all his fights in Wales. But if he doesn't get the support
he deserves we won't have any option," said Enzo.

Calzaghe will surely beat Thornberry, whose only other venture outside
Australia brought a five-round defeat by Henry Wharton three years ago.

Calzaghe, as brashly confidently as he always is, insists: "I'll knock him
out."

Because Holyfield and Lewis (or, more accurately, judges Jean Williams and
Larry O'Connell) left unfinished business, Jones and Johnson get to vie for
boxing's only "undisputed" championship Saturday night when they square off in
an HBO-televised bout from Biloxi, Miss.

That is no small thing to Johnson (39-5-1, 24 KOs), the International Boxing
Federation light- heavyweight champ who is a 15-1 underdog to Jones (39-1, 33
KOs), holder of the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association versions
of the 175-pound title.

"The unification aspect makes this fight unique," said Johnson, 32, the Houston
southpaw who previously held the WBA middleweight crown. "The winner is going
to stand alone in all of boxing. That brings more glory to the division, more
glory to the individual. There's a lot at stake.

"Look, I know Roy Jones is a good fighter. He represents the toughest fight of
my life. But I'm the toughest fight of his life, too. Nobody really gives me a
chance to win, but I'm going to take Roy someplace he's never been. Roy Jones
has never really been in a war. I'm going to give him a war."

We can only hope. "Reluctant Roy," 30, sometimes gives the impression he finds
boxing boring, but perhaps that is because he has yet to encounter an opponent
capable of fully extending him.

THE LITTLE O

 Basketball legend Oscar Robertson is known as the "Big O," which means, one
supposes, that former IBF bantamweight champion Orlando Canizales has to settle
for the "Little O."

Despite his compact size, though, Canizales's accomplishments are huge. He
successfully defended his title a division-record 16 times before stepping up
to featherweight (and, occasionally, junior lightweight and lightweight) in
1995.

But, at 33, the Laredo, Texas, resident and 15-year pro understands his career
has more past than future. Canizales (49-4-1, 36 KOs), who takes on
Wilmington's Richard DeJesus (14-5, 4 KOs) in the ESPN2-televised rematch of
their controversial first fight Friday night at the Blue Horizon, said he is
edging ever closer to retirement. (DeJesus won the first fight on a majority
decision.)

"If this isn't my last fight, for sure it'll be my last year," Canizales said.
"There's been some talk of me fighting Cesar Soto [the newly crowned WBC
featherweight champion], but I don't know if it's going to happen. I'm just
taking it one day at a time for now."

If Friday's bout is indeed his farewell to the ring, Canizales wants to give
himself a rousing send-off. He said he's prepared much harder for this fight
than he did for his Dec. 11 meeting with DeJesus.

"I took that fight for granted and didn't train as much as I should have,"
Canizales said. "For the last fight, I trained maybe a month, on and off. This
time, I've trained nearly two months. I've done a lot more running, more
sparring.

"DeJesus surprised me the first time. I admit it. He was in great shape and he
took some good shots. I still thought I did enough to win, but it was a close
fight. I got tired toward the end and the judges called it the way they did.
Basically, they gave him all the close rounds. That's the way it goes
sometimes. Now I know what to expect from him. My job is to win more rounds
convincingly."

LOOK OUT, OSCAR

 In anticipation of an Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad fight being made, Las
Vegas's sports books began accepting wagers on the anticipated Sept. 18
welterweight unification matchup on May 22, the day of De La Hoya's 11th-round
technical knockout of Oba Carr.

The opening line - pick 'em - immediately moved to 7-5 favoring De La Hoya, the
WBC champion. But one oddsmaker said the shift had more to do with large
numbers of De La Hoya's loyal Mexican and Mexican-American fans being in town
and opening their wallets than with any perception that Trinidad, the IBF
titlist from Puerto Rico whose fan base is mostly on the East Coast, is even
minimally inferior.

It'll be interesting to see which way the oddsmakers go after Trinidad (35-0,
30 KOs), who never was pressed, knocked out Hugo Pineda (36-2-1, 27 KOs) with a
left hook to the solar plexus in the fourth round of Saturday's fight in San
Juan, Puerto Rico.

"No problems at all," Trinidad said after one of the easiest of his 14 winning
title defenses.

Opinions and odds could change, but as of today I'm leaning, ever so slightly,
to Trinidad.

THANKS, CHUCK

 Coming up with material for the boxing section of our "Century of Sports"
pullout was made easier for me thanks to Chuck Hasson's exhaustive research of
the subject matter, from which I liberally borrowed.

Chuck, a Linwood, Pa., resident, spent countless hours at the Free Library and
made more than 35,000 copies of newspaper stories from microfilm. We might have
differed here and there on the sequential listing of Philadelphia's finest
fighters and most memorable events, but if you want to pin down specific dates,
names and places, Chuck is the ultimate answer man.

Thanks also to J Russell Peltz, Nigel Collins, Bert Randolph Sugar, George
Bochetto and Hank Kaplan, whose thoughtful insights also contributed to my
efforts.

A final note: You can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs, and family
members and friends of Willie "The Worm" Monroe, Bernard Hopkins and the late
Midget Wolgast have left voice-mail messages indicating their displeasure over
those fine fighters' exclusion from my top 10 list of Philly's all-time best.
Hopkins and Philly's other current reigning world champion, David Reid, were
bypassed because their careers are ongoing at a high level and I reasoned they
can't be adequately assessed until those careers are much closer to completion.

As for Wolgast and Monroe, nobody disputes their credentials. But a lot of very
fine Philly fighters didn't make my top 10: Gil Turner, George Benton, Gypsy
Joe Harris, Eugene "Cyclone" Hart, Bobby "Boogaloo" Watts, Meldrick Taylor,
Percy Bassett, Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, Tim Witherspoon, Battling Levinsky
and Stanley "Kitten" Hayward, among others. It's a tribute to the city's rich
boxing tradition that I had too few slots and too many qualified candidates to
fill them.

PUNCH LINES

 Light-heavyweights Chris Mills (13-0, 11 KOs) and Dan Sheehan (3- 2, 1 KO)
swap punches in the six-round main event of first-time promoter Laura Dennis's
inaugural card Thursday night in Dickson City, Pa., just outside Scranton. .
.Former WBA light-heavy champ Matthew Saad Muhammad will work the corner of
Eric Blumenthal for his June 8 exhibition bout against Damon Feldman at the
Electric Factory, proceeds from which will benefit the Jewish Federation of
Greater Philadelphia. Tickets are $75 in advance, $85 at the door. For more
information, call Allison Halpern at (215) 893-5640.  

For novices:  
-200 means you have to bet $200 to win $100
+200 means you win $200 if you bet $100

MIRAGE
Derrick Gainer -150
Roberto Garcia +120

MIRAGE
Roy Jones Jr.  -1500
Reggie Johnson  +1000

MIRAGE
Lou Savarese  +1000
Michael Grant  -1500

MIRAGE
Hasim Rahman  -600
Jeremey Williams  +425

MIRAGE         BALLYS
-120              -120        Oscar DelaHoya
EVEN MONEY   -120        Felix Trinidad

BALLYS
Evander Holyfield    +160
Lennox Lewis          -200

Look for Tyson to fight Axel Schulz, then Briggs, both of whom have had their
ratings inflated in the last few months in preperation for the slaughter.