Hungy Calzaghe in great shape to strip the dazzling Dane of his belts

If America's most hallowed sportswriter were still with us he would have been jumping at the odds on offer here for Mikkel Kessler to defeat Joe Calzaghe and thereby silence the singing majority in the largest crowd ever assembled to watch an indoor boxing match outside America.

The Great Dane is a 5-4 shot to unify the world super-middleweight titles, while the Welsh Dragon is quoted at 13-8 on to be the one of two hitherto undefeated champions still standing come the early hours of tomorrow morning.

Had Mr Runyon snatched a bookmaker's hand off before lunch yesterday he would have been regretting it by tea-time.

The equally strong, almost as quick and seven years the younger Kessler had such difficulty paring down to the 12st limit that ladies in attendance at St David's Hall were asked to avert their gaze as he stripped off his underpants for a second attempt to make the weight.

Before that, despite delaying the weigh-in by leaving for the bathroom to shed some fluid ounces, Kessler was fractionally too heavy.

Just as much as the concerns about one of Kessler's hands, this hardens a conviction that Calzaghe's reign as the longest active champion is about to be extended into its 11th year by virtue of a 21st successful defence of his WBO belt.

By shedding his modesty, Kessler took off the last two ounces but if there were any doubts that the WBC and WBA champion has had problems in training then they, too, were removed.

Kessler insists his hands are not hurting now but he does not deny that he has been unable to spar since being heard screaming with pain after throwing a punch.

Nor is he forthcoming as to why his gym, normally an open house, has been closed to outsiders throughout those two-and-a-half weeks. Of course he has worked out like a demon but it is sparring which conditions a boxer for combat, while applying a flat-iron to his honed body.

For a champion who habitually comes in smack on or just under 168lb, Kessler's failure to do so for the biggest fight of his life tells its own story.

So does Calzaghe's trip to the scales. The pride of Wales is usually the one who has to dehydrate and starve himself down to superwelterweight.

Yet so intense is his motivation for what ought to be the toughest challenge of his career — more exacting than his annihilation of American hope Jeff Lacy — that he weighed almost a poundand- a-half lighter.

At 11st 12lb and seven ounces, Calzaghe looked in need of the square meal to which he promptly treated himself. He went off to eat with a smile on his face, while Kessler hopped away like an agitated jack rabbit.

The audience represented only a tiny fraction of the 50,000 expected to crowd beneath the roof of the Millennium Stadium late tonight but they gave Kessler a ribald foretaste of the hostility to come.

Five thousand of his own supporters are coming from Denmark to help swell the attendance respectably close to boxing's indoor record, the 63,350 who were in the Louisiana Superdome on September 15, 1978 to see Muhammad Ali outpoint Leon Spinks in their re-match.

This is a mark of the affection the Welsh have for their Joe and the esteem in which he is held throughout the hardest game. Beyond that, expectation has been raised yet higher by a sense that Kessler could pose a genuine threat. At 28 and with 29 knockouts in his unblemished record of 39 wins, Kessler is in his prime.

At 35 and boasting 32 KOs in his 43 victories, Calzaghe admits he is approaching his last year in the ring.

The Welsh southpaw's most potent asset is his hand speed and when he inflicts a stoppage it is by the blurring volume of his punches rather than a single knockout blow.

Hence Calzaghe is the one whose hands have broken in the past and there is a danger that fractures to the fists of either man could determine the outcome.

The Dane, despite being a more orthodox left jabber, also has fast hands. Kessler will attempt to prevent Calzaghe asserting his customary dominance by throwing clusters and combinations of his own, certainly more punches than Lacy traded while being pounded into a pulp. But although the day is coming when age and an opponent of Kessler's undoubted quality will catch up with Calzaghe, this is unlikely to be the night.

Someone's zero must go from the record of one of these two men who have yet to taste the hot blood of defeat.

Calzaghe may have to go the 12- round distance but his confident demeanour is another reason for predicting a home win on points.

Since there is a conditional rematch clause — in the event of a controversial or close decision — let us hope the victory is decisive.

For as another of America's literary students of prizefighting, Norman Mailer, observed: Second time around is a rhubarb.