Calzaghe to fight in August

Calzaghe: Bout rescheduled due to injury

Joe Calzaghe's delayed super-middleweight title defence against Palestinian-American Omar Sheika will now take place on 12th August at the Wembley Conference Centre.

Sheika is a good on-top fighter with fast hands

Joe Calzaghe

The bout was originally planned for Detroit later this week, but the Welshman had to withdraw because of an elbow injury.

Calzaghe has now recovered and is setting his sights on the fifth defence of his title, which he won by defeating Chris Eubank in 1997.

Despite the delay, Calzaghe is still confident that he will overwhelm his opponent.

"Sheika is a good on-top fighter with fast hands", he said.

"But he is entering the premier league and I am looking to knock him out."

Fighting the pain

Calzaghe has been plagued by a series of injuries during his career. Now that his elbow injury has cleared up his training has benefitted.

"I have been able to train 100% for the first time for a while - something I haven't been able to do in the last two or three fights. I have to fight through the pain barrier", he said.

Calzaghe may be aiming to knock out Sheika, but he has achieved neither a KO nor a stoppage in his last three fights.

Robin Reid, Rick Thornberry and David Starie all went the distance with the Welshman in a series of below-par performances.

In Sheika's corner will be the pedigree to challenge Calzaghe. He is trained by Emanuel Steward, who took Lennox Lewis and Naseem Hamed to world title glory.

Sheika has won 20 of his 21 fights, with 13 stoppages. His only defeat was against another Briton though - Tony Booth in Sheffield two years ago.

But he comes into the contest with good form, having won six fights in a row since then.