Salem sinks

---

Click to view caption

Salem, left, throws a left to the head of Calzaghe

WELSHMAN Joe Calzaghe beat Egypt's Qabari Salem on a unanimous points decision, successfully defending his WBO super-middleweight title for the 15th time.

The 32-year-old dominated a scrappy, ugly fight before 7,000 fans at the Royal Highland Showground on Friday, the first world title contest in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh.

Salem, 36, based in New York where he has gone professional, gave Calzaghe a run for his money after knocking him down in the fourth round. In the fourth round, Calzaghe walked straight on to a right hook from Salem which put him down for an eight count.

Calzaghe, a southpaw, tried to make light of being floored. "I just lost my balance and it was careless of me. I'd gone in with my head up and my hands down." It was only the second time Calzaghe had been knocked down in his career. "He succeeded in making me look bad," Calzaghe said after the fight. "I know I have to get better than that."

Calzaghe did restore some late pride when he dropped Salem in the final round, although the challenger appeared to slip, for an eight count. However he knows he will have to do much better if he is going to land his longed-for super fight in 2005 against the likes of Glen Johnson, Antonio Tarver or Jeff Lacy.

The WBO super-middleweight champion equalled Chris Eubank's British record of 15 world title defences with the 38th straight win of his career against no losses, putting him ahead of Lennox Lewis, Naseem Hamed, Ricky Hatton and Chris Eubank. Still, Calzaghe said he was disappointed with his performance. I'm very experienced and I should not have fought him at his level. I let myself be dragged down to his level and that wasn't good. I don't know what was wrong. Maybe it was a bit of ring rust."

The awkward and durable Salem has a reputation for throwing wayward punches and it was not hard to see why after he had a point deduced in the third for use of his head.

Calzaghe has held the title since 1997, the longest world title reign by any British fighter.