LET me make one thing clear right from the start this week. Joe Calzaghe's heart for boxing is as big as ever and his ambition burns just as brightly, if not more so.

Apparently my continuing love for the game was questioned in some quarters this week after I had to put back my next WBO world super-middleweight title defence a few weeks until March.

Well it was precisely because I remain so ambitious that I decided to have the date put back because my next fight will be one of the most important of my career and I have to ensure I'm 100% fit for it.

Regular readers of this column will know that my left hand was badly bruised and became very, very swollen after I damaged it in the fourth or fifth round of my fight against Kabary Salem last time out.

It is getting better all the time, but to be honest it hasn't fully recovered and though the problem is nothing drastic, it did set me back a bit in my preparations.

It would have meant me rushing to get fully fit by February 11 and I could do without that at this stage of my career.

And as my next opponent, be it Antwun Echols, Scott Pemberton or someone else, hadn't been decided, I felt it made sense toput my world title defence back four weeks or so.

As I said earlier, this is a very important stage of my career because my next fight will probably be my last before I mix with the bigger guys and I want to make sure I put on a top class performance and show people I'm still at the top of the tree.

So to those people who say Joe Calzaghe's gotten into a habit of pulling out of fights and no longer seems at one with the fight game, I can honestly say that's a load of nonsense.

You can't blame a boxer if he has an injury and has to delay things.

It's just as frustrating for me as it is for the promoter, but at the end of the day I'm the one who has to go in the ring, I'm the one who takes the punches, I'm the one who is losing out on the money and I'm the one whose career is at stake.

And I'm not prepared to put my future on the line if I'm not fully fit and it's as simple as that.

I want a big fight badly and I'm still hungry and very ambitious to fulfil my goal of being a two-weight world champion.

I still aim to be at the top for two or three years and I want to continue at the top of my game and I'm not prepared to put those ambitions at risk.

Despite the setback, I still think I will get in the three fights I want this year.

In the year I beat Charles Brewer (2002), that fight was in April and I was back in the ring in August against Miguel Jimenez and again in December against Tocker Pudwill.

So it's a similar thing this time and I'll still be looking for three big fights and three big wins to silence the doubters once and for all.

Danny Williams has decided to carry on boxing after his destruction by Vitali Klitschko and says he still has ambitions to win the world heavyweight title.

Well, I don't blame him for carrying on but he can forget winning a world title.

He's just not world class and he did really well just to get his title chance by beating Tyson.

I don't think his chance will come again but I don't blame him for boxing on. He's still young and still has to earn a living.

But I think his money now will be made by going in against up-and-coming American heavyweights and giving them a credible test and perhaps even beating one or two along the way.

I see the long, drawn out negotiations for Ricky Hatton to fight Australian world light-welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu have now apparently been concluded with the fight set to go on in Manchester in June.

All I can say is rather them than me if the fight is to go on at 4am in the morning, as has been suggested, to meet the demands of American TV station Showtime.

I've gone on at about 12.30am and that is late enough, but 4am is not something I'd fancy.

Tszyu will start favourite. At 35 he remains in great shape and is a powerful puncher, but I do think Hatton has a great chance if he can raise his game.

He's strong, he's powerful and he's determined and he deserves his opportunity.