JOE Calzaghe has been WBO world super-middleweight champion for seven years, but no longer covets the title.

The Newbridge southpaw will equal Chris Eubank's British record (15) for most world title defences when he fights in Edinburgh tonight, but he is not particularly interested.

In addition he has not fought for over eight months, has had a turbulent year on a personal level and pulled out of a world light-heavyweight title opportunity he had wanted because of a back injury some people questioned.

It all suggests a champion ripe for the taking and Brooklyn-based, Cairo-born challenger Kabary Salem will undoubtedly be thinking just that.

But those who know Calzaghe know the only reason he has lost interest in the WBO crown is that at 31 he is desperate for bigger things before eventually hanging up his gloves.

Despite a 37-0 career record, thirty inside the distance, Calzaghe has never received the world-wide recognition he craves and he knows the only way to get it is by fighting and beating a big-name American, pehaps in his own country.

Attempts to match him with the great Bernard Hopkins (undisputed world middleweight champion and IBF holder for ten years with 19 successful defences) failed.

It was the same with the great Roy Jones junior but now, after two successive defeats, he is no longer a worthy opponent.

But WBC light-heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver and IBF champion Glen Johnson (Jones' conquerors) could still provide him with that career-defining fight and a chance to be a double champion.

And new IBF super-middleweight champion Jeff 'Left Hook' Lacy is a possibility, though he must first defend against Omar Sheika (beaten in five rounds by Calzaghe) in December.

The man who stands in the way of those ambitions is 'Egyptian Magician' Salem and that's why Calzaghe has vowed to KO him tonight and give a display to make the world take notice.

But Salem, whose manager Nettles Nasser was involved in a scuffle with Calzaghe at yesterday's weigh-in when he protested he had not seen the wighing scales showing Calzaghe right on the 12st limit, may be no pushover.

He has won 23 (12 on KO) and lost three of his 26 fights since turning pro at the ripe old age of 29 and though only a couple of his opponents have been 'name' fighters, he has never been stopped and has been floored only once.

Last time out he lost on points to German Mario Veit, a man demolished inside a round by Calzaghe, in a fight for the WBO interim super-middleweight crown, but Calzaghe regarded that as a Dortmund 'home town decision', suggesting Salem won ten of the 12 rounds.

And though Salem is 36, such an age is no bar to a dedicated performer.

Hopkins will be 40 in January, Johnson 36, Tarver (who defends against Australian Paul Briggs in January) is 35 and Carl Thompson, who KO'd fellow Brit David Haye in their fight for the IBO cruiserweight crown last month, is also 40.

In addition, Calzaghe has been out of the ring for eight months since stopping Mger Mkrtchian in February and could be a little ring-rusty while he admits he finds it increasingly harder nowadays to burn off the excess weight.

It could be a terrific scrap while it lasts. Salem wants to become the first Egyptian holder of a world title, knows this will be his last chance, and has a roughhouse reputation.

He has regularly been warned for illegal use of his head, once accidentally flattening a referee this way, while one of his opponents tragically died after taking a beating.

But Calzaghe has never ducked a 'war' and, if necessary, has the hand speed and ringcraft to box his way out of trouble.

For that reason he should again comfortably come out on top, but perhaps not inside the five rounds he has predicted.