THE JOE Calzaghe camp fear his manager Frank Warren is holding him back from the big-time bouts.

Newbridge's WBO Super-middleweight champion, preparing for the 13th defence of his crown against Byron Mitchell in Cardiff on Saturday week, has been accused by Sven Ottke of avoiding a showdown with the IBF/WBA champ.

Ottke's manager Wilfried Sauerland has declared a possible meeting between the pair is "a dead topic".

Ottke, who retained his two belts on the weekend in Magdeburg after out-pointing England's David Starie, has grown frustrated after several negotiations to line up a bout with Calzaghe MBE have ended in failure.

But Enzo Calzaghe, the Gwent boxer's trainer and father, insists that Warren maintains that Ottke - and other lucrative American opponents - don't want to fight the 31-year-old southpaw.

"Joe wants to take on the best and Sven Ottke is one of them," said Calzaghe snr.

"But Frank Warren has always said that Ottke and the likes of Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones jnr (the big-time American pair) cannot fight Joe.

"Does Ottke not want to fight Joe or does Frank Warren not want to fund the big fights?

"That's what we want to know."

Ottke's manager Sauerland claimed: "Calzaghe is talking about all the people he wants to fight. We've been talking about a meeting for three years and all serious approaches have come from us.

"That's why I say the topic is dead."