THE worst injury of Joe Calzaghe's career means the WBO world super-middleweight champion's unification fight with IBF champion Jeff Lacy is off indefinitely.

Calzaghe suffered a broken left hand in the third round of his 17th successful defence against Danish-based Kenyan Evans Ashira at the Cardiff International Arena on Saturday and an x-ray examination yesterday confirmed a fractured metarcapal (the bone between wrist and knuckle).

American Lacy will now meet another opponent on November 5 when he was scheduled to meet Calzaghe in London and a proposed new date, February 4, is also almost certainly off.

To make matters more complicated an angry Gary Shaw, Lacy's promoter, says his fighter will no longer come to Britain for the fight sometime in the new year.

"I'm very angry," said Shaw. "They took a meaningless fight they should never have taken.

"We're not going over there. If they want the fight they must come to the United States because that is the only way they will see Jeff Lacy again."

But Calzaghe defended his meeting Ashira. "Lacy had the option of meeting me before fighting Robin Reid but chose to go ahead with that fight. Lacy doesn't call the shots. I'm the man. I've been champion for eight years."

Calzaghe added: "My hand will be in plaster for 3-4 weeks and it will be 2 or 3 months before I can punch again so I may not recover in time for February, but the Lacy fight will take place."

Calzaghe's promoter Frank Warren said: "I thought Joe would go four or five rounds with Ahira and get some rounds under his belt before Lacy, but the best laid plans often go astray."

Calzaghe, whose talk in a recent column in the Argus about the brittle hands which have plagued his career apparently fuelled Shaw's anger, said on Saturday: "I have always had a vulnerable left hand and it's disappointing because I feel I would have knocked Ashira out in the fifth. He was ready to go.

"He's short and squat and stayed low and the natural punch for a taller guy is the uppercut, but instead of catching his chin I kept catching the top of his head and that's how I did the damage.

"I'm disappointed for the fans and those watching on TV because I wanted to knock the guy out and make a statement but and I have a great jab and won comfortably with the right hand.

"I'm frustrated, but the pain was excruciating. I excited the crowd for the first three or four rounds and showed the full arsenal of my punches but at the end I had to slip into second gear and cruise my way to victory.

"Lacy's still in my plans. He has a big mouth but is not as good as he thinks he is and that's the perfect fight for me. It will definitely happen."