Joe Calzaghe of Wales, left, faces off against American Jeff Lacy at a news conference Thursday in Manchester, England. The unbeaten super middleweights will fight tonight to unify the world title. Photo by The Associated Press

Never mind that Joe Calzaghe has a 40-0 record in a career that spans more than 12 years. Never mind that the Welshman has been a world champion for more than eight years. Never mind that he's been the top super middleweight since before the world ever heard of Monica Lewinsky.

Despite all of that, Calzaghe is as anonymous in the United States as Manchester United's reserve midfielder.

But this time, you can't blame the frequently jingoistic American sports fan for asking, "Joe who?"

Calzaghe will fight unbeaten American Jeff Lacy tonight in Manchester, England, to unify the super middleweight titles, but there is no hint of the fever that surrounded the 1999 welterweight unification fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad.

De La Hoya and Trinidad were unbeaten champions who had fixated the nation. For a month, their names and faces were everywhere. They were front-page news around the world. They made it not only onto ESPN and other sports networks, but also to "Entertainment Tonight."

Their fight remains the biggest nonheavyweight fight in terms of pay-per-view sales and total revenue.

Calzaghe and Lacy are a combined 61-0 with 48 knockouts -- 23-0 with 15 knockouts in championship fights. But count on the fact that Showtime's ratings tonight will be far less than HBO gets for a second-tier offering featuring Miguel Cotto against Gianluca Branco.

That is partly because HBO's subscriber base is three times larger than Showtime's. But an equal part of the equation is that Calzaghe has never fought in the United States and never had a truly significant fight prior to agreeing to meet Lacy.

Calzaghe's promoter, Frank Warren, insists he tried to make matches with then-middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins and then-light heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr.

It's disingenuous, however, to say you tried to fight those guys when you insisted on all terms favoring your side. There are two ways to say no to a fight. One is to simply say no. The other is to ask for terms so one-sided that they can't possibly be accepted.

Jones was the far bigger star, but Calzaghe had the audacity to try to force Jones to fight him in Great Britain. The fight might have occurred had Calzaghe conceded the venue, but he would not.

Insisting on fighting Jones in Great Britain was tantamount to saying you don't want to fight.

So despite an excellent record, heavy hands and an abundance of skills, Calzaghe remains "Joe who?" outside of Western Europe.

Lacy has been everything Calzaghe is not. He has as much standing in the sport as Calzaghe. He's an unbeaten world champion and a former U.S. Olympian to boot, with a powerful promoter and the support of an influential television network.

But Lacy didn't allow what will be a defining victory for the winner to disintegrate by insisting on having the fight in the U.S. He recognized that the only way for the fight to happen was on Calzaghe's turf in front of Calzaghe's fans.

As the NCAA Tournament selection committee could tell you, the only thing more impressive than a quality win is a quality win on the road.

Lacy will be bigger for beating Calzaghe in England than he would've been for beating him in Las Vegas or New York or anywhere else.

Tonight's fight represents the 20th anniversary of boxing on Showtime. In those two decades, Showtime has delivered many sensational matches -- including Calzaghe-Lacy -- but Showtime has never developed a star.

Stars have fought on Showtime, but there has never been a star developed and bred exclusively through fighting on the network. Trinidad didn't become a star until he bolted Showtime for HBO and its vastly bigger subscriber universe.

Lacy is a brute of a man who is as likeable as he is powerful. He's the one guy in boxing who is a legitimate contender to be De La Hoya's successor as the sport's primary attraction.

Expect him to use his strength to eventually wear down Calzaghe to win an entertaining fight that should hold more significance than it does.

For that, you have to blame the stay at-home "Joe who?"

Kevin Iole's boxing column is published Saturday. He can be reached at 396-4428 or at kiole@reviewjournal.com.