Calzaghe's goodbye as unsurprising as his comeback would be

In his last fight, Joe Calzaghe (right) destroyed Roy Jones Jr. at Madison Square Garden. Al Bello/Getty Images Bryan Graham's Mailbag Bryan Graham will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Bryan Graham on Twitter

Joe Calzaghe's retirement announcement yesterday didn't take anybody by surprise.

Not after the Welsh southpaw dropped repeated hints about this outcome in the days leading up to his last fight, the shocking undressing of Roy Jones Jr. at Madison Square Garden in November which upped his career record to 46-0.

The longtime super middleweight champion has confessed in recent years to a gnawing boredom with the sport, an understandable sentiment after devoting the past 25 years to grinding away in the gym under the close tutelage of his father Enzo. He's spent the past three months deliberating his future, preferring to "have a long think" with his family instead of rushing to a premature decision he'd later regret.

But if Calzaghe decides to fight again in six months, it won't exactly flabbergast anybody either.

If a boxer coming out of retirement is a common occurrence, an undefeated boxer returning to the ring is all but a foregone conclusion. Only one other fighter -- Rocky Marciano -- retired undefeated and undrawn after 40 or more fights. And there's a good reason why: when you've fought a couple dozen times and you've never lost, there's always a generous payday just around the corner.

Calzaghe is generally regarded as the next-best pound-for-pound fighter in the world after Manny Pacquiao. Even those critics who denounce the Welsh southpaw as a slapper thanks to his unorthodox volume-punching approach -- and there are many still -- can't rate Joe any worse than third. But there's not an obvious next step for Calzaghe, who spent 11 years defending his super middleweight titles before moving up to light heavyweight to fight Bernard Hopkins and Jones in 2008. "I've run out of big names," bemoaned Calzaghe in November.

"It gets harder to motivate myself. I don't want to get up in the morning for a run unless I have to fight people I have a bit of a worry about -- a Jones or a Hopkins," Calzaghe told The Guardian yesterday. "I'm not a robot, I'm fed up. My body's tired of it."

Funny thing is, I almost buy it.

I almost believe his desire to spend time with his family and sate his personal appetites trump his considerable earning power and desire to compete at an elite level. If ever there was an unbeaten fighter with a personality and temperament capable of staying retired, it's Joe Calzaghe. He's content. For the first time in his career, he's experiencing widespread appreciation both abroad and at home, where he was a surprise choice for BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2007 and made a Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 2008.

Indeed, Calzaghe says he's achieved everything he's wanted to achieve. He doesn't need the money, unlike Floyd "Money" Mayweather, whose impending comeback is the year's biggest inevitability besides Heath Ledger's posthumous Oscar. Besides, who's Super Joe going to fight? Hopkins is willing to go to Wales, but Calzaghe doesn't want to fight any rematches, which rules out another attractive opponent in Mikkel Kessler. (Both Hopkins and Kessler watched the Jones fight from ringside.) Glen Johnson is a former IBF titlist, but forgive us if the 40-year-old doesn't exactly capture the public imagination. Talented up-and-comer Chad Dawson put out a press release calling for a Calzaghe fight about 15 minutes after his masterclass against Jones, but Joe won't fight him because ... well, ask Joe about that.

And you can forget moving down in weight. Calzaghe just went up to 175 pounds -- an easier limit to make at his advanced age -- to earn a hard-fought decision over Hopkins after spending his career at 168. He whipped Roy in his sophomore outing at light heavyweight, demonstrating an increased aptitude and comfort level with the extra poundage. He's not going back down, not at 37.

So maybe this is for real. Maybe Calzaghe is going to stay retired, turning his attention to his charity work and Calzaghe Promotions, his nascent business venture. The keys to his success -- his freakish conditioning and superhuman work rate -- stem from his tireless work in the gym. If he's questioning his willingness to put in the hours, he's smart to hang it up. "If you fight just for the money," he mused in November, "you get beat."

But still ... you wonder.

Calzaghe is obviously proud to retire without a single blemish on his record, but his critics are quick to classify the zero as a testament to his evasive qualities outside the ring. He's long weathered criticism for avoiding great opponents during his prime while dominating a division of questionable prestige. Remember, this is a guy whose biggest win before Jeff Lacy was against an older Chris Eubank, an eleventh-hour replacement who boiled down to 168 in a rush job to make the fight. Until 2008, Calzaghe fought just twice outside of the UK, and the Jones fight marked just his second bout in the United States.

Yes, his legacy is predicated on his undefeated mark, but it's hardly unassailable. So why interrupt the most impressive run of his career instead of building on it, especially since Calzaghe has obviously gotten better -- and better compensated -- into his thirties? Sure, he'll be 37 in six weeks. But isn't 40 the new 30 in today's fight game, considering the success older fighters like Hopkins and Shane Mosley have enjoyed over the past year?

Eventually the matchmakers will make Calzaghe an offer he can't refuse. How exactly do you walk away from $20 million in this economy anyway, whether you're Joe Calzaghe or Joe the Plumber? But most of all, Joe will fight again because he's a true sportsman -- and that's what sportsmen do: compete.

The great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas wrote, "Old age should burn and rave at close of day." And in Calzaghe, the most famous Welshman of his day, it will again.

In just a couple months.

Probably.