Head-butt fear over Calzaghe clash

Joe Calzaghe goes into tonight's world championship defence against Kabary Salem admitting to "concern" about the head-butting tendencies of his challenger, which have already led to a boxing tragedy and been cited in numerous controversies.

The unbeaten Calzaghe will put his WBO super-middleweight title on the line for a 15th time against Salem, a New York-based Egyptian, at the Royal Highland Showground arena in Edinburgh.

It will be the first world championship fight to be hosted by the Scottish capital and, if he wins, Calzaghe will equal the British record for world title defences, held by Chris Eubank.

But of greater importance to Calzaghe is avoiding physical damage caused by Salem's shaven head.

Five years ago, promising American Randie Carver collapsed and died two days after a fight with Salem. Carver's mother subsequently filed a lawsuit against the referee, Ross Strada, claiming he failed to protect her son from " frequent and repeated" head-butts.

Both Strada and Salem were exonerated of any blame for Carver's death. However, two years later Salem was again accused of butting on his way to a defeat against Antwun Echols.

Nineteen months ago, his fight against Rudy Markussen in Denmark was declared a no contest when an accidental butt resulted in Markussen sustaining a severe cut. And last time out, in May, Salem was penalised two points for intentionally butting eventual winner Mario Velt.

Incredibly, in the same fight, the self-hyped Egyptian Magician managed to break the nose of referee Manuel Maritxalar in what he claimed was an unintentional clash of heads.