By Ben Dirs BBC Sport in Cardiff

Calzaghe threw about 30 unanswered punches at Manfredo

"Joe Calzaghe might as well have fought Jade Goody" was the verdict of one fan after the Welshman's easy win over Peter Manfredo on Saturday.

Facetious, certainly. Yet a cursory glance at the BBC message boards reveals that many who watched the Cardiff bill from the comfort of their living rooms disagree with Frank Warren's assertion that it was a "fantastic night" for British boxing.

Inside the magnificent Millennium Stadium, 35,018 paying customers - a new European record for an indoor show - seemed happy enough with the one-sided fare they were served up towards the top of the bill.

And Calzaghe, making the 20th defence of his WBO super middleweight crown, was given the sort of reception that made the legs tingle and the eyes grow rheumy.

It was no more than the proud Welshman, who won the belt from Chris Eubank in 1997 and who is now just six short of Joe Louis' record of 26 world title defences, deserved.

But there is no getting away from the fact that Manfredo, a blown-up light middleweight, was little more than a sacrificial lamb to be offered up to Calzaghe's adoring fans.

As Calzaghe is always happy to admit, it's all about the money, and it was Manfredo's profile as a reality TV star, rather than his boxing skills, that created interest on both sides of the Atlantic.

Journalists ringside were torn on whether the referee was right to stop the fight midway through the third round, with Manfredo balling up like a hedgehog under a maelstrom of cuffing blows.

We get accused of trying to duck out of fights, but we are not Calzaghe's promotor Frank Warren

Television replays revealed that Calzaghe threw approximately 30 unanswered punches, and as referee Terry O'Connor said afterwards, "I've got to look after the kid".

But it is difficult not to feel some sympathy for Manfredo, who protested: "This ain't the amateurs, this is professional boxing - the world championship. The referee had no right to stop the fight like that."

Still, Manfredo, who barely threw a punch while the bout lasted, had surely been saved from a gorier demise at a later stage.

606: DEBATE Your thoughts on Saturday's action in Cardiff

Critics of Calzaghe's latest match-up will be mollified if Warren can land his man America's WBC and WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor in July.

Denmark's Mikkel Kessler, who holds the WBC and WBA belts, has apparently ruled himself out of a summer match-up, and a clash with Taylor, who won his belts from the great Bernard Hopkins in 2005, would be a far easier sell in the States.

"We have said from day one that we want either Taylor or Kessler and maybe one of them will take it," said Warren. "We get accused of trying to duck out of fights, but we are not."

Warren has offered Taylor $3m (�1.53m) and the fight could take place at London's Millennium Dome, now "The O2" arena.

Warren seems to have gone cold on the idea of Calzaghe ever fighting in America, dismissing the notion that British boxers have to cross the Atlantic to be considered truly great.

Calzaghe, meanwhile, claimed not to be bothered where he fights. "Whichever makes me the most money," he laughed. Calzaghe, rather than Manfredo, is the true reality star.

Khan knocked Bull down in the third round

If Calzaghe's fight with Manfredo was one-sided, Enzo Maccarinelli's WBO cruiserweight defence against Bobby 'Machine' Gunn bordered on the pathetic.

Gunn is surely a contender for the worst boxer ever to fight for a world title on British soil, and just how he came to be ranked number 15 by the WBO is a mystery up there with the construction of Stonehenge and the recent return to our screens of Through The Keyhole.

From the opening bell, when Gunn hunched up his shoulders and ambled towards Maccarinelli as if he was going to ask him for a light, the writing was on the wall.

Maccarinelli, mercifully, finished things quickly, but coming on the back of his 71-second defeat of Mark Hobson last October, it was hardly ideal preparation for a proposed unification bout in July.

France's Jean Marc Mormeck, the WBC and WBA title-holder, and Poland's IBF champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk are Warren's targets.

Mormeck is pencilled in to fight David Haye later this year, but Warren is ready to pounce if, as many expect, London's European champion decides to become a full-time heavyweight.

Amir Khan looked like a man in hunting down and picking apart the ultra-cautious Steffy Bull in his 12th professional bout, which was shown on American television network HBO.

The Olympic silver medallist will fight for a title of some description in July, with Khan eager to land Norwich's British lightweight champion Jonathan Thaxton.

Some of the Bolton fighter's recent pronouncements suggest he is growing frustrated at the slew of challenges being thrown his way by various domestic rivals.

Warren, like a slipper struggling to pull back a straining greyhound as a hare flies past, must know the time is right to let him off the leash.