Super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe, who unified belts with a virtuoso shutout decision of Jeff Lacy in March, vacated the IBF version of the title he won in that fight on Monday.

The reason: Calzaghe opted for a lucrative match against "Contender" season 1 runner-up Peter Manfredo Jr. rather than taking a mandatory fight against obscure Russian-born, German-based Robert Stieglitz (29-0, 19 KOs).

Calzaghe, who made the announcement at a news conference in Great Britain, will be in New York on Tuesday to announce his March 3 (HBO) defense against Manfredo and meet him face to face.

Calzaghe will defend the Ring magazine world title -- emblematic of the No. 1 champion in each division -- as well as make the historic 20th defense of his WBO belt against Manfredo, 26, of Providence, R.I. The all-time record for title defenses is 25 by legendary heavyweight champion Joe Louis.

Calzaghe (42-0, 31 KOs), whose title reign of more than nine years makes him the longest active titleholder in boxing, and Manfredo (26-3, 12 KOs) will fight before a crowd expected to surpass 30,000 at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Calzaghe's home country.

HBO will carry the fight live at 5 p.m. ET in addition to its prime-time taped coverage at 10 p.m. ET.

The IBF had ordered a Tuesday purse bid for Calzaghe-Stieglitz. However, with no intention of making the fight, representatives for Calzaghe promoter Frank Warren notified the IBF of Calzaghe's intention on Monday morning, IBF championship committee chairman Lindsey Tucker told ESPN.com.

Later in the day, Calzaghe made the announcement publicly. If he didn't give up the IBF belt, he would have been stripped anyway.

"It's disappointing to give up the IBF [belt], but Stieglitz doesn't mean anything out of Germany," Calzaghe, 34, said at the news conference.

Warren said that HBO had "no appetite" for the Stieglitz fight. "That's how the belts get fragmented," Warren added.

Following his domination of Lacy, Calzaghe made one defense of the unified belts, a decision win against Sakio Bika on Oct. 14 in Manchester, England.

Tucker said the IBF will order Stieglitz to face Alejandro Berrio (25-4, 24 KOs) for the vacant belt. Stieglitz knocked out Berrio in the 11th round in a December 2005 title eliminator. Berrio has won two fights since, including an eliminator for the No. 2 position against Yusef Mack, to position himself for a title bout.

espn.com