By Tom Graves: Before his retirement in February 2009 as Britain’s only undefeated boxing world champion, Joe Calzaghe was the longest-reigning boxing world champion of the modern era, owning a fight record of 46-0, 32 of which by KO/TKO.
Many people may only know of “The Pride of Wales” later in his career or may not have followed his career much at all, many people also believe he was protected or faced easy opposition. I am one of many who believe he was most definitely one of the best boxers of an era and one of the best of all time.
I will take you back to the beginning of his career to try and prove it.
After claiming a British middle weight title in his fifteenth professional bout Calzaghe was set for a super-fight against Steve Collins for the WBO title, who opted to retire claiming injury, instead of facing the up and coming young Welshman.
Needing a bout against a top level fighter to launch his career onto the world stage, Calzaghe then faced and beat Chris Eubank for the vacant WBO title as Collins had retired striping himself of the crown. Calzaghe floored Eubank within the first 20 seconds of round one and won the bout by UD making Joe the second man to beat Eubank, who was a world champion for over five years. The only person to beat Eubank prior to Calzaghe was Steve Collins, who supposedly ducked Calzaghe.
Calzaghe then went onto to retain his title against tough opponents, such as Juan Carlos Gimenez , one of the best Paraguayan boxers ever who had gone the distance with Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank and the great Roberto Duran, Calzaghe won by technical knockout in round 9, something those greats failed to achieve when facing Gimenez.
Calzaghe then faced and beat ex-WBC super middle-weight champion and Olympic medallist Robin Reid, he then defeated David Starie, a former Commonwealth super middleweight champion and British super middleweight champion. Calzaghe then beat Omar Sheika by TKO, a boxer who defeated the light heavyweight boxer Glen Johnson, someone who critics claim Calzaghe feared and was avoiding a fight with.
Calzaghe then knocked out the undefeated Mario Veit in the first round, and then went onto to knock out one of Don King’s fighters, an American Byron Mitchell by TKO in round 2.
Since winning the WBO crown Joe defended it 17 times before a unification bout against the dangerous American knockout artist Jeff ‘Left Hook’ Lacy, who held the IBF super middle weight title. Calzaghe was considered as the underdog by bookmakers but from the beginning schooled the younger and stronger fighter winning every round until knocking Lacy down shortly before the end of the fight, winning by UD. Many people say Calzaghe ruined Jeff Lacy’s career as he was never the same after being outclassed by the welsh superstar.
The Lacy fight brought Calzaghe well earned recognition in the boxing world and proved he was a world class fighter. He then beat Peter Manfredo Jnr and Sakio Bika, two boxers backed by Sugar Ray Leonard and the popular TV series The Contender.
In search of another super fight he faced unbeaten number two super middleweight in the World (behind himself), Mikkel Kessler in a unification bout for the WBO/WBA/WBC/Ring Magazine super middleweight titles. Calzaghe won this fight by UD putting him in the record books for the 4th highest amount of world title defences, up with greats such as Joe Louis.
Calzaghe then moved up to light heavy weight and went to the USA to face hall of fame fighter and Ring Magazine light heavyweight champion Benard Hopkins and won by split decision. Many claim Calzaghe’s victory was due to Hopkins being past his prime and too old but in ‘The Executioners’ next fight he knocked out the young middle weight champion Kelly Pavlik, in a non title bout, proving Hopkins was still one of the best fighters in the world silencing criticism for Calzaghe and himself.
Calzaghe then went onto face Roy Jones Jnr, although he was undoubtedly past his prime, Jones still had the reputation as one of the best pound for pound boxers of all time and is the only boxer in history to begin boxing as a junior middleweight, and then go on to win a world heavyweight title.
Jones is also noted for holding a record seven belts at the same time (the WBC, WBA, IBF, IBO, NABF, WBF, and IBA) at light heavyweight. The attraction for the bout was undeniable, it was what the public demanded, so it took place in Madison Square Garden. NY, Calzaghe won by UD.
On 5 February 2009, The Pride of Wales announced his retirement from professional boxing, finishing with a record of 46-0, during his career he had achieved incredible success winning a British middle-weight belt in his 14th pro fight, being the longest-reigning world champion in his generation, having held the WBO super middleweight title for over ten years, beating the American IBF champion, unifying the middleweight division as the undisputed number 1 after defeating the unbeaten Kessler, moving up in weight and travelling to the US to become a two weight world champion and defend it successfully.
Many people claim Calzaghe doesn’t deserve the praise he gets and that he was a “protected” fighter, of course there will be doubters but the fact is Calzaghe was an extraordinary fighter who fought in an era and division in which lacked a huge number of stars but the truth is he faced every formidable, talented and world class fighter that was around and who wanted to fight him.
Many say he stayed in Europe mainly to avoid facing harder opposition in the U.S but the truth is, the middle weight division was ruled by talented Brits such as Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank and Michael Watson shortly before Calzaghe’s career and when he was rising as a force he fought what the boxing world had to offer whether it was the most talented era of that division in history or not.
There is often talk of Calzaghe ducking boxers who are big names in the division now such as Chad Dawson and Carl Froch, I believe Calzaghe did not duck them. When Calzaghe was at the peak of his career at 34 years old when beating Lacy and going onto beat Kessler, Chad Dawson was still attempting to make a name for himself at age 24, who would win the fight is a pointless question to ask as it just didn’t make any sense to happen, Calzaghe was thought to be near he end of his career and Dawson’s name was hardly known around the world.
Carl Froch called out Calzaghe a few times, mainly when Joe retired, Froch recently lost to Kessler the fighter who Calzaghe beat by UD to unify the division three years ago, Kessler was past his best after losing to Calzaghe and Andre Ward but still beat Carl Froch.
If Froch V Calzaghe did happen I believe Joe would have still been unbeaten but this fight just didn’t make business sense either, Froch wasn’t a popular guy in the sport who had an ugly boxing style and had no belts to his name at the time.
Rumours of a comeback were circulating around but the man himself has denied it ever having a chance of happening, which is for the best, as he can keep hold of a great legacy which so many fighters fail to do by attempting a comeback.
He was a brilliant ambassador for his country and gained many fans, beating everyone he faced and owned all the great qualities of a true champion, speed, skill, heart, determination, courage and a great chin.
Anyone is welcome to their opinion, but I believe I have proved why Joe Calzaghe was the best boxer of an era.
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