Joe Calzaghe - The Pride of Wales

Joe "The Pride of Wales" Calzaghe (born 23 March 1972 in Hammersmith, London England) is a Welsh boxer of Italian and Welsh descent, currently living in Cwmbran, Wales, and is one of the pound for pound top 10 boxers in the world according to the Ring Magazine.

He is sometimes referred to as the "Italian Dragon" in reference to his mixed heritage (the dragon being both a Welsh emblem and a Sardinian myth), or the "Pride of Wales". He is the current WBO and the former IBF super middleweight world champion.

He is the current longest reigning title holder in any weight class in boxing, recently passing the ten year mark as the WBO super middleweight champion.

The southpaw had "some 120" fights and won four schoolboy ABA titles, followed by three consecutive senior British ABA titles (British Championships) from 1991 to 1993. This made him only the second boxer in history to win at Welter, Light Middleweight and Middleweight divisions.

In September 1993 Calzaghe was signed up to the Terry Lawless and Mickey Duff stable and made his professional debut at Cardiff Arms Park on the Lewis-Bruno bill the following month.

By June 1995, Calzaghe had won nine out of nine fights, seven in the first round and two in the second. At the end of 1995 Calzaghe was voted Young Boxer of the Year by the Professional Boxing Association and the Boxing Writers' Club, with Barry McGuigan's top tipping Calzaghe for 1996: "He punches ferociously, moves superbly and has the best of the European technique and US aggression."

By October 1995, he had won the British title, stopping Steve Wilson in the eighth round. Calzaghe's critics said that he had not really been tested, while Calzaghe said in reply that he could only beat whoever was out there and prepared to fight him.

In November 1996, Calzaghe moved to Frank Warren's stable. Warren, who had managed Nigel Benn for his first 20 fights, declared: "Joe Calzaghe is a far better prospect, in fact he is my fighter for the new millennium." Warren spent the summer of 1997 chasing a fight for Calzaghe with either WBC champion Robin Reid or WBO title holder Steve Collins. The fight with Collins was arranged, but at a late stage Collins withdrew because of injury, was stripped of his title, and then retired.

A fight against the recently deposed title holder and British boxing legend Chris Eubank was set up for the vacant WBO title for 11 October 1997, in Sheffield. Calzaghe shocked the world by emerging victorious over the comebacking superstar, knocking down Eubank in the first round then claiming a unanimous points win. Eubank was perhaps drained after necessary weight draining having only had two weeks notice prior to the fight, but was magnanimous in defeat. He said of Calzaghe in a 2006 interview; "Joe is the proper article, a true warrior".

Calzaghe conceded that Eubank, even in his comeback, gave him the toughest fight of his life.

In 1998 he defended his title against Branco Sobot (winning by technical knockout in 3 rounds) and then Juan Carlos Gimenez (TKO in 10 rounds), a former opponent of both Nigel Benn and Eubank.

In 1999, Calzaghe started out by fighting his domestic rival, slick counterpuncher Robin Reid. Calzaghe was bitter that Reid refused to face him whilst holding the WBC championship in a unification bout, and vowed to beat him. After 12 rounds, the judges scored the fight for Calzaghe via a split decision. This fight's decision has been deemed controversial by some and Reid was never given the opportunity of a rematch. Calzaghe damaged his hand early on in the fight and according to Calzaghe, he suffered a dose of food poisoning. Calzaghe finished the year with another points win against Rick Thornberry.

2000 started with another decisive points decision against David Starie. This was followed by wins against the highly rated Omar Sheika (a five round stoppage), and former WBC champion and close friend Richie Woodhall.

2001 started with a first round stoppage win over unbeaten Mario Veit, followed by an equally decisive win against Will Mcintyre on the Tyson undercard in Copenhagen.

2002 started with points wins against both Charles Brewer and Miguel Jimenez in Cardiff, followed by a TKO of Tocker Pudwill in Newcastle in December.

Calzaghe's only fight of 2003 was in June against the tough competition of Bryon Mitchell at the Cardiff International Arena. Calzaghe won by TKO in the second. Calzaghe suffered his first career knockdown in this fight being down himself in the second round.

2004 started out with a defence against Mger Mkrtchian in Cardiff where he won with a seventh round knockout, followed by a points win over Karbary Salem in Edinburgh in October, during which Calzaghe was knocked down in the fourth round by a right hand. However he dominated the fight and knocked Salem down in the 12th round, winning comfortably on all three scorecards, 116-109,117-109,118-107.

Veit got a rematch against Calzaghe in Braunschweig, Germany in July 2005. Calzaghe beat Veit by technical knockout in the sixth round. On 10 September 2005, Calzaghe fought the Kenyan boxer Evans Ashira and won by a unanimous decision despite breaking his left hand in the third round. Calzaghe fought on one-handed winning 120-108, 120-108, 120-107.

His scheduled bout with IBF world champion Jeff Lacy for 5 November 2005 was initially cancelled due to the break sustained to the metacarpal in his left hand. Warren successfully rescheduled it for 5 March 2006, and the match was won by unanimous points decision over Lacy who was the pre-fight favorite with the bookmakers, and pundits alike. Calzaghe gained the IBF title, and won every round despite a point being deducted in the 11th for an illegal "behind the body" punch. He also won recognition from The Ring magazine as the true super middleweight champion.

The display against Lacy was one of the finest world championship displays by a British boxer, to rival the best of Fitzsimmons, Honeyghan, Eubank, Benn, Hamed and Lennox Lewis. Finally, the world at large was taking notice of Calzaghe.

Calzaghe was lined up for a superfight against American legend Bernard Hopkins for July 2006. Hopkins was allegedly offered $3 million to fight Calzaghe. It is alleged that Hopkins initially accpeted the $3,000,000 offer but later demanded $6,000,000 and in doing so priced himself out of the fight.[citation needed] The fight was not made and Hopkins went on to fight Antonio Tarver for the Light Heavyweight Championship of the world instead. Calzaghe was tentatively scheduled to fight former Light Heavyweight champion Glen Johnson in the featured bout of a 8 July 2006 card at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. He was forced to withdraw from the fight when he re-aggravated a hand injury. Johnson was unhappy at the late withdrawel and refused to offer Calzaghe another opportunity at arranging a fight.

On 14 October 2006, Sakio Bika and Calzaghe fought in one of the more aggressive and dirty fights of his career. Two points were deducted from Bika for headbutts, one of which led to a severe cut over Calzaghe's left eye which would cause him problems for the duration of the bout. Calzaghe won the fight on decision, to retain his undefeated run. Frank Warren commented after the fight that he was unhappy with Calzaghe's showboating but was obviously contented with the win.

On 27 November 2006 it was announced that Calzaghe had signed a contract to defend his WBO super middleweight title against former star of Contender Peter Manfredo Jr. on 7 April 2007 at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales to be shown on HBO. Because HBO didn't want to cover any fight with mandatory IBF challenger Robert Stieglitz, and with the opportunity if he won against Manfredo to fight Taylor in the summer, Calzaghe chose to fight Manfredo and as a result had to relinquish the IBF super middleweight championship. Both Calzaghe and Warren claimed that "Stieglitz doesn't mean anything outside of Germany." Stieglitz went on to fight Alejandro Berrio for the vacant IBF title, losing in 3 rounds. Berrio in turn lost the title to Lucian Bute in his first defense.

On April 07, 2007 Calzaghe met Peter Manfredo Jr. in front of 35,000 fans in Cardiff, Wales. Calzaghe was victorious on a third round stoppage, unleashing a flurry of punches on Manfredo, who threw nothing in return, thus drawing a stoppage from the referee. Manfredo and some commentators called the stoppage "premature" because Manfredo did not appear hurt. However, some people such as Emanuel Steward added that it would have been "only a minute or two" before Calzaghe had "ended things properly." There was also controversy between sports reporters that Calzaghe was afraid to fight out of his home country, Wales.

In May 2007, Frank Warren released details to BBC 5 Live and on his website that he has accepted Mogens Palle's offer of $5 million (US) to fight Mikkel Kessler in Copenhagen, Denmark. That the bout will take place at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on November 3rd . The fight will be a unification bout for the WBO/WBA/WBC/Ring Magazine super middleweight titles.

Should Calzaghe win his next bout he will surpass the 20 defences made by Bernard Hopkins and Larry Holmes at middleweight and heavyweight respectively. He would be level with Sven Ottke(super-middleweight) and Ricardo Lopez (flyweight). The only boxers with more defences than Joe would be Dariusz Michalczewski (light heavyweight) with 23 defences and Joe Louis (heavyweight) who made 25 defences. In addition to this Calzaghe is six fights away from equalling Rocky Marciano's unbeaten record for a champion boxer.

In December 2006, Joe Calzaghe was named BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year for the second time, as he had previously won that award in 2001. He was also nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. In June 2007 he was inducted into the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame, the only living sportsman currently inducted.