Joe Calzaghe- 44-0 (32KOs)
Joe Calzaghe was born in Hammersmith, England, 23/03/1972, he was raised in Newbridge, Wales. In his younger years Joe Calzaghe wanted to be a footballer, but he soon realised his talent was with his fists rather than his feet. At the age of 12, Joe decided he wanted to box. His dad, Enzo Calzaghe, knew nothing about the sport of boxing at the time but through research and reading books Enzo began to train Joe Calzaghe, today Enzo Calzaghe is one of the best trainers in the world with 3 world champions in his stable (Joe Calzaghe, Enzo Maccarinelli and Gavin Rees). Calzaghe is 5'11 1/2, 73" reach and he fought southpaw.
Joe Calzaghe began tearing his way through the amateur ranks. He ended with 'some 120 fights' with only a handful of losses. Calzaghe is the only amateur fighter in history to win 3 ABA titles in 3 different weight classes. Calzaghe's dream was to fight in the 1992 Barcalona Olympics, however the dream was ruined when the British ABA refused to let him compete in the olympics while being trained by his father Enzo. Incidently, Olympics silver medalists at Middleweight and future world champion, Chris Byrd was defeated by Calzaghe easily just months after the 1992 Olympics. In October 1993 Joe Calzaghe ditched the amateur ranks to turn professional.
Joe Calzaghe began his professional career in the Cardiff Arms Park, Wales on 1st October 1993 against Paul Hanlon. Despite Hanlon's efforts to rough a young Calzaghe up, Calzaghe stopped Hanlon in the first round via TKO. Calzaghe went onto KO his first 9 opponents, 7 in the very first round. He fought a Cruiserweight who outweighed him by 8lbs, winning an 80-72 unanimous 8-round decision. After some more early KOs, Calzaghe won the British title via 8th round TKO and went onto defend it against highly regarded undefeated prospect Mark Delaney by TKO5. Calzaghe went onto win 5 more times via early knockout. Calzaghe's career change at this point, before he was promoted by a small-time Welsh promoter, but biggest British promoter Frank Warren noticed his talent and signed him up. Warren owned rights to most of the top Super-Middleweight champion's at the time, Calzaghe was now moving onto world class level.
Joe Calzaghe's first world title fight came on 11th October 1997. He was scheduled to fight Steve Collins, but when he pulled out the WBO title was vacated and Chris Eubank stepped into the fight. Calzaghe was 22-0 (21 KOs) at this point, and slight favourite to beat Eubank. Chris Eubank was floored in the very first round with a hard Calzaghe left hook, Calzaghe went onto dominate most of the fight before Eubank came strong late in the fight. Calzaghe held out to win a UD, with the judges scores reading 118-110, 118-109 and 116-111.
Calzaghe made a couple of weak defences before taking on Robin Reid in 1999. Calzaghe had come off a 10-month layoff, and this was a very rough, dirty fight. Calzaghe was hit often, and really struggled to beat Reid. In the end, Calzaghe won a SD, with the judges scores being 116-111, 116-111, 111-116. This result was questioned by some people, but most see the result as pretty clear. Calzaghe went onto make some less than impressive defences, however in the early 00s he was back on top form as he defended his title in dominating fashion against. His wins came against Omar Sheika (TKO5), Richie Woodhall (TKO10), Charles Brewer (UD12) and Byron Mitchell (TKO2).
Calzaghe had a stretch from 2000-2003 when he was very impressive, but Calzaghe really struggled after that. He was knocked down and then went onto win a less than impressive UD over Kabary Salem, and then another lacklustre performance against Evans Ashira, a 154lbs fighter, by wide UD. Joe Calzaghe made the 18th defense of his world title against Jeff "Left Hook" Lacy. Lacy was regarded as a top prospect, he was the IBF champion and has 17 KOs in 21 undefeated Pro fights. The bookies, and the majority of the media, expected Calzaghe to be "exposed" and knocked out by the younger challenger Lacy. The fight was infront of 18,000 fans at the Manchester M.E.N Arena.
This was by far Joe Calzaghe's best career performance, most expected him to be destroyed, but he produced one of the most dominating displays if all-time and completely out-classed and out-fought Jeff Lacy. Calzaghe made Jeff Lacy look terrible, wildly miss and didnt lose a round. It was a master class, and the fighter who was actually "exposed" wasn't Calzaghe, but it was Jeff Lacy. Unfortunately, media and haters branded the win as more because Lacy was over-hyped, rather than Calzaghe being a great fighter. The final judges card were unanimous in Calzaghe's favour; 119-107, 119-107 and 119-105.
After the fight major American broadcaster's HBO Sports picked up Calzaghe. His first fight under the new company was against Sakio Bika, a tough, rugged Cameroonian fighter. It wasnt vintage Calzaghe, but he won a clear UD. Bika fought a very dirty fight and Calzaghe was dragged into it and made to look terrible, with Calzaghe suffering a nasty cut above his eye. Calzaghe returned to Wales for his next bout, against "The Contender" runner-up Peter Manfredo Jr. The fight was branded a joke by most, Manfredo wasnt even in Calzaghe's league and the referee stopped the bout in the 3rd round. Manfredo barely landed a punch.
In July 2007, the fight between Joe Calzaghe and Mikkel Kessler was made. Mikkel Kessler was undefeated in 39 pro fights, he was the WBA/WBC unified world champion, he had looked very impressive and many favoured him to beat Calzaghe. This was Calzaghe's 21st defence of the WBO title, he was undefeated in 43 pro fights. This was a European Super Fight. The fight started very evenly, both men landed there punches and boxed well in the early rounds. Kessler landed some big, clean power punches, whereas Calzaghe landed a higher amount of punches with more speed. In the middle rounds Calzaghe began to adapt to Kessler's style, he negagted Kessler's big right hand and took control of the fight. Despite a late 12th round rally, Calzaghe won the fight clearly by UD, the final scores were 117-111, 116-112, 116-112.
After becoming the Undisputed Super-Middleweight Champion, Calzaghe stepped up in weight to fight Ring Magazine's World Light-Heavyweight Champion Bernard Hopkins. Hopkins, at 43 years of age, was still regarded as one of the P4P best fighters. Calzaghe started slowly, being knocked down in the very first round and losing the early rounds. As the fight went on Calzaghe started to take control over a tiring Bernard Hopkins. After a close fight, judges scored it 116-111, 115-112 & 113-114 in favour of Calzaghe. There was controversary surrounding the result, however Calzaghe outlanded Hopkins substancially despite not landing the telling shots.
Calzaghe's next fight is to take place at Madison Square Garden, New York against Roy Jones Jr.
Updated by LeedsLad (10/28/08)
Joe Calzaghe Fighter Information
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