Boxing Great Joe Calzaghe Retires From The Ring
Super-Middle Champion Leaves The Fight Game With Undefeated Record
Feb 6, 2009
So… it’s all over, and in the States it must feel like it barely began. Joe Calzaghe, at age 36, and having compiled a record of 46-0, 32 KO’s, has officially announced his retirement.
Until 4th March 2006 Calzaghe was a provincial fighter, a Welsh phenomenon who refused to travel (if his once promoter Frank Warren is to be believed) and thus had only boxed twice outside the British Isles in a 13 years, and even then only in mainland Europe. Whilst most observers recognised that Calzaghe was an unusual talent, few expected him to flourish when he stepped off home turf.
Calzaghe's Championship Masterclass
Of course all that changed when he took on Jeff Lacy, who was being touted as a mini-Mike Tyson, on an electric night in March 06. Still boxing in his back yard, Calzaghe delivered the kind of fistic masterclass that comes along once in a generation, and as if a light-switch had been flicked on immediately the lop-sided decision was announced, he was suddenly the fighter everyone wanted to see.
Calzaghe says he has nothing more to prove: “I've achieved every goal I've ever set myself in the ring - there are no more mountains left to climb."
Presumably Calzaghe will consider as his personal Everest the two wins over Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones, Jnr, who he defeated in some style in their backyard last year, and which in his own mind entitle him to claim that he conquered America. It’s a big claim, and only time will tell if his legacy can justify it.
Champion's Ring Legacy
It will never be known what might have happened had Joe slipped across the water earlier in his career, and chanced his arm in American rings as a younger man. It should be noted that he was himself in his late thirties when he took on Hopkins and Jones Jnr, and that whilst many have suggested that he improved with age, a sounder argument might be that as he aged, so did his opposition. Some suggest that Joe’s best years were as a 28-30 year old, when he beat highly regarded fighters like Richie Woodhall, Charles Brewer and Omar Sheika. At that time, around 2001, Jones Jnr was still in his pomp, Bernard Hopkins was defending his Middleweight title against all and sundry, and even Sven Ottke (who retired 34 fights undefeated in 2004) was compiling twenty-odd defences of the IBF Super-Middleweight crown. These fights should have been made then – when these fighters were at the top of their game – for Calzaghe’s legacy to stand the true test of time.
But in the States Calzaghe’s star has only shone at it’s brightest in the last three years, and in the twilight of an exceptional career – revisionists may well look back now that his fighting days are over and find new enthusiasm for the man that the British press are already calling the finest boxer to have ever sprung from British shores, but one suspects that in the final analysis Joe will be seen as a truly great champion who scaled the heights, but may have just fallen short of the summit.
