Joe Calzaghe

Joe Calzaghe
Data
Birth Name	Joseph William Calzaghe
Fight name	Pride of Wales Italian Dragon
Weight class	Super middleweight
nationality	British
birthday	March 23, 1972
place of birth	London
style	Legal display
size	1.80 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	46
Victories	46
Knockout victories	32
Defeats	0
Profile in the BoxRec database

Joseph William Calzaghe CBE (born March 23, 1972 in London-Hammersmith , United Kingdom ) is a former Italian-Welsh boxer and super middleweight world champion for the WBA , WBC , WBO and IBF associations .

Undefeated in 46 fights, he ended his career in February 2009 and became the third European boxer alongside Terry Marsh and Sven Ottke , who resigned as world champion undefeated. At the time of his retirement, Ring Magazine ranked him 3rd best boxer regardless of weight class . Calzaghe held the WBO title for over ten years and won 21 defenses in what is considered one of the longest title reigns and one of the longest series of world title defenses in boxing history. In 2014 he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame .

amateur

Joe Calzaghe started boxing at the age of nine and was coached throughout his 25-year career by his father, Enzo Calzaghe, an Italian immigrant from Sardinia . Calzaghe was English welterweight, light middleweight and middleweight champion from 1991 to 1993. He has fought about 120 amateur fights, according to the BBC , defeating Chris Byrd , among others . His last defeat was in July 1990 when he lost in the quarter-finals of the Junior European Championships in Ústí nad Labem to the Romanian Adrian Opreda.

Professional career

In 1993, the southpaw professional in the super middleweight division, first under Mickey Duff (1929-2014), then under Frank Warren , and impressed with his speed, clout and punch combinations. Before his first chance at the World Cup, he had won 22 fights, 21 of them prematurely and 16 within two rounds. He became British Champion in 1995 and defeated boxers with positive records such as Mark Delaney (21-0), Tyler Hughes (12-0) and Luciano Torres (45-2).

On October 11, 1997 he defeated Chris Eubank (45-2) unanimously on points and had his opponent on the ground twice. He won the vacant WBO world title, which had been resigned by the retired Steve Collins . In the following title defenses he defeated the Croatian Branko Sobot (14-1), Juan Carlos Giménez (51-8) from Paraguay, Robin Reid (26-1), the Australian Rick Thornberry (23-2) and David Starie (22-1 ). Only the fight against Reid turned out to be a bit more balanced.

In August 2000 he defeated the American Omar Sheika (20-1) by TKO in the fifth round and was able to prevail in December 2000 against Richie Woodhall (26-2) by TKO in the tenth round. In April 2001 he won in the first round against the undefeated German Mario Veit (30-0) and in October of the same year achieved another early win against the American Will McIntyre (29-2).

His next fight, and thus his tenth title defense, he denied in April 2001 against Charles Brewer (37-8) and won unanimously on points. Against Miguel Ángel Jiménez (21-1) from Puerto Rico he won in August 2002 as well as in December 2002 against the American Tocker Pudwill (39-4), substitute opponent for the retired Thomas Tate.

On June 28, 2003 he suffered against Byron Mitchell (25-2), who was led by the WBO in 9th place, in the second round the first knockout of his career, but fought his way back and won in the same round by TKO. He won another early victory in February 2004 against the Armenian Mher Mkrtchjan (18-1). Against the American Kabary Salem (23-3) Calzaghe was down again, but also scored a knockdown and won unanimously on points. In May 2005 there was a rematch with Mario Veit (45-1) in the Volkswagen Halle Braunschweig , which Calzaghe won again through TKO. In September 2005, he beat the Kenyan Evans Ashira (24-1) unanimously.

On March 4, 2006 he defeated the IBF World Champion Jeff Lacy (21-0) dominating and superior on points and had his opponent on the floor in the twelfth round. He thus combined his WBO and IBF titles of his opponent and was also recognized by Ring Magazine as the new number 1 in super middleweight. He defended his title on October 14, 2006 unanimously against the Australian Sakio Bika (20-1) and also made his debut on HBO .

Since he refused to compete against the IBF mandatory challenger Robert Stieglitz in order to contest a more lucrative fight against the better known Peter Manfredo (26-3), the IBF withdrew their world title from him in November 2006. He then won against Manfredo in April 2007 through TKO in the third round. This was also his 20th WBO title defense.

On November 3, 2007 he boxed against the Danish WBA and WBC world champion Mikkel Kessler (39-0) and secured a unanimous victory on points, which he combined the world titles of the WBO, WBA and WBC. The IBF title was withdrawn from him in 2006 without a fight, which is why he had all four major world titles in a weight class. With 21 defenses of the WBO title, he drew level with Sven Ottke's IBF record .

Then Calzaghe rose to light heavyweight and defeated on April 19, 2008 Bernard Hopkins (48-4) at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on points, which was Calzaghe's first professional fight outside Europe. In the first lap, Calzaghe was also down. With this victory Calzaghe was then confirmed by Ring Magazine as number 1 in this weight class. He played his next fight on November 8, 2008 in Madison Square Garden in New York City against Roy Jones (52-4), was again on the ground in the first round, but then took control of the fight and won safely and unanimously Points.

On February 5, 2009, Calzaghe finally announced his retirement from active boxing.

successes

• Amateur record: 110 wins - 10 losses
• Professional balance: 46 wins - 0 defeats

• 1991: British amateur welterweight champion
• 1992: British amateur light middleweight champion
• 1993: British amateur middleweight champion

• October 28, 1995: British Super Middleweight Champion (1 title defense)
• October 11, 1997: WBO World Champion in super middleweight division (21 title defenses)
• March 4, 2006: IBF world champion in super middleweight (1 title defense)
• November 3, 2007: WBA and WBC world champions in super middleweight division

Others

On November 26, 2008 the British Queen Elizabeth II appointed Joe Calzaghe "Commander of the Order of the British Empire ".

Web links

• Joe Calzaghe in the BoxRec database
• Entry "Calzaghe, Joe" in Munzinger Online / Sport - Internationales Sportarchiv. In: munzinger.de. Retrieved March 8, 2019 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Boxing champion Calzaghe resigns undefeated. In: dpa / abendblatt.de. February 6, 2009, accessed March 8, 2019 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Jeff Lacy	World Super Middleweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) March 4, 2006 - November 27, 2006	vacant Alejandro Berrio
Steve Collins	World super middleweight boxing champion ( WBO ) November 11, 1997 - September 26, 2008	vacant Denis Inkin
Mikkel Kessler	World Super Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) November 3, 2007 - September 2008	vacant Mikkel Kessler
Mikkel Kessler	World Super Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) November 3, 2007 - June 28, 2008	vacant Carl Froch