BOXING:RICKY HATTON has hailed compatriot Joe Calzaghe as Britain's greatest boxing world champion after the unbeaten super-middleweight announced his retirement.
“With his record, with how long he’s been reigning as champion . . . I would say he’s the best British world champion we have ever had,” the world’s top-ranked light-welterweight said.
Calzaghe, who announced on Thursday he was hanging up his gloves, had an unbeaten 46-0 record over a 16-year professional career during which he held the WBO, WBA, WBC and IBF super-middleweight belts.
The 36-year-old Welshman then stepped up to light-heavyweight and won the Ring Magazine title in April 2008 when he took a split decision against American Bernard Hopkins in Las Vegas.
Calzaghe said he had nothing left to prove but family pressure also played a big part in the decision to retire at the top.
“I’ve been world champion for 11 years. I had a long think with my family. My children wanted me to give up, plus my mum. That’s why I called it a day.”
During his career’s grand swansong Calzaghe fulfilled two major ambitions by fighting and winning in Las Vegas and Madison Square Garden, and winning over the hard-to-please American critics.
Credit came late to Calzaghe. After all, he has been providing his brilliant best to boxing for 18 years, winning 46 fights, 22 of those with a recognised world title on the line.
But he has always been the most reluctant of superstars. He is happiest at his home in the tiny Welsh village of Newbridge.
That is one of the reasons why it took him so long to venture across the Atlantic, clambering off the canvas in the first round to claim the tightest of split-decision wins over Bernard Hopkins in Las Vegas in 2008.
“I came here because it has always been my dream to fight in America and to beat a great champion, and that’s what I’ve done,” said Calzaghe afterwards.
Throughout his career, Calzaghe seldom professed to care about the opinions of those who maintained he had built his record on hand-picked opponents at home, and failed to take the risks required of those who crave true greatness.
But as the years passed, Calzaghe had every right to become more than a little irked by the swiftly rewritten history which emerged every time he stepped up to the plate to prove those doubters wrong.
Fight history
Chris Eubank, Oct 1997Calzaghe announced himself on the world scene in style by dethroning long-time WBO champion Eubank.
Jeff Lacy, Mar 2006Arguably the most masterful performance by a British boxer. He won every minute of every round against the supposedly ferocious, unbeaten Lacy.
Mikkel Kessler, Nov 2007Another big test passed as the 12st titles united, figuring the dangerous Kessler out in the competitive early rounds before skating away to textbook victory.
Bernard Hopkins, Apr 2008Knocked down in the first round and a far from textbook performance, but it gave him a split decision victory and an extension of his unbeaten record.
