It is 12 years since the Welshman defeated Hopkins
Twelve years ago on Sunday, Welshman Joe Calzaghe etched himself into boxing folklore on a raucous night in Las Vegas by defeating American legend Bernard Hopkins to land a world title in a second weight division. It made him the only British boxer to claim The Ring magazine belt in two divisions.
Calzaghe, 44-0 at that stage in his career, was already vastly accomplished when the fight with Hopkins was made by chance in the media room at the MGM Grand Resort in Las Vegas four months earlier. As the pair confronted each other face to face, with the American crowing in front of a media mob gathered around them, Hopkins said he would “never lose to a white boy”. It was three nights from Ricky Hatton’s challenge against Floyd Mayweather Jnr, in December 2007.
Speaking exclusively to Telegraph Sport from his home in South Wales, Calzaghe says: “At the time I’d won everything, I’d beaten Mikkel Kessler in Cardiff, and I remember speaking to [promoter] Frank Warren and telling him I wanted to go to the United States. I bought my own ticket to Ricky’s fight with Floyd, and just went to the media room to catch up with yourself and a few others.” But the chance meeting with Hopkins was to gilt-edge the end of Calzaghe’s stellar resume.
Indeed, three days after the altercation with Hopkins, Calzaghe was awarded BBC Sports Personality of the Year, beamed live in the arena from Las Vegas, the night after Hatton had lost to Mayweather. “It was a special weekend. I had beaten Kessler [at the Millennium Stadium] and got Sports Personality of the Year, Ricky got third in SPOTY and my dad got Trainer of the Year. If I hadn’t gone to America, maybe the fight would never have happened. And maybe my career would’ve been completely different. Weird how things turn out …
“This is before social media, so to get the fight made in that moment was remarkable. I came back and told Frank it was made. My whole reason was to go see Ricky’s fight in Vegas, but Hopkins making a beeline for me, changed my life. ‘I’ll never lose to a white boy’ – he shouldn’t have said that,” Calzaghe laughs.
Indeed, six months after defeating Hopkins, Calzaghe beat another American great in Roy Jones Jnr at Madison Square Garden, and departed the sport undefeated in 46 contests, to be acclaimed, rightly, as one of the best boxers produced in this country. For Calzaghe, there was nothing more to prove, and his journey in the ring was complete.
Calzaghe says he “would never have been content without fighting those two great fighters in the Mecca of fight nights in Las Vegas and at Madison Square Garden” but could no longer go on “with the fear of losing my undefeated record”.
That fight with Hopkins remains a contest Calzaghe takes no pleasure in revisiting. “It’s a fight I hate to watch. I’m pretty critical of it. It was filled with frustration, but looking back, I can see it was a good win. He was still a top fighter, but I was disappointed that I rushed it. He fought the perfect game plan to make me look bad. He was awkward, he didn’t come forward, and I remember going back in the corner for the first half of the fight and feeling that I was chasing him and getting tied up on the inside. But round six or seven I started to get to him, as his work rate dropped.”
Calzaghe claims now that he knew the fight was won when they faced off. The 48-year-old says: “Hopkins was all about psychology, as well as his skills. He played mind games at the press conference. I’ll always remember at the weigh-in he came up to me and told me he was the prison champion of the USA, which he had been when he was locked up for five years. He was trying to intimidate me, but I looked at him, smiled and said, ‘What the f— does that mean to me?’
“When he saw I couldn’t be [intimidated] he walked away with his team and that was that. On fight night he didn’t wear his little executioner hat. He knew he couldn’t intimidate me. Fights start before the bell. The eyes don’t lie.
“I’ve bumped into Hopkins since then. I think it was an Amir Khan fight. We were sat together and we were speaking. He had the utmost respect and we had a good conversation. He asked for a rematch. As soon as I said 60/40 split, he had a little laugh and said we could negotiate. He said some nice things, complimentary. It’s nice to know I have respect from him and I’ve got massive respect for him and all he achieved afterwards.”
Calzaghe has been holed up in his remote home in Blackwood, South Wales, during the lockdown. He does little these days, and is a home body anyway. He lost his father Enzo in September 2018 and it broke his heart.
Then he lost his mother, Jacqueline, just a few weeks ago. “I know it’s really bad what’s going on with the pandemic, but you either sink or swim. I really miss my dad, and I lost my mum earlier this year. She had a bad heart. She went into hospital, this was two days after her birthday, seemed to be recovering and all of a sudden she got pneumonia in the hospital. She went down so quick. I’m not sure if it was coronavirus, but it could have been. But she was heartbroken when my dad died and never felt the same about life. They were inseparable.”
It is going to be tough, he admits for fighters locked down during the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s a tough time, especially at the lower end of the sport, because you need to fight to pay the bills. I know what it was like to be young and not have a pot to p— in, now I’m grateful for everything.”
Calzaghe declares himself a fan of Tyson Fury, not so much for rival super-middleweight Carl Froch, who continues to call him out, in spite of the fact they are 42 and 48 respectively, and both retired. “Froch was a strong fighter, but I think styles make fights and he’s made for my style, really. I have a lot of respect for Tyson Fury. The way he’s come back, he’s an inspiration to everybody really.
“A lot of people suffer in silence. Depression is a big deal and everyone can have it, even if we don’t want to admit it. He’s a role model. I hope it stays that way. Boxing was his saviour, and boxing was my saviour. I miss the boxing world. I want to get back in. Training or managing, I’m not sure.”
Calzaghe was never one to boast of his boxing accomplishments, but the super-middleweight and light-heavyweight champion, out of the southpaw stance, was as obdurate as he was skilled, and a consistent winner with an ironclad jaw. He had a willingness to take the fight to his opponents and was driven on by a fanatical father, with whom the boxer shared an unshakeable bond of love and ambition.
There will only ever be one Joe Calzaghe. A world champion for 11 years, he was irreplaceable. Unique, even.