Born in Hammersmith, West London on March 23, 1972, to an Italian father and a Welsh mother, Joseph ‘Joe’ Calzaghe made his professional boxing debut at the National Stadium on October 1, 1998. On that occasion, he recorded a technical knockout over Paul Hanlon after 2:43 of the first round and so embarked on a career that would see him become a multiple world champion in two weights classes.
A southpaw, affectionately nicknamed ‘The Pride of Wales’ and ‘The Italian Dragon’, Calzaghe announed his retirement fom professional boxing on February 5, 2009, by which time he had amassed an unblemished 46-0-0 record. Indeed, following a unanimous decision over Chris Eubank, at the Sheffield Arena on October 11, 1997, to win the vacant WBO world super middleweight title, he would defend the title 21 times (a divisional record he holds jointly with Sven Ottke) and thus become the longest ever reigning world champion in the division.
In the super middleweight division, Calzaghe also became the first boxer in history to unify the WBA, WBC and WBO world titles, which he did by virtue of an unanimous decision over hitherto unbeaten WBA and WBC super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on November 8, 2011. Of course, Calzaghe had also previously won the IBF world super middleweight title, again by unanimous decision, against Jeff Lacy at the MEN Arena in Manchester on March 4, 2006. However, rather than face IBF mandatory challenger Robert Stieglitz, he chose the more lucrative option of fighting reality TV star Peter Manfredo at the Principality Stadium on April 7, 2007 and was thus forced to relinquish the IBF belt.
Later in his career, Calzaghe switched successfully to the light heavyweight division. He beat Bernard Hopkins by split decision at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on April 19, 2008 and Roy Jones Jr. by unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden, New York on November 8, 2008, to bring down the curtain on his illustriosu career.
