MightyGloves.com

The Heart Of A Hero

posted by Kathleen Holland on January 17, 2008, in Features

By Robert Argent

Joe Calzaghe of New Bridge wales is a fighter I believe should now be honoured as the best pound for pound fighter in the world today.

Not only has he cleaned up almost the entire Super Middleweight division winning the ring magazine and the WBC,IBF,WBA, and WBO world titles, he has also remained undefeated in the professional ranks with an incredible record of 44 wins, 32 of which are Kos or stoppages.

He has held the WBO crown for 10 years.

Although some of the prince of wales opposition was questionable when he was on his way up, you cant argue with the fact he beat these men so soundly.

The first time I watched joe was on the 10th of september 2005 against Kenya's Evans Ashira.

Ok so Evans probably was not world class but a decent contender who came to Cardiff with a respectable record of 24 wins and only 1 loss, but Joe beat the guy with one hand.

That is what I call bravery and the real heart of a champ, the sort of heart we saw with champions and warriors such as Arturo "Thunder" Gatti.

For about 8 rounds Joe won every round with the one hand, his right.

He continuously flicked out a jab into Ashiras head and totally outboxed the Kenyan.

After that night I wanted to watch all of Joes fights, as to me he was incredible to watch.

So christmas 2005 arrived and what did I recieve, all of Joes fights on 10 DVDs, wow I was so happy.

I watched from start to finish every fight he has ever had in the pro ranks which started with Paul Hanlon, Joe stopped the guy in the first round, what a way to start your debut.

He has just got better as time has gone by, getting quicker which is the vice versa to fighters as they grow through their careers.

He has always showed a rock solid chin, in fact one of the best in the bisiness being floored only twice in his long career by Byron Mitchell (a great fight if only 2 rounds) and Kabary Salem.

In his early days he was a ferocious puncher winning 21 of his first 22 fights by Ko or stoppage.

I recall Joe speaking in a documentary "I have the speed of a flywieght, but the punch of a cruiserweight".

Joe was right, he is a great combination puncher and the speed was and still is dazzliing.

After watching all of Joes fights I was waiting for the big one, a fight I had my eyes on seeing since watching a young american fighter Jeff "Lefthook" Lacy.

I had seen Lacy destroy Robin Reid, at the time the IBO's holder and former WBC champion.

So Robin had not trained hard for this one if really trained at all, but Robin had never been stopped before, but Lacy dropped him 4 times.

It was a foul filled fight but exciting at the same time as both were good hard punchers especially Lacy.

I then watched him destroy former contender and veteran of the Omar Sheika wars, Scott Pemberton inside 3 one sided rounds.

Then it was mentioned.

Gary shaw on national television said "Calzaghe, we are coming for ya".

This really made me sit up and take notice that there was a big fight on the horizon.

So after about 4 months Jeff came to Manchester England ready to put his perfect 21 fight unbeaten record and IBF title on the line.

He had an awesome knockout record and had been compared to a young Mike Tyson, nut Joe destroyed the Floridian over 12 rounds, a complete shutout.

Compubox read that Joe had blasted Jeff with an incredible 1006 punches.

This took alot out of Jeff who I think will never recover from that fight.

I have never seen such a one sided fight in all my life, in fact it was so good that me and my dad watched the fight recording straight after the live fight.

Also thanks to Joe I won 40 quid in a local bookies, saying Joe would win on points.

So Joe was then the unified super middleweight champion, holding the IBF and his treasured WBO title.

He then took on 2 more fighters, Camaroons Sakio "The Scorpion" Bika, and The Contender season 1s Peter Manfredo.

Bika was a messy fight but Joe managed to grind out a unanimous decision after being cut bad by Bikas hard head.

6 months later Joe pounded Manfredo inside 3 rounds, the stoppage was questionable but Manfredo was clueless.

We were then awaiting another good challenge, as Lacy was Joes career defining fight at that time people wanted to see more.

Meanwhile in Denmark there was a new challenge awaiting the Welsh Dragon, it was also a fight I though made sense well before it was made.

That man was the 28 year old "The Viking Warrior" Mikkel Kessler, at the time of the Manfredo fight had a 38 fight unbeaten record, also holding the WBC and WBA titles and considered to be the second best super middleweight in the world.

He had retired Manny Siaca for the WBA title and 2 years later knocked out Markus Beyer inside 3 rounds with a beautiful left jab followed by a hard straight right, my favourite combination.

So the fight was made, Joe Calzaghe vs Mikkel Kessler set for November the 3rd 2007.

It was the first time I was unsure of how the fight would fold out, would Calzaghe injure his hand, would he be sharp enough.

Well unfortunatley I never saw the fight live but had just as good excitement listening to the fight on radio broadcast.

It was one of the most tense fights being as I could not see but only hear the action.

Hearing Joe get caught by Kessler in round 4 by 2 hard right uppercuts, I thought oh dear this is going to be interesting.

But as the fight went on Joe did his usual by using his lighting speed and stinging jab.

In round 8 he almost had Kessler on the canvas with a body shot which had him bending at the knees.

I believe this would have been a knockdown, but the referee halted the action to warn Joe for hitting the back of Kesslers head.

It got to the 12th round and we could hear that Kessler needed a knockout to remain unbeaten.

It was not a one sided contest, but Joes experience showed.

So Joe came out and gave his all in the final round and comfortably ahead, he did not have to come onto Kessler but Joe gives the fans what they want.

He beat the much younger man with scores of 117-111, and 112-116 twice, also bagging Mikkels WBA and WBC titles.

Joe is now the undisputed super middleweight champion of the world and I hope remains unbeaten into retirement.

He is now stepping up to light heavyweight to fight former undisputed middleweight and current Ring magazine and IBO belt holder Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins.

I will never doubt Joe again and can see Joe winning this fight comfortably and once again securing his already secure legacy.

Joe Calzaghe is a future Hall of Famer and a real ambassador and gentlemen of the sport, and is also the real champion of boxing, forever showing heart, discipline, and love to the sport.

After Joes career is over we will never forget his career and what you have done for boxing, as in my heart and many others he is and always will a hero.

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