Mr Calzaghe Page #5

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He is making the

18th defence of his title.

Ladies and gentlemen, the

undefeated Joe Calzaghe!

Al/ right, gentlemen, the time

you have been waiting for is here.

The opportunity of a lifetime,

so remember; take advantage...

I looked in his eyes,

man, and I just knew I had him.

He looked away, he didn't

want to look at me in the eyes.

He looked stiff he looked nervous.

There was no way this guy was ever

going to come over and beat me.

Round one.

Finally,

the unification fight

C8/Zaghe /TBS CI'8V9d /788 arrived.

The Lacy camp think

Calzaghe is over the hill,

and that he's a man ready to be taken.

As Calzaghe gets hit, he

starts going into a tear up.

Rememben the left hand

is the fragile one.

He can't afford to

have that one damaged.

Lovely right uppercut.

Joe

Ca/zaghe at the moment,

but there's a long way to go.

And a little contemptuous

smile from Ca/zaghe.

He's saying to him. "Don't

worry, man. Don't worry.

"He's gonna cool down now.

Don't worry about that. "

Look at that

superb flurry of punches.

I say, there might have been nine or 10.

Round eight, the guy's looking at

us saying, "Where's the cool down?"

Dear me,

that face is just a mess.

Look at the eyes of Jeff Lacy.

He didn't beat him,

schooled him!

Fantastic!

Winding up the right

hand, striking the jab.

Hitting him with the left hook.

If it was a ballet, it

would have been Nureyev.

It, it was just magical.

I can remember not sleeping

for two days after that fight.

A man danced with another man,

like he was blessed, like

something was shining on him.

Landing punches and avoiding punches

like you've never seen before.

Joe's right foot was sort

of nailed to the canvas,

'cause he would pivot

on it, on a 90 degree

and just... And he was gone.

And Lacy was punching mid-air.

Finally, he'd painted a masterpiece

that you could see was there.

Twelve rounds of brilliance.

The Lacy fight is where he took off,

and where America went, "What

the f***? Who's this guy?"

Joe was one hand.

Forced into the fight, didn't

want the fight, truly delivers.

That was one of the greatest

performances I've ever seen live.

It ignited something in

the public and in the media.

Thanks to my dad, without

him I wouldn't be here today.

He's a great trainer, great

dad. I love him to bits.

Um, and thanks to, you know, my little

kids, Joe and Connor. I love you both.

He's just come up

to me, whispered in my ear,

"Dad, you're right!"

I was right.

With an "f-ing", of course.

"Dad, you were right. "

"I told you Joe. I told you Joe. "

And we kissed each other on the lips.

I was having injections in...

Oh, remember, that's right.

Went to Harley Street, had an operation,

and you, you parked the car, and

you forgot where you parked the car.

That's right. I walked

all over the place.

That's it, you were saying "My

f***ing hand, but my hand... "

No, it was wrapped up.

- You parked the car on the road somewhere.

- Yeah.

You couldn't find it, and I was

f***ing running around, for an hour.

- That's right.

- F***ing hour.

Saying, "My hand, my f***ing hand. "

Right, 'cause I was

coming off an anaesthetic,

I didn't know where the f*** I was.

And I just remember, "I think it's on

this street, I think it's on this street. "

That's it, looked

everywhere, do you remember?

If I had two good hands I reckon

I would, I really could have...

That's it.

Two completely

different characters.

And maybe that's why they work.

I mean physically, as well.

They are Abbott and Costello.

They are chalk and cheese.

You would not pick them out

in a room as father and son.

And they act differently as we//

That's great.

PiaceMolto, PiaceMolto.

The energy that Enzo

speaks with, and enunciates with,

and flies around a room with,

is the same energy that Joe then

explodes with when he fights.

Calzaghe's

throwing punches by the dozen.

The referee might

stop it. The ref's having a look.

He's stopped

it. He's stopped the fight.

Joe Calzaghe, that

one came from nowhere.

Father and a son.

If the son is fighting

professionally, they are a unit.

This makes a formidable team.

You see, your father

will never mislead you.

And your father is always going to tell

you every single thing that is a liability

I always knew in the corner.

He always knew if I had a bad

round, I could have six good rounds.

And one bad round, and he'd,

he'd be mouthing off and swearing.

"What's going on? What's going on?"

But he knew how to get to me.

There are lots of times

when you, you have seen his father

literally whipping him into

action, whipping him into shape.

On fight nights, I was not his dad.

Forget that.

We were divorced.

He's on the floor and

it's stopped in the very first round.

Joe Ca/zaghe in sizzling style

retains his WBO Super

Middleweight Championship.

Every time we went in the corners

for a minute, he was confident.

His eyes were with me.

Not looking round, looking

round, where, where?

He's looked to me in the eyes

and he knew that when I said,

"Throw three B's, trust me,

do things", I said. "Do it!"

And he's stopped.

Everything in two rounds.

His father; Enzo Calzaghe, has

been with him from the word go.

He's the man who shaped this magnificent

champion and Ca/zaghe remains just that.

At times, you need

a trainer who's a psychiatrist.

At times, you need a mother.

At times, you need a cheerleader.

At times, you need a conditioner.

At times, you need a boxing strategist.

And the fact that Enzo, with

really no boxing experience,

was able to create a fighter,

help create a fighter as good as

Joe, is absolutely mind-boggling

Forget the fact that he's his father,

just that he was able to do

that as a trainer was remarkable.

After beating Jeff

Lacy, after beating Sakio Bika,

Joe needed a fight of magnitude

which'd justify him as the

rightful owner of the Ring belt,

the rightful owner of

the Liheal Championship.

Mikkel Kessler by far was the

biggest, biggest name in my weight.

I was the Ring Magazine Champion,

WBO Champion, IBF Champion.

Mikkel Kessler was

obviously WBC, WBA Champion.

And he was undefeated in like, 39

fights, so everything on the line.

For both of them,

the main motivating factor was,

we want to be recognised as the best

Super Middleweight fighter in the world.

I know I can beat him,

don't hit that hard and, I can beat this guy.

Him and

my dad had got really close,

and they were like, you

know, shouting at each other.

My granddad was shouting

at his manager, you know?

All that Kind of stuff happening.

Block him out, Joe. Come

on, Joe, come on, Joe.

And that's when you

know how real it really is.

'Cause when the fight gets first announced,

it's weird, it's like two months away.

You don't really think about

it, going to school every day.

Then suddenly, the day before,

going to bed, you can't sleep

because you know tomorrow is

going to be that fight night

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