Mr Calzaghe Page #7

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And he must have looked

in the crowd thinking,

"I'm fighting in my country and

there's like all Brits and that. "

It was brilliant and, you know, it's like,

you know, the British fans are the best.

Welsh fans, British fans are amazing.

They don't do it anywhere

else in the world,

and British fans will travel

and come watch you fight.

I remember when getting

off the plane in Nevada, thinking,

\/Vho turned off the lights

in VVa/es when they left?"

Because everyone was in Las Vegas.

You couldn't move for dragons

and... And that's all you could hear,

was that slow...

# Super; super Joe! Supen super Joe #

# Super;

super Joe! Super; super Joe!

# Super; super Joe!

# Super Joe Ca/zaghe! #

- Ah! I know that one.

Yeah.

We peaked at the anthem.

It felt like Cardiff out there.

The amount of supporters

who went out there,

and everyone saw, it was like

that mini community going around.

- "Oh, you're from Wales?

Da-da-da-da-da. " - Yeah.

And it's.. It was a great buzz.

# Super; super Joe!

Super Joe Ca/zaghe! #

Seven thousand people

travelled oven which was extraordinary.

The fans, everywhere,

just having a great time.

Just

so many Welshmen there.

Catherine Zeta-Jones,

and Tom Jones and...

Howard Stringer, the head

of Sony, and all these...

All these crazy Welshman

A/ Pacino as we/I.

I literally just remember

shaking his hand as well...

And I was like, "This made

it absolutely, even better. "

Even though you can feel

the atmosphere, you know,

but you don't really see anything.

The moment the

world has been waiting for.

Twelve rounds of boxing

for the Linea/ Light Heavyweight

Championship of the World.

Joe...

Calzaghe!

Bernard, the Executionen..

Hopkins!

The talking

ends, the action begins.

Calzaghe against Hopkins.

Twelve three-minute rounds.

A good right hand.

Hopkins has put Calzaghe down

with the very first right.

Calzaghe down with a clashing

right hand from Hopkins.

Six, seven, eight. You okay?

He goes down in the first

to a straight right hard,

and we're sort of metres away.

You sort of hear the "thup", you go

"thup". Down he went, and we just went...

This is it. This is gonna end

how we hoped it never would.

Yeah.

The

chant is "Wa/es, Wa/es. "

Break! Break out, break out. Break out.

Bernard

Hopkins is a very clever boxer.

It was a really frustrating

fight to watch 'cause

Calzaghe couldn't get into his flow.

- Couldn't get into his flow.

- He was just smothering him.

Every chance, he was

just closing him down.

Hopkins here,

he's constantly holding.

He should be

getting warned now from the referee.

All right. Stop, stop, stop!

He's holding again.

All right, break. Break! Step back.

Joe knew already,

it's gonna be a nasty fight.

And as it was, it turned

out to be that way.

He went out to spoil

Joe's style of boxing.

The movements...

Calzaghe needs a big round.

Calzaghe is

starting to make his left hand

produce music upstairs.

I think the second and the

fifth rounds could have gone either way.

It's difficult to come to a

conclusion as to who won the fight.

COMMENTATOR 12 Better

left hand, Calzaghe.

Joe Ca/zaghe

can finish the fight,

having landed more punches than

anyone's ever landed against Hopkins

in a Com,ouBox counted fight.

Down goes Hopkins on a low b/ow.

FOX; Hopkins is

particularly annoying to me.

As a fight fan, I just

the hate defensive stuff,

and the slow down and the

grab and the clutch, and the...

I just can't stand that stuff.

And... And Joe was very anti-that.

I wonder if

Hopkins is choosing to stop

Calzaghe's flowing momentum here.

Is it an Oscar-winning performance

or did Ca/zaghe land a foul?

Hopkins stil/ grimacing.

Ca/zaghe waving to the fans suggesting

this one is now going his way.

Stop, stop. Come on, let's

go. Come on, let's go.

Hopkins is

claiming another low blow,

but Cortez didn't see it.

And the final round...

This could be a

very difficult fight to score.

American judges

tend to favour aggression fighters-

Fighters who come forward.

Break! Break, break.

There was no real consensus

of who was winning the fight.

And I can honestly say that when the

bell rang and it went to the cards

no one around me with any conviction

had an idea one way or the other who,

who was gonna get the decision.

Hopkins continues after the be/I.

And both men celebrate.

I'm okay, man.

We go to the Scorecards.

Adalaide Byrd scores it 114

to 113 for Bernard Hopkins.

Ted Gimza scores it 115

to 112 for Joe Ca/zaghe.

Chuck Giampa scores it 116-111.

To the winner by split decision,

from Newbridge, Wa/es,

Joe...

Calzaghe!

The celebrations,

the aggression has paid,

the judges have gone for

the man who forced the fight.

And Joe Calzaghe has got off the floor

in the first round to win this one.

There were a few tears down there

when the verdict was delivered.

From South Wales... Oh,

from Newbridge, South Wales!

Me and Joe, honestly, boy!

It was gone mad, mate.

It took only five seconds,

but it felt like ages, man,

like, just waiting,

like, silence and then...

"The New Ring Magazine.

- . " Oh, man, it was amazing!

That was the best, weren't

it, man? That was good.

- Still gives me goose bumps, man.

- It was good.

Me and Giuseppe.

We Kept asking him if he was gonna

retire, but he kept, you know,

"Oh, one last fight. One last fight. "

I just... I just wanted

him to retire, you know?

Yeah, after he got knocked

down as well in the first round.

Seeing him from knocking all them

people out and then, you Know,

him fighting in America and getting

knocked down in the first round again.

Just don't want to go

through that ever again, man.

It broke their heart when

they saw their father box.

- Connor, weren't he...

- It absolutely broke their heart.

And they said to him,

"Please, Dad, please not again,

"I don't want to do it. Please, Dad. "

I said, myself. I said, "Don't retire. "

I said, "Well, you can beat Rocky

Marciano's record by all means"

He said, looked at me

straight in my eyes,

"Dad, I lost the hunger. "

When I heard the words

"I lost the hunger",

that to me was...

That's it.

So...

You know, 25 years in a sport

as hard as boxing is a longtime.

And when your body's starting

to break up, which it was...

Pain, I couldn't spar. Big

massive pillows for gloves and...

You know, everything aches more and more,

and then, I think I was 36 at the time.

It was terribly important to

Joe that he was undefeated.

And I think eventually,

when you get the accumulative

problems with pain,

difficulty in training for fights.

That inevitably leads

you to the point at which,

"Am I going to be able

to get one more fight?"

One more fight too far may not

just be pain, it may be defeat.

You got the sense that he

couldn't go on much longer.

Because there was so much

pressure on him not losing.

The idea of having

one in the loss column

was actually destroying him in...

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