Joe Calzaghe retired unbeaten after 46 fights, but one of his opponents feels he lost unfairly.
Calzaghe is the longest reigning super middleweight world champion in the sport’s history. He held the title for a decade and made more than 20 defences against the likes of Sakio Bika, Jeff Lacy, Mikkel Kessler and Chris Eubank. That said, his old foe Carl Froch believes the ‘Pride of Wales’ was lucky to get his win against Robin Reid.
In his final two fights, Calzaghe moved up to light heavyweight to beat Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr.
In a new interview with All the Smoke Fight, Hopkins explained why he thinks he lost his fight with the Welshman on the cards unfairly, having said to Calzaghe in the build up, “I would never let a white boy beat me. I would never lose to a white boy. I couldn’t go back to the projects if I let a white boy beat me.”
“Yeah [I believe I beat Calzaghe.] I think my words, my mouth, took that fight from me. They had three judges. The referee got to get the slip from each judge. Dwayne Ford gave his slip and left his chair. Very unusual to give the slip and leave the post. He left after giving his slip and that’s the one that gave Joe Calzaghe a split decision, even though I knocked him down in the first round. That statement, I believe, cost me the fight.”
Hopkins started the fight well and had Calzaghe cut and then down on the canvas in the first round. Both men were warned later by the referee, but come the final bell, it was Calzaghe and his famous work rate that saw him outland Hopkins and win a split decision on the cards with the scores reading 116-111 and 115-112 in his favour and 114-113 for Hopkins.
Cazaghe fought just once more when he beat Jones seven months later. Hopkins fought on and, in 2011, beat Jean Pascal to become boxing’s oldest ever world champion at 46 – a record he improved in when he won belts aged 48 and 49, too.
