Joe Calzaghe has been retired for more than 15 years but has been offered a ring return against a former world champion.
The Welsh boxing legend is one of the most successful super-middleweights in history. After turning professional in 1993, he held the WBO super-middleweight title for over a decade and unified the division by adding the IBF, WBA and WBC belts on separate occasions.
He made more than 20 defences in that time, which is still a record, and became synonymous with lightning-fast hands, relentless work rate and plenty of tactical brilliance.
Calzaghe defeated top names like Chris Eubank, Jeff Lacy and Mikkel Kessler before moving up to light heavyweight to best Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. He retired undefeated in 2009 with a perfect record of 46 wins
Since then, one name has followed him around as a fight that many would like to have seen, and that is fellow former super-middleweight world champion Carl Froch.
Speaking on his own Froch on Fighting channel, ‘The Cobra’ admitted he would still be keen to share a ring with Calzaghe after all these years, having been linked to a comeback of his own against the likes of Darren Till.
“It’d be good to get a little move around with JC [Joe Calzaghe] if he fancies it, we’ll see. That’s the problem with the Till fight, it’s not big enough, he’s not done anything. He’s an ex-UFC fighter but in terms of boxing people are not ar*ed, but if JC came back in, that would be big, the nostalgia, that would be wicked.”
Although their careers briefly overlapped, these two were at different stages of their journey, which is why they never met in their peak.
Froch first became world champion in 2008 and would go on to compete in 12 straight world title fights, with his final bout coming when he knocked out George Groves at Wembley Stadium in May 2014.
‘The Cobra’ has recently teased a comeback and has been back in the ring moving around, though Calzaghe has always seemed happy in retirement.
