Joe Calzaghe fought the very best of his generation across two weight divisions and has now named the man who gave him his hardest night.
Calzaghe is one of Britain’s greatest boxers and went undefeated across his entire professional career, finishing with a perfect record of 46 wins and 0 losses. A southpaw with exceptional speed and tactical intelligence, he dominated the super-middleweight division for over a decade.
‘The Pride of Wales’ won the WBO super-middleweight title in 1997 and defended it a record 21 times, then later unified the WBA, WBC, IBF titles while defeating elite opponents like Chris Eubank and Jeff Lacey before moving up to light heavyweight.
At 175lbs he also overcame Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr in his last two contests before eventually retiring in 2009, but neither of them came to mind when naming his best opponent.
Speaking to The Ring Magazine, Calzaghe picked a famous super middleweight Danish warrior as his most formidable opponent – Mikkel Kessler
“Mikkel Kessler [was the best I faced]. I would say when I beat him, he was at his peak, 39-0. I think I was a bit older than him. It was my last fight at Super Middleweight. Massive pressure at the Millennium Stadium, 50,000, he held three belts. The Mikkel Kessler I beat was the best Mikkel Kessler. Kessler just edges it between him and Bernard Hopkins.”
Kessler held multiple super-middleweight world championships, including the WBA belt three times between 2004 and 2013, and the WBC title twice between 2006 and 2010. He retired in 2013 with a record of 46 wins from 49 fights, losing only to Calzaghe, Andre Ward and Carl Froch.
