Joe Calzaghe beat all 46 of the men he faced in the boxing ring.
He holds the record for being the longest reigning super middleweight world champion in history, having defended the WBO strap for more than a decade against 20 opponents, including Sakio Bika, Jeff Lacy, Mikkel Kessler and Chris Eubank.
Carl Froch has formerly claimed that ‘The Pride of Wales’ was lucky to get a win against Robin Reid earlier in his career, and now one of his American opponents has also called into question the result of their fight in April 2008.
Speaking to All the Smoke Fight, Bernard Hopkins believes him saying, “You’re not even in my league! 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” to Calzaghe ahead of the fight is what cost him the win.
“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 cut and put down Calzaghe in the first round of the Las Vegas fight, the Welshman’s first at light-heavyweight. The rest of the contest had plenty involvement from the referee, who warned both men at least once for fouls commited. Ultimately, Calzaghe, who outlanded Hopkins, took the split decision with the scores 116-111 and 115-112 in his favour and 114-113 for Hopkins.
