Exclusive Interview: Joe Calzaghe

Just briefly removed from a career best victory over Mikkel Kessler, WBO/WBA/WBC Super Middleweight Champion Joe Calzaghe talked exclusively to SaddoBoxing. SaddoBoxing: Congratulations on your latest win, how are you feeling now champ? Joe Calzaghe: “Awesome, it was a big fight you know, at this stage

Click for larger image © Jane Warburton Saddo Boxing

of my career being 10 years as champion and never getting that career defining fight, never getting the motivation, and then obviously the Lacy fight happened and I thought that it was my defining moment but this surpassed that.

“Obviously I held all four major belts now, I’m the ring champion, and there were over 50,000 in attendance and beaten an excellent fighter like Kessler who I have no doubt will definitely be world champion again one day.

SB: You mentioned about being the Ring champion now, and holding all four major belts at some point, is there any belt that’s more special to you now, or do they all have their own value?

JC: “They are all special in their own way you know? At the end of the day, the WBO belt is obviously considered by a lot of people to be the least prestigious, but that’s been the belt I have held for 10 years, the one I beat Chris Eubank for, The IBF I won against Lacy and the WBC and WBA are considered to be the most prestigious and it was nice to complete the collection. The Ring championship belt, being the first fighter [at super middleweight]to win it; in their own way they are all special.”

SB: You have always said Eubank was your toughest fights, the first time you went 12 rounds, but this one certainly looked to be one of your closest fights when you weren’t fighting injured, where does this fight rank in terms of toughness of the fight and fighter?

JC: “The Eubank fight was the toughest fight I ever fought, but he wasn’t the toughest fighter. I was still a kid when I fought Eubank; it was my first 12 round fights. Obviously now I’m at my peak and with my experience and power, I would have to say Kessler is probably the best fighter I have actually boxed.

“He is a complete fighter. I had to be on my guard over the 12 rounds to be able to beat him, especially after six rounds; I think the fight was pretty close after the first six rounds, but I believe I won probably five of the last six rounds, I put the down to experience you know? To win the last five of six rounds off a great fighter like Kessler…”

SB: During the fight there looked like there were a few shaky when he caught you with some great shots, were you at any point concerned that your unbeaten record was under serious threat?

JC: “You never think that you know? You’re a champion in the ring, you can never think that. He stunned me a few times in the fourth, he hit me with a wicked uppercut and a couple of straight rights, momentarily stunned me, I was never badly hurt but obviously he stunned me, but at the end of the day he was a lot more hurt than me when I caught him with a body shot.

“He was very hurt, I punched him right in the solar plexus and he really winced, he was grabbing on for dear life and obviously I was trying to punch to get him off me but the referee stepped in and give me a warning that give Kessler 20 seconds to recover, but that was the big moment in the fight.”

SB: During all the build up to the fight, Kessler spoke a lot about how he had found weaknesses in your style, and how he was going to show them on the night. Your dad countered by saying a lot of other fighters have thought that but you are able to change your style at anytime in a fight that causes them all to become confused. Kessler did seem to have some success early on with the uppercuts, but as the fight went on he wasn’t able to use them anymore, did you have to change your style to fix that?

JC: “I’m always very adaptable, it’s one thing I did say before the fight, that I can switch it up during the fight you know? I can change my style, I can box, I can fight, and I can do anything. Obviously now it’s just natural for me just to adapt, you know?

“He had a good round in the fourth which I think was his only clear won round, but I went back to my corner and decided to give it back to him. I turned my jab into the best punch of the fight, and he’s sharp, he had a good jab so for me to nullify his work with my jab on the night my jab was sharp, there wasn’t tremendous power in it but I was picking up the points and it was setting everything up for me to throw combinations and things.

“It was excellent, obviously I was a bit daft [laughs] he caught me with some good shots in the fourth so I had to do something. To be honest, he was sharper than what I thought he was, and he had a lot more in his arsenal, you know? I was ducking and weaving, concentrating on getting out of the way of his straight right hand but fair play he caught me with some beautiful uppercuts, but that’s the way it is.”

“You don’t expect to fight a guy with the quality of Kessler and not get hit and hurt. I knew it was going to be a difficult fight, I trained 12 hard weeks twice a day almost every day, even three times a day sometimes, and believe me I was hungry and really motivated for this fight, it’s the one thing Kessler got wrong he thought he was the hungriest fighter but there is no way he was hungrier than me.

“Although I’m 35 and have been the champion for 10 years, all the big fights, the unification fights have eluded me and I wanted this win desperately. Lacy was a career defining fight and this was also a career defining fight, and if I had lost to Kessler a lot of the critics would of said I told you so, he wasn’t this or he wasn’t that, beating Kessler was important to me, it meant so much to me, and now to be honest I feel like I can achieve everything I can possibly achieve, he was the icing on the cake.

“Being champion of all these years and beating and excellent fighter in Mikkel Kessler, as far as the super middleweight division there is nothing else for me to achieve, absolutely zero for me to achieve.

“I have beaten all the best guys at super middle, I have won all the four major belts, I’m the ring champion, what else can I do? What would be the point of me fighting a mandatory I couldn’t get up for? I need to fight the biggest names now.”

SB: You said in your book that you hated training, but when you’re going up against a real threat, a fighter who could beat you, then you enjoy the training and the hard work you go through to get prepared for those fights…

JC: “That’s what I get up for, when you have boxed for 25 years you need to be psyched to fight, I need the pressure on me to be able to perform, simple as that, and with Kessler I said that.

“People see the Bika fight and they say this and that, but those are the fights I can’t get up for, I’m not concentrating, I’m just in third gear, you know when you have been boxing for so long it’s difficult to be psyched to fight, you need that little bit of fear of losing to realise if you don’t perform your going to lose, and I need that to be bale to perform, as people seen that on the weekend, I brought my self to another level again.”

SB: From where I was sitting it seemed that as the fight went on and Kessler had landed many great shots, which seemed to have little effect on you, it looked as though he started to become some what disheartened and disillusioned; was there a time where you could see or sense that?

JC: “Yeah, that’s right, like I said I have a great chin. you know I went down against Kabary Salem and that was down to carelessness and not concentrating rather than being hurt.

“I have always had a great chin, he [Kessler] caught me with his best shots, but as the fight went on, he was having less success. After four or five rounds he was starting to get frustrated, he was losing the rounds and I was outboxing him and he was throwing his combinations but I was slick, I was moving and I was too slick for him you know?

“He was getting disheartened and as the rounds went on, gradually he became more cumbersome and slow and he was aiming to just land his bombs, but like I said, he landed some bombs early on but I feel after the six rounds he didn’t have an opportunity really to land the bombs because I was using my speed and jab, throwing fast in and out combinations.

“While he was unleashing, I was getting caught with the odd one or two but and the end of the day, he was missing more than he was landing. He is a great fighter, but I think fighters know when they are losing and after 10 rounds, he became a bit dejected.

“I have full respect to the guy, you know, he had no excuses after the fight. He wasn’t somebody like Jeff Lacy, who I beat the living shit out of for 12 rounds and became totally disillusioned and even called for a rematch which was quit amusing [laughs] he had a hundred excuses as to why he lost rather than admitting he got beaten by a better guy, you know?

“With Kessler, he fought an excellent fight, very competitive and acted like a champion. I got no doubt in my mind that Kessler will come back again, like I said, you know, his time will come, he’s 28. I think in the future people will see how big this win really was for me. He is the best other super middleweight in the world and I think he will become a world champion again without a doubt. After I decide to move up [laughs]”

SB: You know I had the pleasure of being up your gym the Saturday before the fight, and was around you during the press conference and the weigh-ins. You always come across as a very quiet, somewhat timid guy, but in the ring you become a completely different person, in the fighter’s face, dropping your hands and putting on a show more now. Is that your way of venting the frustration of all the years of not getting the big fights until now and the bullying you went through in school?

JC: “I’m a showman, you know? At the end of the day, that’s who I am as a fighter. Outside of the ring, I’m shy and everything but when I’m in the ring that’s me. There is times when I like to entertain, it’s what comes natural to me. People say to me ‘why the hell did you go toe-to-toe in the last round? What were doing, why didn’t you just move and box?

“I had won the fight, I didn’t have to go toe-to-toe but that’s who I am, when I’m in the ring I like to entertain, when I dropped me hands I could hear the screams, ‘put your hands up, put your hands up’, but that’s what makes it exciting.”

SB: You have silenced just about every doubter or critic out there by showing you really do want the big fights, that your not scared to mix it up during the big fights. Critics again have praised you, people on our forums who have doubted you, have now admittedly taken their hats off to you. With everybody now calling for Calzaghe vs. Hopkins, is it now Hopkins alone for you? He is the one you only want, the big fight in America, the one to finish your career by beating?

JC: “Basically its money, that’s what it’s all about. Legacy-wise, as a super middleweight undisputed champion there is nothing else I could have possibly done. Everybody sort of talks about Hopkins being a legend; look at it, who has he beaten? He’s beaten small guys.”

SB: So you’re saying it’s time for Hopkins to fight a true champion at a weight?

JC: “Yeah. Hopkins is one of the biggest fighters at light heavyweight. Unfortunately for me, there are not many big names at my weight, there aren’t many at light heavyweight and Hopkins is a big name, fair enough.

“He is saying he’s a legend and at the end of the day, he needs me as well ,you know? If he wants to become a legend, he needs to beat somebody as big as him and who’s a hungry fighter. He’s beaten Winky Wright, who’s a small guy; he’s beaten Trinidad, who’s a small guy moving up, he beat De La Hoya, who was a small guy moving up.

“The only guy he beat who was a big guy was Tarver, and Tarver was overrated! The big guys he [Hopkins] fought, he lost three fights, he lost twice to Jermain Taylor, so obviously he is a big fighter, but the guy needs me as well.

“The way he is talking and saying he is a legend and that he’s this and that, he’s not as big a legend as he thinks he is, I just hope he’s got the ball to fight me, because at the end of the day when we fight, I’ll knock him out.”

SB: You said this fight is just about money, but you have said a lot of times about how you have been kept waiting, how in 2002 he priced himself out of a fight, and had you fought and beaten him then, you would have the respect you have now, five years ago. So, is it only about money or is there something personal in this fight for you too?

JC: “I believe Mikkel Kessler is a better fighter than Bernard Hopkins, definitely, 43 years old ,but at the end of the day he’s a big name. I want to fight for 12 more months and make as much money as possible, I’ll fight the so called legend or if its Roy Jones or Taylor, whoever, just go to America and make a lot of money.

“Like I said, legacy-wise, there is nothing I can possibly do, there is nobody who could beat me, nobody in the super middleweight division I could beat to better or achieve; Kessler was the ultimate.”

“Lacy was the guy two years ago. I done the job on Lacy and everybody says a lot about my performance, but that Lacy was overrated. Nobody can say that about Kessler, so Kessler was needed.

“I was screaming for the Kessler fight, I really wanted the fight because I wanted to prove it, it wasn’t necessarily the money thing, but to prove, for legacy as a super middleweight, that there are no doubters left, I banished all the doubters now.

“I’m the undisputed champion now, but 35 and just want 12 more months, so I need something new that’s going to excite me and that’s becoming a two weight world champion, whether it’s fighting Clinton Woods, Hopkins or Chad Dawson.”

SB: There have been a few father/son combinations in boxing; Shane Mosley and his dad, Roy Jones and his dad, and a few others. You and your dad have been as successful performance-wise as any, and your dad was rumoured to have started out reading boxing manuals on how to train, and has become by far the best trainer in the UK right now and one of the best and hottest in the world, full stop. How important has it been for you, not to just have his skills and wisdom, but to have your own father going through this all with you?

JC: “Yeah, for a start though, dad never actually read boxing manuals, he doesn’t even read, I don’t think he can read! [laughs] That’s a joke! Yeah, how dad got into boxing, what happened was my granddad boxed as a kid, and he taught my dad to box. So my dad did do some boxing, but never actually went to a gym, he would sort of go into the street and have scuffles, and he would be punching hands and have sparring sessions with other kids, that’s how they used to do it in those days.

“So as a kid, I used to spar with my dad, I sparred with my dad from the age of 10, I was actually sparing with him when I was about 21, 22, 23. We used to have proper sparring sessions then; he used to actually catch me a lot more than most sparring partners would because he knew my style inside out. Most people didn’t really show him any respect because he never actually had a boxing fight, but he was boxing.

“He took me to the gym at the age of 10 and he was always my second trainer, Paul Williams was the main trainer, but dad took over when I was 17. His record is second to none, because I lost 9 fights as an amateur, but what a lot of people don’t know is I have never lost a fight with my dad in my corner!

“That must be some record, so since he has been the number 1 trainer, I have never lost, 17 years undefeated with my dad in my corner, I think it was my last 56 amateur fights, three consecutive ABA titles and still going to the present day, that’s a record people don’t seem to know, and well it’s absolutely incredible.”

SB: Your dad has been the one in your corner, will we ever seen you in your son’s corners? Have they expressed an interest to fight?

JC: “I take them to the gym, they have a punch about, they are pretty handy themselves, and it runs in the blood probably. [Laughs] I wouldn’t really encourage them or discourage them, if it was something they really wanted to do I would encourage them, but I’m not a pushy dad, I’ll let them find their own way.

“I think boxing is fantastic, teaches self defence and discipline, so I think its something they will do and that, but whether they will take it up when they are older, I don’t know, hopefully not. Boxing can be a cruel sport, I have been gifted with my talents and that, and have been lucky to be well rewarded, but it can be a cruel sport if you’re losing.”

SB: There are two other world champions in your dad’s gym as well as yourself, WBO Cruiser Champ Enzo Maccarinelli and WBA Light Welter Champ Gavin Rees. Commonwealth Light Middle champ Bradley Pryce looks well deserving of a title shot while Nathan Cleverly and Kerry Hope both came through tests on the undercard of your fight. Are there any other boxers at the gym we should be looking out for?

JC: “You said them all really, they are good prospects, and some of them came through tests again the other day which is fantastic. Really, I don’t follow boxing outside our gym [laughs] so in our gym, you mentioned them all really, all good prospects and improving.

“Enzo is improving all the time and hopefully will get the chance to unify the titles; I think he has the ability to one day be a top 10 pound for pound fighter, so it’s really exciting there. My dad is getting on a bit now and I’m coming to the end of my career; I only want 12 more months, but I’m probably going to stay in involved with boxing.

“You got a lot of youngsters in our gym and I think our gym will only get stronger, obviously, you have seen the talent we got in the gym, Gary Lockett as well and some other guys, it’s going to be the biggest and most popular gym in the country, and in Britain.

“A lot of fighters are trying to get in the gym now after seeing the success we have had, so yeah, I will probably get myself a trainer’s license and a manager’s license. I will always stay involved in boxing because it’s in my blood, I have been in it for 25 years and I love the sport so I have a lot to give back to the sport.”

SB: Finally then Joe, there are two major bouts coming up, Cotto vs. Mosley, Hatton vs. Mayweather – can we get your picks?

JC: “Yeah, I fancy Mosley to beat Cotto, he’s a speed fighter and I always tend to go with the fighter with the faster hands to beat the slower guy. I think Mosley is a little bit bigger and apparently, I read he is in awesome shape so I fancy Mosley to beat Cotto.

“I favour Mayweather slightly, but I think Hatton has a good chance, I think Hatton has a very good chance. You have to stay with Mayweather, because he is a slippery so-and-so and he’s fighting in Vegas as well, but I think Hatton has a very good chance!”

SB: Well, thanks for taking the time out to speak to SaddoBoxing again champ, is there anything you would like to add before you go?

JC: “That’s alright man; I think we have covered pretty much everything there. I would like to mention the crowd at the fight were fantastic, over 50,000 came, and they give me an extra 10% at least, helped me raise my performance, just hearing the crowd behind me. Hopefully before I retire, I can get one more bumper fight back there. I want one fight in the States next year and then one back home for a farewell party.”