The 00's. Calzaghe, Hatton, Brodie and The Cat

November 3rd 2007 Joe Calzaghe and Mikkel Kessler meet for the WBO, WBC and WBA (Super) Super Middleweight titles.

I got no problem admitting it. I was one of the overwhelming majority that thought Jeff Lacy was going to run over Calzaghe. Calzaghe was a long reigning respected champion, but his career was average. He'd not fought the big names, nothing or no one punctuated his resume. Everyone he'd fought you'd expect him to beat. Lacy was something else. He was coming to the UK with the same kind of reputation that Gerald McClellan came with when he fought Nigel Benn. A wrecking ball.

As it turned out, the overwhelming majority of us were oh so wrong. Calzaghe humiliated Lacy. Tortured him round after round to the point that members of both camps were pleading with the Lacy corner to call a halt to the carnage. They didn’t. Calzaghe hit Lacy with the kitchen sink for every minute of every round in one of the most one sided fights I've ever seen.
As impressive as it was, the gloss came off pretty quickly with a laboured, ugly points win over Sakio Bika and a farce against Contender (the TV programme) Peter Manafredo. Manfredo had no business being in the ring with Calzaghe and the stoppage was one of the worst I've ever seen.

In steps Mikkel Kessler. Technically excellent orthodox boxer with good power. WBC and WBA (Super) world champion with a 39-0 record. He was the one. He was the one who was going to succeed where Lacy failed. Like a lot of people, I fancied him to beat Joe. As brilliant as Calzaghe was against Lacy, he didn’t look great against Bika, with the benefit of hindsight, who does? The farce against Manfredo didn’t exactly do anything to bolster his standing in a super fight for the Undisputed Supermiddleweight title. All things pointed to Kessler.

We should have known better.

Calzaghe turned in another masterclass. He switched effortlessly between boxer and fighter, between bull and matador. He changed tack on Kessler several times and the Dane just couldn’t compute. Whilst he never stopped trying, Kessler was mentally broken around about the 8th round of the fight, you could see him visibly wilt before you as Calzaghe took over with first technically superior boxing, then volume. Calzaghe had been spearing Kessler from the opening bell with straight left hands to the body. In the 8th round he turned the screw and attacked the midriff with hooks from either hand and had Kessler hurt. Mid salvo the referee warned Calzaghe for hitting the back of Kessler's head. I don't think Kessler was going to 'go' at that point, but the referee made sure we never found out. It was immaterial, the damage was done.

Kessler was too good for it to be Lacy all over again and remained competitive throughout. Competitive but second best in all departments. Calzaghe ran out a comfortable points winner and permanently laid to rest any lingering doubts about his credentials as a great fighter.

Kessler went on to regain the WBC and WBA portions of the Super Middleweight World title. He lost twice more before calling time on his career. Once to the brilliant Andre Ward, before losing his final fight to Carl Froch.

Calzaghe would go on to wrap up his career with victories over Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jnr in the US. He would finish with a perfect record of 46-0 and claim the Undisputed Super middleweight Championship of the World and Ring Magazine Light Heavyweight Championship.

June 4th 2005 Ricky 'The Hitman' Hatton challenges formidable Aussie Kostya Tszyu for the IBF light welterweight championship of the World.

Hatton was already a long standing 'World' champion if we count the lightly regarded WBU championship with a string of defences against decent fighters. He had a massive feverish following from the boxing and football World and regularly packed the M.E.N Arena in Manchester with fight fans and the blue half of the footballing City. Such was Hatton's appeal as 'one of us' that he could regularly travel with thousands of fans to Las Vegas to challenge boxing royalty Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao.

Hatton had proved he belonged in the top tier, or rather proved he was too good for the second with his reign as WBU champion and Tszyu was his acid test, his graduation. Some would have you believe that Tszyu was past it, ripe for the taking when Hatton got to him. True, Tszyu was 35 years old at the time. But he didn’t look past it six months previous when he was beating the ever loving piss out of Sharmba Mitchell. Tszyu was still class and Hatton was going to have to produce something special to beat him.

Hatton launched himself across the ring at Tszyu from the opening bell and pretty much stayed on his chest the whole fight, battering Tszyu's body and head with hooks and uppercuts. Jabs were not required.

The fight was tight, unrelenting. There was never a dull moment in the ring or crowd. The better more skilful work of Tszyu saw him open up an early lead which Hatton started to erode with will and attrition as the fight reached the championship rounds. Round eleven was especially brutal with Tszyu on the receiving end of a sustained beating from the rampant Hatton. It would ultimately decide the fight as a bruised and batter Tszyu failed to start the final round and Hatton declared the victor by TKO. Tszyu whilst still in the ring offered to assist Hatton with anything he needed in his career. I think he knew he was done right there and then. Tszyu would never fight again.

Hatton would go on the unify the IBF and WBA Light welterweight titles in the same year. He followed that up by winning the WBA welterweight World title. Hatton would lose his unbeaten record at the hands of all time great Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2007. A couple of wins followed the Mayweather loss before Hatton was destroyed by a peak Manny Pacquiao in two brutal rounds. Hatton would retire from boxing in 2009 before making a comeback in 2012. Hatton would lose his comeback fight by stoppage.