Having just watched the whole fight through again a couple of times, I have a couple of thoughts.
The first 3 rounds were terrific. Excellent skill from both fighters, and a palpable sense of danger for both. It was evens up to the end of round 2, but RJJ looked to have the most potent weapon in a well timed right. As it seemded watching live though, round three was the key round. Calzaghe turned it on. Watch it again...masterful stuff. RJJ had no idea what was happening to him. Far from it being the disgrace that has been mooted in another thread, it was boxing out of the top drawer. Exhilerating, skilfull and unpredictable. There's a bloody good reason Jones went into defensive peek-a-boo mode: he didn't like being hit repeatedly about the head. When Calzaghe leaned in to lear at him, he did it so close, that RJJ would not have had the time or the range to tag him without leaving himself open. It was very, very clever stuff: tactically astute, and psychologically damaging. It was the pupil surpassing the master.
I'm not sure whether some of the people on here that suggested RJJ should have just hit clobbered Calzaghe's open chin have been in a boxing ring. If they had, they might know that there was a simple answer. RJJ couldn't just tag him, and more damagingly, he knew he couldn't.
Fight won, there and then.
I think it does RJJ a great disservice to suggest that he didn't try. He clearly tried very hard, but, as he put it himself to his corner he couldn't "get him". He's the 46th fighter to come up against that conundrum in a pro ring. There's no disgrace in that at all.
Rounds 8 to 12 were very hard to watch second time around. Watching live, there was always the chance that RJJ would catch Joe with a sucker punch....in fact he did. Howver, in the knowledge that his bravery was futile, it was tough to see a ring great being so comprehensively dismantled.
He seemed to be talking sense in the post-fight interview, so I hope he (RJJ) eshews the inevitable cash offers to fight Hopkins again, and goes the way of Ray Leonard...keeping a handsome face, and an un-scrambled mind.