Boxrec ranks Joe Calzaghe...

He was a very naturally talented and complete fighter who was blessed with speed of hand and foot, skills, athleticism, a great engine, a really good chin, and yes real power before his hands became shot. He also had a big heart and was fiercely competitive, as in when you caught him with a good shot he instinctively wanted to make you pay for it.

A 19 y/o Calzaghe

Timestamped

''I just hope my hands get better.. keep OK.. so I can turn professional and be good at it.''

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This is the gym he trained out of until 2002. He was training out of it until like is 10th-11th defence of his world title. Trained out of it when he was winning all those amateur titles too.

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It didn't even have a proper ring in it. It was just four posts, some rope and carpeted floor. The odds were heavily stacked against him right from the start.

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If there is any fighter on the planet I'm utterly convinced was/is clean its Joe

Joe Calzaghe

"I would hate to fight a cheat and I don't believe in cheating in any sport. I'm not calling him a cheat and I don't know what was taken or what happened," Calzaghe told The People. "I have to remember to take my vitamin C every morning and I believe in a fair fight."

He says that even if his opponent, Jones or otherwise, took an illegal steroid, he would still beat them.

"In athletics, a cheat gets disqualified, but in boxing if you get your ass kicked and then he's found to be a cheat, it doesn't matter because you can't reverse the decision and you've still had your ass kicked.

''In athletics drug cheats get banned automatically for two years, and if steroids can make athletes run faster, they can surely help a boxer to hit harder and to hit for longer and this will enable them to inflict more punishment, which I think is repulsive. During our pre-fight medicals we get tested for drugs and it's never crossed my mind to take anything performance-enhancing. I don't have a big pot of pills that I dip into all hours of the day. In fact, I have a job just to remind myself to take vitamins.

''I would be angry if someone I fought took something that gave him an unfair advantage because this is a dangerous sport, it's not like running. In athletics it now seems almost part of the culture, just like cycling, and the who idea is to stay one step ahead of testing. I sat alongside Justin Gatlin, at the time the reigning Olympic 100m champion, on the BBC's Question of Sport about a year ago and spoke to him afterwards. We talked about the Jeff Lacy fight because he's from Florida as well and he seemed like a really nice guy and I was genuinely shocked and disappointed when he failed a drugs test last summer. Whenever I watch athletics or cycling now I have my suspicions. Some get caught and some don't but I like to think that fighters are clean. Boxing's a warrior sport and, to me, there have always been values that go along with that.

''It's cheating there's no other word for it.''

 

lol

 

He'd been training like a demon under his father's instruction since he was a young boy, missed out of most of his childhood and teen years, and there was a huge void in his life after he hung up in his gloves and it was immediately filled with depression so he hit the town and let his hair down after almost 30 years of grueling training and he, as you do, ended up getting sucked into the murky world of pub/bar life in the UK and he had a few sneaky toots in the toilet long after he'd retired. We've all been there