Joe Calzaghe: It's every fighter's dream to get into the Hall of Fame

Obviously next year you’re entering the Hall of Fame in upstate New York. Have you been out there before?

JC: I’ve never been there (but) it’s amazing that they’ve given me the call. To be a first ballot Hall of Famer with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya is amazing. It’s great for my family and (particularly) my Dad, I wouldn’t be here without him. As regards to boxing – since I was nine-years-old he was always there for me and supported me so it’s for him as much as for me.

Like you mention, it’s a cracking year to get in, with Trinidad and De La Hoya. It’s a glamorous line-up…

JC: It is! It’s fantastic. To have (my) name mentioned alongside those guys, what can I say? It’s every fighter’s dream and it’s humbling for me. It’s nice to be respected and given this (accolade) five years after I retired. It’s every fighter’s dream; to get into the Hall of Fame and its brilliant to be respected in the States. It re-affirms what I did at the end of my career; to go to the States. People didn’t want me to go at the end but I wanted to fight Hopkins, I wanted to go to Madison Square Garden. I think, to be appreciated by the American writers and fans, you need to go out there not just to fight, but to win (and) beat one of their top guys.

Interestingly there were three Germans on the ballot this year – Sven Ottke, Darius Michalszewski and Henry Maske. I’m sure you’re familiar with all three of them for different reasons. Obviously they’re not getting in this time – do you think they’ll get in at any point?

JC: I’m not sure. I’m not going to say anything disrespectful to fellow fighters and champions, but I’m not sure. Regarding Sven Ottke, I tried to chase the fight with him. He was IBF champion, he stayed at home and it’s debatable that he lost a few of (the fights he won). He retired undefeated but so did a lot of fighters that had a long career so I’m not sure. I’m not going to say anything negative about Sven Ottke, he was undefeated, a world champion and (I have) big respect for that. All I know is that (I) chased the fight with Sven Ottke. I was willing to go to Germany and he’s a sensible guy, he didn’t fight me and I know why he didn’t want to fight me. I’m not really worried about other fighters getting in – I just care about myself getting in (laughs). That’s what I’m happy about at the moment.

You’ve always said your hardest fight was Chris Eubank. It never got harder than that night did it?

JC: Well Eubank was the hardest because it was my first 12-round fight. I dropped him in the first round and I thought I was going to knock him out. Then I tried to smash him out with every punch – didn’t happen. I was knackered after four or five rounds. It was so hard. I remember after six or seven rounds and Eubank was strutting around the ring as he always did and it was quite surreal because I’d always been a Eubank fan. I watched his (fights with) Benn, Collins and I’m huffing and puffing on my stool knackered, because most of my fights were over in the first two rounds, and I was dragging myself through it. But that was the best blessing ever – to go through that war and prove to myself I could go to the trenches, which he mentioned at the press conference before and I didn’t understand what he meant but trust me, I understood what it meant after the fight. It was brilliant.

I’ve fought better opponents; better boxers and better fighters than Chris, but that was definitely the most draining fight of my career, without a doubt. I was really drained.

The two knocks against you are that you had some soft defences and that Roy Jones was over the hill when you fought him. What do you say to those?

JC: Roy Jones wasn’t ‘the best’ Roy Jones at that time but he was still a dangerous, dangerous opponent when I fought him. A few fights beforehand he had been knocked out but nobody had ever done what I did to Roy Jones. (I was) able to outbox him (when) at the time he was still a big name and also still a decent fighter, he wasn’t at his peak but he was still a good fighter.

Regarding soft defences, I beat six or seven world champions, former world champions who had just lost their titles. That was no choice of mine. I wanted to fight them (when they were) champions, like Robin Reid, Richie Woodhall, Charles Brewer and Byron Mitchell, for instance. They had just lost but I fought them afterwards and it was cheaper to get those fights. If anything they were more dangerous. Listen, I boxed (Tocker) Pudwill because Thomas Tate pulled out. The couple of soft defences, they were late substitutes because opponents pulled out. I can only count two or three soft defences, tops, and I made them look soft.

The thing is, you look at people who struggle to win world title fights and have life and death fights, and they think well, I was destroying that guy, why is he such a hard fight? No, I made these guys look bad. With Tocker Pudwill, Thomas Tate pulled out and it was either; I (fought Pudwill), or the show got pulled. Sometimes in boxing a fighter gets injured and pulls out so you get the best opponent you can get in. Tocker Pudwill was probably the softest touch of my career and that guy went twelve rounds with the undefeated Sven Ottke you just mentioned a few months before, and I destroyed him in two rounds, so you have to weigh that up.

I think it’s a bit unfair that people criticize and I think they forget. If they look deeper into my defences they may not (always) have been big names but there was no Super 6 back in those days. The guys that came over were dangerous and because I made some of them look easy, instead of giving me credit a lot of the time people would disrespect the fact I beat a guy in two rounds because he’s poor. Why? Why couldn’t I have been that good, that I could beat the guy that easy?

Like Mario Veit?

JC: Mario Veit was undefeated and I knocked him out. In the return I didn’t want to fight the guy. At the end of the day the UK didn’t buy the fight and I remember Frank ****** was suggesting that I should move up to light heavyweight and relinquish my title, which I did think about, but I was so happy I didn’t do that because I went on to achieve so much more after the second Mario Veit fight.

(After our first fight) Veit went and won eight in a row, he knocked out Charles Brewer who was slightly over the hill but (still) a good fighter and he got himself into the mandatory position again, so its not my fault. I had two options, fight him in Germany or give up the title I worked so hard for and move up to light heavyweight and I made the right decision; I fought in Germany. There was no coverage of the fight in the UK, but after that (I fought) Lacy, Kessler and the rest is history.

There were a lot of tough fights in there as well, such as Kessler. You were second favourite in a lot of quarters for Lacy, and Hopkins, who’s still doing it now at the age of nearly 50. Now you’re heading into the Hall Of Fame, does this accolade make it all worthwhile?

JC: Oh of course. Everything’s worthwhile. Boxing has given me a life I would never have dreamed of. It’s given my family an amazing life and since I won my first schoolboy ABA title at 13 years of age at 36 kilograms. I remember it clearly, it was the quickest stoppage of the day, I knew I would be world champion and I dedicated my life to boxing. Obviously every fighter wants to become world champion but I feel blessed that I could achieve what I achieved and was able to quit boxing on my own terms, when I wanted to quit boxing. I always made the point; I want to retire from boxing and not boxing retire me.

There’s always hindsight and of course I could have gone on for a couple of fights, everyone was saying go to 50 (Calzaghe retired undefeated with 46 wins) but I knew before the Roy Jones fight, I was cutting corners, my time was up. I was injured all the time, my kids wanted me to retire, I’d had enough and I achieved everything I wanted to achieve. I beat the best in the world. At the time (we fought), me Kessler were number one and number two, that was Kessler at his best – at 39-0 when he was the ‘peak’ Kessler. After that (I fought) Hopkins, it was a close fight, a messy fight, I won the fight, but at the end of the day the guy is a world champion today. It’s harder to fight a guy like Hopkins in the States. I’m proud of everything I achieved.