By Brian Doogan

In the kitchen of her son’s secluded but modest home on the edge of Blackwood, formerly a mining town in the heart of the Welsh valleys, Jackie Calzaghe’s joy was, uniquely, that of a mother. “He’s safe and he’s home,” she said, smiling, as she embraced and kissed the still-handsome face of her champion fighter, unmarked save for a red splotch of dried blood above the bridge of his nose.

For this softhearted, yet innately strong woman who has watched not one of her son’s 110 amateur and 44 professional bouts until having been reassured of his wellbeing first, this was all that mattered. John Ford, the director who filmed his 1941 classic How Green Was My Valley in nearby Cwm Rhondda, telling the story of a close, hard-working Welsh coal-mining family, could have made cinematic magic out of this and surrounding scenes.

Little Joe and Connor, world super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe’s two sons, were being photographed holding their father’s RING, WBO, WBC, and WBA title belts, both of them wearing smiles that could have lit up the valleys. Their great uncle Manlio, a big-hearted Sardinian whose passion is football (he was once president of the Italian club, Torres), took pictures with a digital camera while Alba, his wife, perched on the arm of a sofa in the adjoining living room, watched some action from the fifth round of the previous night’s fight between her nephew and Mikkel Kessler on the TV in the corner. Jo-Emma, Calzaghe’s girlfriend, was on the telephone, arranging for Sunday lunch for all the family when Calzaghe’s uncle Uccio walked through the back door with his son’s, Sergio and Andre, whose voices were hoarse from all the shouting they had done at ringside. Enzo Calzaghe, father, trainer, his son’s best friend, was happiest of all, alternatively playing with his grandchildren, talking football with Manlio, or looking over toward the oldest of his three children, his only son, who stood by the kettle, enquiring above the gleeful din, “Coffee anyone?”

The only people in his house, 12 hours after the greatest win of his career, were family, and it was the same at the local pub down the road, where locals received welcoming smiles and autographs when they dared to interrupt the small, celebratory lunch (washed down by pints of Guinness stout and Carlsberg beers, not a glass of champagne in sight). Yes, Ford would have loved these scenes. For they emphasized the essence of Wales’ greatest sporting hero, a family man disdainful of the corrosive art of celebrity. When Prince Charles presented him with a gold Lonsdale belt from the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame in recognition of a lifetime of achievement three days later at Cardiff Castle, he spoke proudly of this “great honor,” then returned home and fell asleep into late evening, almost oblivious to the widespread acclaim that had greeted his victory on points over “The Viking Warrior.”

Sir Henry Cooper, British boxing’s first knight, suggested that a knighthood might be in order for Calzaghe. Frank Warren, his promoter, hoped that it could be done before Calzaghe turned 100 years old, cheerfully pointing out that “Sir Galahad was a knight when he was a young man.” Warren also announced that, by popular demand and with a little parliamentary lobbying, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) would rebroadcast Calzaghe’s bout with Kessler in full on the following Saturday, and Jeff Powell and Des Kelly, two of Britain’s leading sports columnists, called for Calzaghe to be recognized as the Sports Personality of the Year, which is determined by a vote of BBC TV viewers.

“History, not overnight popularity, should be the judge of true greatness,” wrote Kelly. “For a decade of success, I’m hoping justice is done and Joe Calzaghe is elected Sports Personality of the Year.”

“All this and Sir Joe,” Powell concluded. “America, eat your fighting heart out.”

America, of course, was preparing to send one of its own great knights to do battle with “the Englishman” (Welsh, actually, and furthermore half-Italian). Bernard Hopkins, whose knowledge of ring geometry compensates heavily for his lack thereof in geography, was called out, by Calzaghe and Warren, in the early hours of the Cardiff morning, while close to 50,000 loyal supporters (estimates on the size of the Danish contingent ranged from 5,000 to 10,000) made their way from the magnificent Millennium Stadium. It is a showdown that has been brewing for years.

“Frank and Jay Larkin (formerly senior vice president of Showtime and now the United States-based representative of Warren’s Sports Network company) know the details better than I do because they were in on the conference call (which was chaired by Larkin in Showtime’s New York offices), but Hopkins agreed to fight me in 2002, then backed out of it, asking for double the agreed amount of money, and I just hope that he doesn’t run away again,” said Calzaghe. “What else is there for me to do at super middleweight? I’ll be totally different as a light heavyweight, and you’ll see some serious destruction. I’ve shown what I’m all about. I want to fight the big fights, so, come on, Hopkins, let’s do it.”

Four days after “The Executioner” watched Calzaghe overcome Kessler from his Delaware home, he was in New York, banging the drum.

“I would love to follow in the historic footsteps of Joe Louis, who fought in Yankee Stadium, and the great Sugar Ray Robinson, who fell just short of making history at light heavyweight (retiring on his stool at the end of the 13th round against champion Joey Maxim in 1952),” Hopkins said inside B.B. King’s Blues Club and Grill at Times Square. “Out of all the profound things I have accomplished in my life and career, this would be a super duper testimony to the legacy I will leave behind. I will be 43 years old and to be able to fight an Englishman who’s dominated his division for many years, has an undefeated record, and just happens to be a southpaw, which I love, I think it says a lot. It’s risky all around the board, for both of us. Joe Calzaghe understands that’s respected here [in America], known here, but he’s not well known and there is a difference. Coming to America, this is where you make it, and he hasn’t made it yet because he hasn’t come here to fight yet. Once he comes here, he will become well known and not just known. So it’s up to him to pack his bags and come to the legend that I’m known as, come on my soil and get out of his backyard that he’s been all his career. Then we can get it on.”

Calzaghe, in fact, has boxed overseas as many times as Hopkins has (twice) and he can draw 50,150 people to his Cardiff backyard, unlike Hopkins in any arena, but the Welshman has begun to understand recently, probably in the light of Ricky Hatton’s successful forays onto American soil, that a big fight in the United States would be good for his legacy and for his bank balance. Having earned $5-million for beating Kessler, he could make at least twice that for meeting Hopkins, who declared that a 60-40 purse split in his favor was what he was looking for, “but we can talk.”
Oscar De La Hoya, the president of Golden Boy Promotions, revealed that, as of the first week in November, the talking was already happening.

“We’re now discussing with Frank Warren to make that fight because that’s the fight to be made here in the United States,” De La Hoya insisted. “Joe Calzaghe looked outstanding against Kessler, but one thing he needs, if he wants to solidify his status, is a fight against a guy like Bernard Hopkins. They both want this to happen, so it’s a matter of sitting down with Frank Warren, working out the details, and making it happen.

“I’ve got a clear understanding of what Calzaghe will face because I stepped in the ring with Hopkins (in 2004, getting stopped with a bodyshot in the ninth round), and Bernard will figure out any way to beat you. I don’t care who you are, he will figure it out and he will beat you. Having said this, Calzaghe impressed me on Saturday, but Bernard Hopkins keeps on impressing me and he has the edge not only because of experience, but because he takes care of himself. He’s a young 43 years old, still going strong, and Yankee Stadium some time in the early part of next year is very realistic for this fight. We know that Calzaghe has a tremendous following, and Yankee Stadium would be a tremendous event, both for New York, for the British people who would come here, and for boxing. It’s a matter of just talking to everyone. Right now we are in discussions with Frank Warren about making the fight happen, then we’ll move on to the other logistics.”

De La Hoya and the New York fight crowd were rubbing their hands with glee at this prospect, largely because of the manner in which Calzaghe had beaten Kessler, the 28-year-old Dane whom many observers identified as the future of the super middleweight division. He may well be still, but Calzaghe demonstrated, stunningly, that it will only happen when he is gone because, simply and unmistakably, he is the most accomplished boxer ever to grace the 168-pound ranks and one of the finest exponents in the history of British boxing.

Cooper, who decked Muhammad Ali at Wembley in 1963, drew over 40,000 people to Highbury three years later in a heavyweight title fight that Ali won in the sixth round, placed Calzaghe in the top three in a story for the London Daily Telegraph, behind only Ted “Kid” Lewis and Jimmy Wilde. Ken Buchanan, Jack “Kid” Berg, Ricky Hatton, Barry McGuigan, Randy Turpin, Lennox Lewis, and Howard Winstone fell in behind. Inexplicably, John Conteh, who knew a thing or two about fighting the world’s best light heavyweights and might have relished his own date with The Executioner, was not on the list. Calzaghe’s right to be in the top three, and his inclusion among the best fighters pound-for-pound in the world is unchallengeable.

The Viking Warrior came to the Cardiff ring with a professional record of 39-0 (29) and was recognized widely as the second-best super middleweight in the world. But what elevated Kessler was the way in which he had handled his opponents, demonstrating quality technique, prodigious power, and enviable self-belief. Calzaghe had to be at his exceptional best to beat him and he was.

Despite backing up Kessler with snappy right jabs out of his southpaw stance and a light left, which glanced off Kessler’s head in the opening round, the Welshman’s command of the ring would be disputed fiercely by the Dane. He got his left jab working and punished Calzaghe with a right and left to the head as the first round wore on, and before it was over, the Dane’s jab had quickly become a worrying weapon.

Surprisingly, for a man so experienced, Calzaghe dropped his hands in the second round and paid the price when he was nailed by a hard left jab to the face and a followup right to the chin. He fought back ferociously in the third, but in round four he felt the full force of Kessler’s strength, which was unleashed in the form of three savage right uppercuts and a right cross that appeared to exact a considerable toll. Calzaghe’s work rate dropped. Kessler was in control. When the bell sounded, the Millennium Stadium crowd, a record for a fight indoors in Europe, was almost hushed.

It was then that Calzaghe showed his genius against his younger, slightly bigger, and more powerful foe, finding a way to win, as all great fighters do. He started to see Kessler’s shots coming with his built-in radar and before long was slipping them, even the uppercuts, the most damaging punches in the Dane’s arsenal. Utilizing his skills, Calzaghe bossed Kessler with his sharp right jab and landed several straight lefts. He carried his momentum through the sixth and seventh rounds into the eighth, when he evaded most of Kessler’s early battery of blows, then stopped him in his tracks with a left hand into the pit of his stomach. A lightning combination of hooks ensued and Calzaghe would have put Kessler on the canvas had referee Mike Ortega not taken the most inopportune moment to halt proceedings momentarily to warn the champion for hitting Kessler on the back of the head.

Calzaghe’s range of movement now and the distance at which he engaged was perfect, and Kessler had no answer. Was he being too submissive? Perhaps, but he was doing all that Calzaghe allowed him to do, for this is the way that all confrontations are decided.
Kessler’s resistance began to wane and a bruise came up by the corner of his left eye. If there was a single, overriding key to the victory that Calzaghe achieved, it was his diamond-hard nerve and astonishing resolve, more so even than his jab and cast-iron chin, which is among the best in boxing. He boxed brilliantly in the penultimate round, hurting Kessler once more with a left to the body, then traded with the Dane in a frantic final round, emerging victorious at the bell by virtue of his great will, surviving another right uppercut and a hard right cross before it was over.

The two men embraced in the center of the ring at the end of a superb fight of the highest class and, as the crowd dispersed into the Cardiff night, they did so with renewed respect for both men, and Calzaghe and Kessler had renewed respect for one another. The judges’ decision was unanimous, Raul Caiz (U.S.) scoring 117-111, while both John Stewart (U.S.) and Massimo Barrovecchio (Italy) saw it 116-112, as did The Ring.

“I had plans for this fight, but he just crushed my dreams,” Kessler acknowledged ruefully. “I landed some clean shots in the fourth and fifth rounds, and I feel that when I put him under pressure, my window came. But when I tried to get my combinations going, Joe got away. His power was not really, really hard, but when he hits you 20 times in the head, it confuses you!”

For people who had been confused about Calzaghe, 44-0 (32), for years, this Cardiff night offered up powerful testimony about who he is and what he stands for. So did those illuminating scenes at his home in Blackwood on the following Sunday afternoon when an interloper had just to look into his hazel eyes to realize how green was his valley. Hopkins, who determined long ago that he would not come here, is a wise man.