Joe Calzaghe
Joe Calzaghe was born on the 23rd March 1972 at the Hammersmith Hospital, London. Joe's family moved to Newbridge, Wales when he was two years old, Wales being the homeland of his mother. Encouraged by his father Enzo Joe took up boxing at the age of nine and won the British Schoolboy Championship, he went on to fight 120 amateur fights winning 4 schoolboy ABA titles and three consecutive Senior ABA titles in 1991, 1992 and 1993 Joe turned professional in 1993, and won the British super-middleweight title in his 14th professional fight and made nine defences before challenging the battle-hardened Eubank for the WBO Super Middleweight crown. Joe served notice of his punching power by flooring Eubank in the opening round and went on to take a bruising encounter on points.
But a series of uninspiring defences followed, leading some to believe the great Welsh hope was nothing of the sort. It transpired Calzaghe had been hampered by an injury to his left hand and he returned to form with an impressive fifth-round knock-out of Omar Sheika in August 2000.
There followed striking wins over former WBC champion Richie Woodhall (TKO 10), undefeated German Mario Velt (TKO 1) and America's Will McIntyre, before a humdinger of a fight against the dangerous Charles Brewer. The dramatic bout at the Cardiff International Arena was shown State-side, and a convincing win on points confirmed Calzaghe's reputation as one of the world's best 168Ibs fighters.