{"id":369695,"date":"2026-01-14T17:11:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T17:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/369695\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T17:11:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T17:11:06","slug":"joe-calzaghe-admits-there-is-one-man-he-may-not-have-beaten-in-his-prime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/369695\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Calzaghe admits there is one man he may not have beaten in his prime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Calzaghe retired with a record of 46-0, beating the likes of Bernard Hopkins<\/a> and a faded Roy Jones Jr<\/a>, but admits he may not have had the same success against a fellow Hall of Famer.<\/p>\n

The unbeaten Welsh icon became world super-middleweight champion by defeating Chris Eubank<\/a> in 1997, before making 21 defences of his WBO title.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Calzaghe unified his division with notable victories over Jeff Lacy and Mikkel Kessler, utilising his tricky southpaw style to outpoint the two previously undefeated champions.<\/p>\n

A move up to 175lbs then saw him edge a split decision against Hopkins, just under seven months before defeating Jones and, in turn, calling time on his glittering career<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But while Calzaghe never encountered any fighter, at least in the professional ranks, that got the better of him, many believe that a prime Andre Ward<\/a> would have potentially had his number.<\/p>\n

Like Calzaghe, Ward retired with an unblemished record after having made his mark on the super-middleweight and light-heavyweight divisions.<\/p>\n

Dominant victories over the likes of Kessler, Carl Froch<\/a>, Arthur Abraham and Chad Dawson cemented his legacy at 168lbs, before the American twice fought Sergey Kovalev at 175lbs.<\/p>\n

And so, because of their equally decorated careers, a fantasy fight between Ward and Calzaghe is often debated among boxing aficionados.<\/p>\n

Speaking with his hypothetical rival on the ALL THE SMOKE FIGHT<\/a> YouTube channel, Calzaghe initially attempted to make a case for himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a southpaw, I\u2019m awkward, I\u2019ve got a good chin\u2026 I\u2019m just an awkward f***ing fight, man. I give everybody a nightmare [in his prime].\u201d<\/p>\n

Ward, in response, admitted that the relentless approach of Calzaghe would have likely caused him problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have appreciated the work rate. It\u2019s hard to deal with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, Calzaghe proposed to call it a draw, which Ward seemed happy enough to shake his hand on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell you what, brother, let\u2019s just say it would be a draw.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether at 168lbs or 175lbs, a fantasy fight between Ward and Calzaghe seems virtually impossible to call.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Calzaghe retired with a record of 46-0, beating the likes of Bernard Hopkins and a faded Roy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-369695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}