06.03.06 – By Peter Cameron, Sunday 5th March: Joe Calzaghe’s boxing masterclass on Saturday night has reinforced the idea of a current resurgence in British boxing. Where once there stood Benn, Eubank, Hamed and Lewis, now Calzaghe and Hatton are terrorizing the pound-for-pound elite. With the likes of Kevin Mitchell and Amir Khan heading up a new generation of emerging talent, the future could hardly be brighter. Heavyweights Danny Williams and Matt Skelton, whilst not as skilful as their compatriots, displayed extraordinary levels of courage and determination in their highly entertaining bloodbath last weekend. Williams is now in line for a crack at the gargantuan Nikolay Valuev for the WBA World Heavyweight Title..
There is now a strong possibility that the remaining months of 2006 will see a super-fight for both Calzaghe and Hatton. For the Welshman there is a plethora of options, with names such as Antonio Tarver and Ronald Winky Wright in the mix. There are equally exciting opponents for Hatton to face, with a match-up against Mayweather probably the biggest fight in the world right now.
At the moment the spotlight deservedly falls on Calzaghe. James Toney was right when he said the fight was a complete mismatch. Only not in the way Toney had predicted. Calzaghe’s performance ranks with the best I have witnessed in my lifetime from a British boxer. It is difficult to recall any Briton so dominating a fighter as good as Lacy. Perhaps Naseem Hamed at his peak exhumed a similar level of control, but The Prince’s opponents were rarely in the class of Lacy. To the American’s credit, neither he nor his team entered into any real trash talking before the fight (apart from that guy in the fur coat on Lacy’s ringwalk) and his camp were very honest and gracious afterwards. Lacy’s trainer, Dan Birmingham, said “Rather than dwelling on what Jeff didn’t do in the ring, I’d like to dwell on what Joe did. He was a master of distance and timing. I’ve never seen a better performance, even by an American boxer, forget about Britain.”
Calzaghe should finally now receive the recognition which has been missing throughout his career. He is also at last getting the exposure he needs, with Saturday night’s exquisite performance going out on terrestrial tv in the UK, albeit at 2 in the morning. Frank Warren’s deal with ITV is fantastic news. It gives Calzaghe and co the chance to become household names and gain similar popularity to that experienced by Benn, Eubank and the rest of the bunch in those glorious days of the early Nineties.
It is difficult in the modern era of millionaire sportsmen to sometimes care as strongly for today’s heroes as those immortals from the past. Each member of the English football team earns more in six months than the average hard-working individual will accrue in his whole life. The expensive restaurants and exclusive nightclubs are now filled with this new breed of spoilt superstar. Yet for the sport of boxing, perhaps the most demanding profession of them all, the riches and rewards are, apart from at the very top, relatively small. Danny Williams reportedly received as little as£40,000 for defeating Mike Tyson back in July 2004, a figure someone like Rio Ferdinand will earn in about three training sessions with Manchester United.
This is not to say that the footballers themselves should be criticised; it’s just that it is far easier nowadays for the man in the street to feel greater affection towards a hometown boxer than an overpaid football star. Aside from the money, the stakes are so much higher in the prize ring, with one bad night potentially ending a fighter’s career. One bad game on a Saturday afternoon football ground can quickly be forgotten by a better performance the following week. Boxing also demands a level of courage beyond the comprehension of many people and certainly not required by a footballer. I am confident Rio Ferdinand had a much better night’s sleep the night before facing Wigan than Danny Williams before he climbed into the ring with Iron Mike.
The perception amongst sports fans of footballers, the traditional sporting role models, is gradually evolving from working class heroes to over-indulged underachievers. The £100,000 a week salaries have created an insurmountable barrier between footballer and spectator. Boxing’s return to terrestrial television could not have come at a better time, with the public searching for new idols to replace the pampered ultrarich of football. It would be impossible for anyone to fail to admire not only Calzaghe’s Sugar Ray Leonard-style performance but also Lacy’s sheer willpower and determination to stay on his feet. Saturday night may have been the first time many people have ever seen Calzaghe fight and they will surely have been mesmerised by his electrifying display.
Not only is British boxing blossoming again but the fighters themselves are also finally starting to receive the profile and adulation they deserve. There is a story that Joe Calzaghe once helped an old lady as she struggled with her baggage whilst boarding a train. The lady, not recognising him, asked what he did for a living, whereupon Joe, already in possession of the WBO World Title, told her he was a boxer. “Like that Chris Eubanks, the one from the television?” was her unintentionally insulting response. On 4th March 2006 Calzaghe finally got his chance to step out of the shadows, and he took British boxing to another level in the process.
This author can be contacted at peterrcameron@hotmail.com