23) Chris Eubank Points 12: UK Fight Commentary TV -
v Chris Eubank 11 October 1997 WBO Super-Middleweight Sheffield England: [r1] … A left hand puts Eubank on the floor! … Calzaghe is working him over … in some trouble … [r2] … Right hand from Eubank … Big left from Calzaghe … super confident … [r3] … The birth of a new star … left hand … nice uppercuts … [r4] … Left hand: big shot Calzaghe … fast hands … He’s beginning to club Eubank around … A busier Eubank … [r5] … Calzaghe won’t give Eubank a second … Good left hand from Eubank … countering … Big [Calzaghe] left and a right … [r6] … The young man is the boss … Left hand and right uppercut from Eubank … straight right … What a fight … superb … Straight left hand [Calzaghe] … right hand and another left hook … [r7] … Punch for punch trade-off … Big right from Eubank … He would have taken that round … [r8] … Good body shots from Eubank … Calzaghe will not be dominated … another right hand … Calzaghe big lead … Good body shots from Eubank … Calzaghe is still winging away … [r9] … The eager Calzaghe … right hand … clubbing Eubank around … good left hand … [r10] … That has to be a knockdown … [r11] … Calzaghe: in the big money league … [r12] … Calzaghe still got that bounce in his step … Calzaghe has come of age … All the work coming from Calzaghe. UK Sky TV commentary
41) Jeff Lacy ***** Points 12: UK Fight Commentary TV - Joe Calzghe -
+ 1000 punches v Jeff Lacy 4 March 2006 Manchester England [Super-Middleweight] [r1] … Calzaghe fighting out of the southpaw stance, the taller man by a couple of inches … jab into the face of Lacy, another one … Here goes the workrate from Calzaghe … [r2] … Calzaghe outworking Lacy … Good uppercut from Calzaghe … Good jab from Lacy … Lovely right uppercut … He’s outboxing Lacy … [r3] … Can he [Calzaghe] keep this intensity? … He’s boxing fantastically well … He is giving him a boxing lesson … brilliant three minute’s boxing from Joe Calzghe … Outstanding opening from Calzaghe … Exceptional … [r4] … Calzaghe almost showboating … Calzaghe coming under pressure himself … Lacy’s cut … A load of punches from Calzaghe … and look at this! Terrific right from Calzaghe … [r5] … His face [Lacy] is a mess … They’ve got to do something to stop that … Calzaghe is giving him another boxing lesson … [r6] … Oh dear me, that face is just a mess … Rocking back the head of Lacy … A seven or eight punch flurry … clubbing right hand … [r7] … Good straight right hand lead … Looking to take him out here … [r8] … A complete shutout … Ferocious pace of the early stages … Calzaghe has bull-like strength … Head shots all scoring shots from Calzaghe … [r9] … Good boxing from Calzaghe, nice high guard … Nice uppercut … world-class boxing … Knocking the head of Lacy around … He is taking round after round of sustained pounding now … [r10] … How much more can he take? … He’s cut badly … Punch after punch from Calzaghe … Utterly in control … [r11] … That’s Joe Calzaghe’s girlfriend … Just beautiful boxing by Calzaghe … And it just continues … Lacy bravely coming forwards once more … Here comes Calzaghe again … This is just breathtaking stuff … [r12] … Absolutely superb … He’s got him again … He’s put Lacy down … This fight is thank you and good night … The greatest performance of his boxing career … A magnificent points victory … How is he [Lacy] staying up? UK ITV fight commentary
Every moment of the fight went perfect … I had to show him who’s boss. Joe Calzaghe
Bernard Hopkins Split-Decision 12: US Fight Commentary TV -
v Bernard Hopkins 19 April 2008 Light Heavyweight Paradise Nevada [r1] … He [Hopkins] ran in with his head down … Calzaghe down on a perfect right hand shot … The best two adjustable fighters … Calzaghe is showing tremendous respect … [r2] … He [Hopkins] trains as hard as anybody … It’s Hopkins keeping Calzaghe from doing his thing … He’s [Calzaghe] making adjustments to Hopkins … It’s going to be a test of Joe Calzaghe’s will … [r3] … Calzaghe for having thrown 33 jabs and landed none … Body shots by Calzaghe … [r4] … Hopkins fighting off the ropes … [r5] … The numbers are beginning to favour Calzaghe … Calzaghe landed and good right and left hand … Calzaghe seems much more relaxed … [r6] … Calzaghe stalking Hopkins … landing more solidly, landing more consistantly … A flurry by Calzaghe … Good left hand counter by Bernard … [r7] … 57-56 Joe Calzaghe [co-commentator] … Three swing rounds … Calzahge almost was knocked down again … Calzahe should have won the round … Lederman gave the round to Hopkins … Calzaghe won the round … [r8] … Four punch flurry from Calzaghe … This shows you how quick Hopkins can be … Now showboating around the ring … [Hopkins landed 78, thrown 270; Calzaghe landed 140, thrown 451] … [r9] … Good straight left hand by Calzaghe … Another little flurry by Calzaghe … He’s [Calzaghe] still setting the tempo … Hopkins’s hands don’t seem to have the same zip … Lederman 86-84 Calzghe … [r10] … That did not seem like a big punch that would cause this kind of a reaction … Straight right hand by Hopkins … [r11] … Calzaghe backed Hopkins off in an exchange of flurries … Hopkins is claiming another low blow …Calzaghe will land more … [r12] … If someone needs a knockout it’s Hopkins … Good left hand by Kalzaghe … [Lederman 116 Calzaghe: 111 Hopkins] US HBO fight commentary
Roy Jones junior ***** Points 12: US Fight Commentary TV -
v Roy Jones junior 8th November 2008 Madison Square Garden ***** [r1] … And down goes Calzaghe! … seriously hurt, and fighting … An amazing turn of events … [r2] … Calzaghe wants to be the aggressor … Joe gets to pile up points … Jones lands another right-hand shot … I thought Joe outworked him [co-commentator] … [r3] … and Calzaghe throws six … Calzaghe showboating … He has dominated round three … [r4] … Oh my God, Joe Calzaghe put on a performance … His hand speed is accelerating … [5] … A fighter who is comfortable throwing 75 punches in a round … Body shots by Calzaghe … And he takes anonther right hand shot by Jones … Now the round belongs to the Welshman … Jones left eye is starting to swell … What a round … [r6] … Calzaghe’s body attack is beginning to take its toll … Takes a big uppercut there … piling punches on … Lederman [57-56 Calzaghe] … [r7] … Joe’s starting to get through with that left hand … Drives Jones back against the ropes … He’s [Jones] hurt straight left … Calzaghe’s punches starting to do more damage … Calzaghe is wearing Jones down … and that is some cut … [r8] … The speed and relentlessness that Calzaghe has … now begins to apply the pressure again … the combinations and the hand speed … [r9] … He’s [Jones] trying to win this fight … an onslaught … it’s Joe who’s doing the punching … Jones streaming blood … [r10] … Calzaghe begins the tenth round with a couple of body shots … Roy is taking a beating … [r11] … He’s out-Roy-Jonesing Jones … What a closing act for Joe Calzaghe … He’s had a phenomenal career … [r12] … Calzaghe is walking in with his hands down … Good body shots from both men … Calzaghe drives him back … US HBO fight commentary
[8.8] ROY JONES 64-56(40)-8-0 [Heavyweight & Cruiserweight & Light-Heavyweight & Super-Middleweight & Middleweight]: Daily Telegraph - British Boxing Heroes: Richie Woodhall TV - The Ring online -
Nothing lasts for ever.
For a decade and a half Roy Jones has been an extraordinary talent in a sport so often weighed down by mediocrity.
He won world championships in four weight divisions between middleweight and heavyweight, had 25 world title fights, and was acknowledged as the best pound for pound fighter of his time …
The battle to replace him will be grimly fought out, but the departure of a talent as rare as Jones leaves a massive gap. Daily Telegraph article 18th May 2004 Bob Mee
The least deserved gold medal. An outrageous decision ... That is a total farce. Harry Carpenter, Roy Jones junior Olympic fight loss
Richie lost to Roy Jones [Olympics], and Jones went on to dominate the sport for a decade. British Boxing Heroes: Richie Woodhall
Fight No. 75 for former four-weight world champion, and future hall-of-famer, Roy Jones junior will be against Mr Scott Sigmon. I’ve never heard of him, but that’s not unusual. Jones taking on an undistinguished opponent has happened several times over the last decade, but tonight, in his home city of Pensacola, Florida, the 49-year-old boxing legend says he will climb the ring steps for the final time.
When Virginia-born Sigmon turned professional in 2008, Jones was already a shell of himself. The once untouchable fighter was now touchable and those horrendous knockout defeats, which would make his adoring fans squirm, had commenced. At 39 years old, Jones’ time at the top was over but, here we are – a full decade later – and the final chapter is only just about to get under way.
I first became aware of Jones in the early 90s. The availability of elite-level live boxing beneath the heavyweight division in the UK was at its worst at that particular time. These were the days of Channel 4’s Transworld Sports highlights, bootleg VHS tapes and praying to the boxing gods that a British satellite channel would pick up a delayed broadcast.
Internet? It didn’t exist.
For the most part, I would check Teletext, a television-based news and information service, for fight results. But the morning after a Roy Jones fight, you didn’t check to see if he’d won. You knew he had. All you needed to see was the method of victory. That’s how good he was from the early 1990s to 2003. A peak Jones was an artist and, for a large portion of that time, the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.
Occasionally there was a scare. The disqualification defeat to Montell Griffin in March 1997. The left-hand knockdown suffered at the hands of his former-sparring partner, Lou ‘Honey Boy’ Del Valle, in a light heavyweight unification clash the following year. However, for the most part, Jones turned in electrifying performances and rarely lost a minute of a round.