by Natasa Shepherd

Created on: June 20, 2009   Last Updated: December 12, 2010

With Joe Calzaghe retiring earlier this year, now would seem like a good time to look back at his career as one of the most successful boxers coming out of Great Britain, but will his unfortunate timing affect the legacy he will leave behind?

Starting his boxing professional boxing career at the young age of twenty, Joe had jumped head first into the fading golden age of British boxing. Where Frank Bruno was the king of the Isle while being quickly pursued by the 6'5 Lennox Lewis, and two middleweight lions having wars that set the country on fire, "The Dark Destroyer" Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank had brought boxing back to the forefront of the media outlets in Britain so now was a great time for Calzaghe to make his way onto the center stage.

Amassing a record of 21-0-0 over four steady years, Joe finally got his big break when he fought his first high profile fight against a man who's record looks a lot better when you look at the numbers. Although Luciano Torres held a very impressive of record of 42-2-0, if you took a look a little closer, you'd see that the level of competition Luciano had been facing was weak to say the least. Regularly fighting men who's losses greatly out numbered their wins (For example, In 1995 Torres fought a man, who is now known as the worlds worst boxer for the amount of losses he had suffered inside the ring, 276 to be exact, Reggie Strickland. At the time he was 30-122-5). It only took Joe three rounds to expose Torres' as a paperweight fighter and this fight would allow him fight the most important fight of his life.

Joe would get a shot to win the W.B.O Super Middleweight Championship and a shot at his holder, Chris Eubank. Joe would go on to drop Eubank in the first round and soundly beat him for eleven extra to by a lopsided unanimous decision. But there was one factor, one that would plague Joe's career until this very day, was Joe's win attributed more to the fact that Eubank was past his prime at the time of the fight? With the worst timing possible, Joe had made his way to the center stage of middleweight British boxing just as it was ending. Eubank was on his way out and Benn had already retired a year earlier and with both men having permanently paralyzed other fighters inside the ring, the media had shone a non flattering light on the sport.

Cazlaghe would go from a career high to stretch of mediocrities, other that his fight against Robin Reid, Joe was never truly tested or felt threatened in any of his fights for nearly

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