Joe Calzaghe has bracketed his victory against Roy Jones Jr. among the top three performances of his 15-year professional career.
Retirement decision coming "in a few weeks"
Joe Calzaghe has bracketed his victory against Roy Jones Jr. on Saturday night among the top three performances of his 15-year professional career.
The 36-year-old Welshman retained his Ring Magazine light-heavyweight championship after scoring a unanimous points victory against an opponent who had him in the canvas in round one.
Calzaghe's win, which extended his unbeaten record to 46-0, came on the back of a series of impressive victories in recent years.
He inflicted the first defeats upon super-middleweight world champions Jeff Lacy and Mikkel Kessler and also beat another American ring legend, Bernard Hopkins, earlier this year.
And, according to the Newbridge fighter, beating eight-time, four-weight world champion Jones at Madison Square Garden ranked alongside the first two wins.
"I'm so, so proud of what I achieved and where I've come from," Calzaghe said.
"It's been so hard for me for years and so to be top of the bill at the Garden against a four-weight world champion in Roy Jones Jr., what can I say, I'm just so, so proud.
"At the end of the day, it's got to be in the top three (performances). Obviously up there with Lacy and Kessler.
"After the first round I dominated and I felt it was a much better fight than the Hopkins fight."
On the subject of whether he would walk away from the sport while on top, Calzaghe repeated that he would think things over with his family, including his father and trainer Enzo.
"I'm not sure about it," he said.
"I'm going to chill out and make a final decision in a few weeks."
Major boost
Although floored in the opening round, Calzaghe won all of the remaining 11 and gave his hopes of victory a major boost midway through the fight when he cut Jones above his left eye.
He then worked on the area so that his corner had trouble staunching the flow of blood, with Calzaghe claiming that Jones was thrown out of kilter by his changing tactics.
"I cut him on the left eye so it's my right hand I worked on," he said.
"He's expecting the big left hand all the time but using the jab, I knew my jab was the key weapon.
"So I was picking him apart with the jab and when he got cut I was landing my jab on that cut all the time.
"So it was getting worse and worse, and he couldn't see that great after six or seven rounds, and I was in total control.
"I dominated the fight. Roy caught me with a great shot in the first round but after that I just regrouped, used my boxing skills and had it in control."
Such was Calzaghe's performance that he jokingly claimed to be upset when Compubox punching statistics revealed he had thrown 'just' 964 punches.
"Is that all?" he said.
"I'm a bit disappointed I didn't get to 1000-plus but it's not bad for a 36-year-old man."
