Opinion | ‘It was either me or him. That’s boxing’: Joe Calzaghe reflects on the most important win of his career and how it almost destroyed his opponent

It has been 12 years to the day since Joe Calzaghe claimed the most important win of his glittering career, and his eyes still light up at the very mention of the night. But the unbeaten former super-middleweight champion’s joy is tempered ever so slightly when he reflects on the devastating effect that night has had on his opponent, Jeff Lacy.

Calzaghe revealed to the Post that he held a reunion with his former foe just last year at his home in Newbridge, a small town in Caerphilly, south Wales and was sad to hear how the American’s life had unravelled since the night he was consummately outclassed by the Welshman.

Calzaghe, 45, said at that time he was struggling to gain respect from many in the boxing world after a series of underwhelming title defences, and it was the Lacy fight that propelled him to superstardom and the eventual fulfilling of his lifetime ambitions when he unified the super-middleweight division before conquering the boxing promised lands of Las Vegas and New York’s Madison Square Garden.

He made the startling admission that just a week before the fight he was advised by a specialist that his chronically injured hand was in such bad condition, that he should withdraw from the fight.

“Bear in mind that was the biggest fight I’d trained for in my career,” Calzaghe said. “I was going to pull out. I’d hurt my hand and I went to Harley Street [to meet a specialist] and get it injected. I was told I can’t fight.”

It was devastating for the Welshman but far more than he feared Lacy, the formidable Florida fighter who had been pulling up trees across the Atlantic on his way to 21 straight wins, Calzaghe feared a blemish on his perfect record.

“Dad [Enzo Calzaghe, Joe’s trainer] told me: ‘You need to fight this fight or they’re gonna call you a chicken’. He said: ‘You’re gonna fight. You’d beat this guy with one hand!’