Found this from a few weeks back..
http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/news/arc ... 003207.htm
INTERVIEW WITH JOE CALZAGHE
After the event, World Champion Joe Calzaghe was kind enough to donate his time to an exclusive interview where I discovered the Super Middleweight WBO and IBF belt-holder has as big a heart outside the ring as he has in it.
DM: Firstly, Joe – congratulations on a 20th title defence; was that one of the highlights of your boxing career, selling out a record 35,000 crowd in Wales and retaining your crown in front of your own people?
JC: Yeah, thank you very much. I mean, obviously it was a great night for me and of course fighting in Cardiff was special, fighting in Cardiff is always special, but the occasion and the crowd that night made it all the more better, and so yeah it was an outstanding night in my career so far.
DM: You’re of a mixed heritage – Welsh and, perhaps more significantly tonight, Italian – how much does it mean to be in Bedford, the place where your father grew up and where you have such a large Italian following?
JC: Yeah, it’s great, obviously I know my granddad came over here after the war to Bedford and I know this place has a big Italian community --
DM: -- the largest in Europe outside of Italy, apparently.
JC: Is that right, is it? I didn’t know it was that many but I always knew there was a lot of Italians who live here and obviously my dad was one of those, he lived here as a kid with his family and his brothers and so when I found out World Boxing Cares were holding the event here in Bedford that it would a great opportunity to give something back to a local area my father grew up in. He (Enzo) knows the area as well, lots of memories here for him – so, yeah, it was just a fantastic opportunity to come here for a good cause and speak to so many second-generation Italians like myself.
DM: You make very few public appearances, Joe; aside from your father’s connection with Bedford, what was it about the Keech Cottage children’s charity that drew you down here?
JC: Well, you know, I’ve got kids myself – I’ve got a nine-year old and a twelve-year old and there’s nothing more harrowing or distressing for a parent than having to go through an illness which affects your child. I do some work for the NSPCC too and there’s another charity in Wales called Latch which is a charity for children with cancer – so any charity that affects children is close to my heart and at the end of the day any small thing I can possibly do I will endeavour to. It’s a pleasure for me do so and I really hope tonight is a good evening for the charity, and I’d definitely like to support the charity again in the future.
DM: You got an electric reception here tonight; you’ve clearly secured a loyal fan-base, you’ve unified the WBO and IBF world titles, you’ve reached the milestone of 20 title defences… what’s left for you now in the sport of boxing, what else do you feel you need to achieve before you retire?
JC: Listen, I can fight until I’m forty. I’ve just turned thirty-five, I’m in good shape, still sharp as ever, quick as ever but there’s a fine line in boxing – and that’s knowing when to retire. Very, very few fighters know when to retire. You’ve always got that lure of the pound that keeps dragging you back into fighting when you get beat so I’ll give myself three, four more fights – big fights, that’s all I’m after now, I’m not interested in meaningless fights, I want big fights; Jermain Taylor, Kessler, Bernard Hopkins, Roy Jones – I’m not interested in anything else. I’ve put myself in the big league, all I want to do is fight big fights whether it’s in England, Wales or America – big fights with big money.
DM: As you said, you’re finally getting the recognition in the USA you’ve craved for so craved and deserved arguably even longer – but do you maybe regret that you never got to fight Steve Collins, who was well known in the States, and who may have unlocked the door for you over there a little earlier?
JC: Well, I mean Steve Collins retired at the end of the day, what more can I say? allegedly promoted the two of us and you ask allegedly what happened – he (Steve Collins) didn’t wanna fight me for a simple reason – he knew he was gonna get beat. He retired six days before the fight, what champion retires six days before a world title fight? And at the end of the day, Chris Eubank was training for a fight as well and Eubank to be honest, you know, he was going through a phase where he was having ten fights a year and he actually knocked down Steve Collins in the first fight, so… But yeah, of course, I would have loved to have beat Steve Collins because he was the actual champion at the time. But still, fighting somebody like Chris Eubank – I mean the guy was practically a legend and if you’re gonna win a world title Chris Eubank’s a big name to win it off.
DM: Speaking of missed opportunities: any fighter, any weight, any era – who would you have loved to face?
JC: Ooh, I don’t know… I would have liked to have tested myself against Hagler, y’know, Hagler was a great fighter, he was a southpaw like myself, very strong, very good hand-speed – I would have liked to see what might have happened between me and Hagler if he had’ve stepped up to Super Middleweight, but I don’t know, it’s difficult to say. There’s so many great fighters, I don’t tend to look at them and think ‘what would I have done against them’ I just like to look back and admire them, like Leonard, Duran, Chavez – all them sort of fighters. I don’t really think about what I’d have done with them I just admire them for the fighters they were in their day.
DM: Boxing as a sport has endured a lot of unnecessary bad press recently, do you think there needs to be more of the type of thing you’ve done tonight; boxers going out of their way for good causes to show that for all the negative attention boxing attracts in the ring, it more than makes up for with positive endeavours outside of it?
JC: Definitely. What boxing doesn’t need is bad press. Boxing needs good press. It doesn’t need fighters who disrespect the sport and slag off other fighters or brawl in the street – and the thing is, when fighters do that, when they actually get in the ring they’re s**t. Y’know, at the end of the day, I do all my talking in the ring and normally you get quiet guys at the press conferences and they’re respectful, then they have wars in the ring. That’s what you want to see, you wanna see a fight in the ring not outside the ring, so definitely it’d be great to get rid of all the bad-mouthing and frolics outside of boxing. But… listen, y’know I still think boxing’s a great game and I love the sport and ultimately it’s made me who I am.
DM: What practical advice would you give to anyone who wanted to get into the sport of boxing?
JC: It’s a great sport, it teaches you discipline, keeps you very fit and gives you a focus in your life. If you learn it properly with a good trainer and you stay dedicated to it then it can take you far in life. There’s many dedicated (boxing) gyms all over the country for all ages and if you want to get involved, go along, see if you like it, even if just to keep fit, and who knows? I guess you never know unless you try.
DM: Thank you very much for your time and thank you for being here tonight, Joe.
JC: Absolute pleasure.
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