(Photo: Mark Robinson / Matchroom Boxing)
On the night of April 20, 2002, Joe Calzaghe and his father, Enzo, were en route to the International Arena in Cardiff for a WBO super-middleweight title fight against Charles Brewer when the son, the fighter, realised he had had enough.
Having been cooped up together inside their Newbridge gym for months on end, he had been hearing his father’s voice on a daily basis and now, with the fight just hours away, Joe had reached his limit. In the car, sitting side by side, they argued like cats and dogs, or fathers and sons, and fought for the last word. Neither would back down, of course, so they soon reached an impasse, at which point the fighter got out of the car altogether, deciding he would instead walk to the venue and meet his father there.
As tight as they were, even the Calzaghes had their moments.
“When we were in the gym, we were boxer and trainer, and when we were outside the ring we lived like father and son,” Joe said. “We’d have our arguments, we’d make up, and we’d hold our grudges. But when we went to the gym it only made us both push harder.
“A good gym session was always a great way of making up, and then after the gym we might get some food or place a bet down the bookies. Whatever it was, we’d do it together. Everything was connected.
“He was a very passionate trainer, a great motivator, and we had a special relationship,” Joe added. “There was always fire in his belly and the smoke would fill the room. He made you want to work harder; he made you want to push yourself to breaking point. And he knew exactly the right things to say to piss me off.”
Truth be told, Enzo Calzaghe knew the right things to say, full stop. Just four years after that Brewer fight, for example, it was Enzo Calzaghe and no one else who was responsible for making sure Joe, his son, went through with his 2006 unification fight against Jeff Lacy in Manchester. In fact, were it not for Enzo’s steadfast belief in his son’s ability, there is every chance that Joe would have allowed a hand injury and pre-fight doubt to get the better of him and trigger his withdrawal from what became a career-defining fight.
“Joe rings me up a week before the fight and I was at the bookies in Newbridge, just laying down some bets,” Enzo recalled. “I step outside, take his call and he goes, ‘Dad, just so you know, I’m not going to fight.’
“I thought he was joking at first,…
2026-05-07 14:00:00
