A biography for Joe Calzaghehasn’t been written yet.
“It's one of the biggest disappointments of my boxing career, not going to the Olympics.”
“After a weigh-in, you drink and put on the pounds. But it's just fluid, not muscle, so you get in the ring and feel flat.”
“I appreciate what I've achieved, and nearly all of that is because of my dad. He pushed me to train harder than I would have done if he wasn't there to discipline me.”
“I agreed to be on 'Strictly Come Dancing' without watching the show. I got talked into it by my manager. And my God, I was crap at it.”
“You ask all the super-middleweights: Who is the best fighter in Britain? If I came back, it would be me.”
“You think that after becoming world champion, you're going to be a massive superstar with lots of lucrative bouts against great fighters, but that never materialised for me.”
“I like to give my kids the life I didn't have - they go to an excellent school; they have nice clothes, money for shopping. I'm quite generous with them, but they have fantastic manners - they're not spoilt.”
“I do like to travel.”
“The perfect fighter has never been born and never will be.”
“It's unbelievable when I think back to when I was a kid that one day I would have achieved so much through boxing, and to think my teachers laughed at me when I said I was going to be a boxer.”
“I'm a Juventus fan, although I did support Chelsea for some time - mainly because of Gianfranco Zola. Zola is from the same town as my father Enzo, in Sardinia.”
“Amateur boxing is one of the safest sports around.”
“My natural weight is 13 st. 7 lb. That's what I walk around at.”
“I prayed before fights. Especially just before I got in to the ring. But I'd also have my iPod on, Prodigy and Linkin Park ripping through my ears.”
“There's no point looking good and losing. Winning is what it's all about, and you can't always look spectacular while doing it.”
“It used to hurt me when people said I was hiding in Wales.”
“Enzo, my dad, supports Juventus, so that's my team and, obviously, Italy, who I've been fortunate enough to see win two World Cups.”
“I didn't like school at all. I was bullied and didn't have a good time. Boxing was my escapism, and the ring was where I felt best.”
“Every fighter, when they box, wants to leave a mark in their sport, or a legacy, and I managed to do that beyond my wildest dreams.”
“You can never say never in this game, but I can't see myself boxing again. There's loads of things I want to do.”