“We had nothing, no money, when I was young. We lived in a council house. My dad struggled; my mum struggled. But that made me what I am. If I had everything on a plate from the start, maybe I would not have been a champion for 11 years.”

Welsh former professional boxer

Joe Calzaghe is a Welsh former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2008. He is known for winning multiple world championships in two weight classes and for holding unified and lineal titles at super-middleweight, as well as The Ring magazine light-heavyweight title. Over the course of his career, Calzaghe built a record that placed him among the leading fighters of his era. His name is most closely associated with sustained success at world level, especially in the super-middleweight division, where he held multiple major titles, and later at light-heavyweight, where he added another recognised championship.