Mon 21 Apr 2008
Joe Calzaghe’s problem - he’s Welsh
Posted by Craig under sport with the tags Amir Khan • boxing • Joe Calzaghe • sport44 fights, 44 wins.
You can’t ask any more than that - except 45 fights and 45 wins I suppose!
Joe Calzaghe is the best British boxer of recent years, yet if you asked someone to name a current boxer, I bet his name wouldn’t be on many lips. The most popular would surely be Amir Khan as he is the one in the public eye most often.
Why doesn’t Calzaghe get this recognition, especially when you consider Khan has plenty of promise but hasn’t actually achieved much yet?
I can only think it’s all down to him, it’s all his own fault - he was born in Wales instead of England!
Over the last year or so, Calzaghe has entered the mainstream media a little more but unfortunately it’s looking like it’s going to be too little too late as he appears to be in the process of winding down his career with only one or two more big fights on the cards.
After all, why continue just for the sake of it and spoil that perfect 100% win record?
April 21st, 2008 at 10:04 am
Calzaghe won the sports personality award last year didn’t he?
I think if Khan gets more column inches it’s because, like Lewis Hamilton, his ethnicity makes the story more interesting.
Me, I just plain don’t like boxing, so I’m not terribly interested in either of them.
April 21st, 2008 at 11:10 am
Keith Collantine » He did indeed win Sports Personality of the Year just befor Christmas - that was at the age of 36, approaching the end of his career, and it was actually a bit of a shock that he won it. Most people assumed Lewis Hamilton or Ricky Hatton would be handed the trophy.
Khan is 15 years younger than Calzaghe, and has been mainly boxing people he is expected to win - it will be interesting to see how he gets on when he is pitched in against someone as good as or better than him.
Anyhoo, not much can be done about it, but it must be frustrating if your efforts go largely unnoticed when other people get all the attention for going less.
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
[...] Joe Calzaghe’s problem - he’s Welsh [...]