JOE CALZAGHE

Timeline

1972 – Born in Hammersmith, England, on the outskirts of London, on March 23. The family moved to Wales when he was 2.

1981 – Began his amateur boxing career at 9. He would win four schoolboy and three senior ABA British amateur titles, according to his Web site. He won 110 of 120 amateur bouts.

1990 – Lost to Adrian Opreda of Romania in the European Junior Championships in Prague. He would never lose again.

1993 – Made his pro debut on the undercard of the Lennox Lewis-Frank Bruno fight against fellow Briton Paul Hanlon and scored a knockout 2:45 into the scheduled four-round super middleweight bout on Oct. 1 in Cardiff, Wales. He would stop eight of his first 11 opponents in the first round.

1995 – Won the BBBofC British super middleweight title – his first – by stopping Stephen in the eighth round. He also is named Young Fighter of the Year in the UK.

1997 – Easily outpointed talented, but declining Chris Eubank to win the vacant WBO super middleweight title – his first major belt – on Oct. 11. He would hold it a staggering 21 defenses over 11 years.

2001 – Fought outside the UK for the first of only four times, stopping Will McIntyre in eight rounds in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Oct. 13.

2006 – Dominated then-unbeaten and much-feared American Jeff Lacy en route to a near-shutout decision on March 4, thus adding to his collection THE RING world championship and IBF belt. He gave up the IBF title the following year.

2007 – Was an underdog when he met then-unbeaten Mikkel Kessler of Denmark in a title-unification bout but won by a convincing unanimous decision on Nov. 3 in Cardiff. That gave him the WBA and WBC belts. It was the last time he fought at home.

2007 – The British public voted him the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. He beat out boxer Ricky Hatton and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton.

2008 – Wins THE RING light heavyweight championship by defeated 43-year-old Bernard Hopkins by a controversial split decision on April 19 in Las Vegas, his first fight in the U.S. Some observers believed Hopkins should’ve been awarded the decision.

2008 – Embarrassed a faded Roy Jones Jr. by winning a pathetically easy unanimous decision in what would be Calzaghe’s last fight, on Nov. 8. Jones knocked him down in the first round but was never truly in the fight.

2008 – Appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen.

2009 – Announced his retirement on Feb. 5.