Enzo Calzaghe
Live-wire boxing trainer who masterminded the rise of his son Joe to two world championships
ENZO CALZAGHE, who has died aged 69, was an unorthodox boxing trainer who rose to the pinnacle of his profession despite never having boxed himself. The diminutive Sardinian-born Welshman became the driving force behind his son, Joe, who reigned as super-middleweight world champion for a decade before becoming lightheavyweight champion towards the end of his career.
Calzaghe remained undefeated, from his professional debut in 1993 right up to his final fight, against the formidable American, Roy Jones Jr, at Madison Square Garden, New York, in November 2008. Initially derided by sceptics and jealous rivals who claimed that his son sometimes tended to “slap” instead of punch, Enzo had the last laugh when his son retired unbeaten after 46 bouts.
Few father-and-son boxing partnerships have been as close, or as successful. Something of a maverick, the voluble Enzo Calzaghe became one of the most familiar characters on the boxing scene, while Joe had a more introverted and laidback personality.
Eccentric and larger than life, the live-wire trainer proved that his success was no fluke by steering two more Welsh fighters, Gavin Rees and Enzo Maccarinelli, to world titles – achievements acknowledged in 2007 when he was named Coach of the Year at the BBC Sports awards and Ring magazine Trainer of the Year.
The motivational powers of the loquacious Enzo, and his unwavering belief in the abilities of his son, were never more evident than in the build-up to what proved to be Joe’s career-defining fight against Jeff Lacy, the much-touted American, at Manchester in March 2006.
Having been plagued by hand injuries throughout his career, Joe was distraught when he damaged his left wrist three weeks away from the biggest fight of his life. He was contemplating pulling out when an impassioned phone call from his father persuaded him to reconsider.
“Not getting in there would have destroyed his career,” Enzo said afterwards. “He would have had no legacy. He had performed badly in recent fights. He had also pulled out of fights twice or three times.”
Enzo told his son: “Pull out of this fight now and you’ll be a laughing stock for the rest of your life. Whether you get knocked out or not, it doesn’t matter. Just by fighting him, you’re proving all you need to prove.”
Far from being overawed by the unbeaten American’s fearsome reputation, Enzo Calzaghe forecast that the fight would prove the easiest of his son’s career and that he could beat Lacy with one hand. “Eventually, it began to sink in,” he recalled.
Suitably inspired, Joe Calzaghe produced a masterclass to outpoint Lacy in one of the most outstanding performances ever delivered by a British boxer. Joe’s legacy was secured, while his opponent’s once-promising career never recovered.
Enzo Calzaghe was born on January 1 1949 at Bancali, a hamlet near Sassari in Sardinia, the son of a policeman. The family moved to Bedford when Enzo was two, and at school he shared a playground with the young Joe Bugner, the future world heavyweight title contender. “Dad used to kick his ass in the schoolyard all the time,” Joe Calzaghe would later claim.
The Calzaghe family returned to Sardinia, and Enzo, by now a budding musician, completed his National Service in the air force before busking around Europe for a couple of years. On a trip to Cardiff he met his future wife, Jackie in a burger bar, and they were married four weeks later.
The pair lived in Sardinia and London before returning to Wales, but not before the birth of their first child, Joe, in London in 1972. They also had two daughters before eventually settling in Pentwynmawr, a former pit village about 30 miles from Cardiff.
Encouraged by his father, Joe was eight when he began learning rudimentary boxing moves around a punch ball. His first punch bag was a piece of rolled-up carpet, yet when Joe first appeared at Newbridge Amateur Boxing Club at the age of 10 his obvious prowess led the club coach to assume he had already boxed for another club. “I’d learnt everything from my dad,” Joe recalled. “People think my dad knows nothing about boxing, but from the first day I went to the boxing gym in Newbridge my dad trained me every day of the week. At home he would take the cushion off the settee and put it around his waist and I would hit it as if he was holding the pads.
“I never had many friends growing up but my best friend has always been my dad. He didn’t drive a car for years, so most people in the valleys came to know him as ‘the running man’ because he walked and jogged everywhere.”
Until Joe was 17 his father was his chief – and most formidable – sparring partner. The blistering combinations he developed during pad work with his father perfected Joe Calzaghe’s celebrated fast hands.
Enzo subsequently took over the Newbridge gym, the famously spartan blue tin shack which remained the Calzaghe base for much of Joe’s career. When it was demolished on safety grounds in 2002 the coach converted a nearby former rugby club into a new gym, from where he continued to develop an impressive stable of Welsh fighters.
For a number of years Enzo was one of the most successful trainers in Britain, taking Maccarinelli and Rees to world titles, Gary Lockett to a World Boxing Union championship and Bradley Pryce and Nathan Cleverly to Commonwealth titles.
Enzo wound down his career after Joe’s retirement in 2008. He was appointed MBE in 2011. A bridge in Newbridge was renamed Calzaghe Bridge in honour of Joe and Enzo.
Enzo Calzaghe is survived by his wife Jackie, by their son Joe and by their daughters, Sonia and Melissa.
Enzo Calzaghe, born January 1 1949, died September 17 2018