Joe Calzaghe-A deserving winner

I was absolutely delighted yesterday when Joe Calzaghe won the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2007. Calzaghe received just under 178,000 votes to beat off firm favourite Lewis Hamilton who gained around 122,000 votes. Calzaghe has had an incredible career with a fighting record which stands at 44-0. He has been the longest reigning title holder of any weight class in boxing which has just passed the 10 year mark. He beat Peter Manfredo Jr earlier this year and then beat Mikkel Kessler to unify the WBA, WBC, WBO, and Ring Magazine super middleweight titles which was another incredible achievement and confirmed him as one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world.

It is great that the British public decided to vote for a true champion rather than Lewis Hamilton who was a close runner-up. Don’t get me wrong as Hamilton is incredibly talented and had an astonishing year considering he was a rookie. I reckon(and so do many others!) that he will win the Formula 1 world championship sooner rather than later and it will be nice to see him win the Sports Personality Award when he does. However if he had won this year it would not have reflected sporting achievement but general popularity which is not really what I think the award is about. Calzaghe has truly achieved sporting excellence in his field and has been given the recognition he thoroughly deserves.