Joseph William Calzaghe CBE (born 23 March 1972) is a Welsh former professional boxer who retired undefeated. He was rated by Ring magazine as pound for pound one of the top 10 boxers in the world, He retired in February 2009 with an undefeated record, becoming only the fourth European boxer, after Terry Marsh, Michael Loewe and Sven Ottke, to retire as an undefeated world champion. After his retirement Ricky Hatton described him as "the best British fighter we've ever had". Calzaghe is sometimes referred to as the "Pride of Wales", or the "Italian Dragon" in reference to his mixed heritage (the dragon being both a Welsh emblem and a Sardinian myth). He is the former WBO, WBA, WBC, IBF, The Ring Magazine and British super middleweight champion. Calzaghe is the longest-reigning world champion in recent years, having held the WBO super middleweight title for over ten years until he relinquished the title to concentrate on fighting at light-heavyweight. As his super-middleweight andlight-heavyweight reigns overlapped, he retired with the longest continual time as world champion of any active fighter.