Mr Calzaghe is a 2015 documentary that follows the career of legendary Welsh boxer Joe Calzaghe. It charts his journey through his highly touted amateur career, the jump to turning pro, challenges with repeated injuries all the way through to breaking through to popularity in America and his retirement – undefeated with a record of 46-0.
The documentary itself is brilliantly shot. It uses footage from throughout Joe’s career, mixed in with old post fight interviews and commentary from his family, friends, boxing pundits and ex opponents. One of the stand out stars of the documentary has to be Joe’s dad, Enzo, who coached him throughout his career despite having no real boxing experience himself. Enzo is a big personality, and the documentary discusses some of the differences and challenges that the pair faced while working together.
The story it tells is compelling, a frank look at the highs and lows of a journey to the top. We started watching expecting a fairly standard boxing documentary, but found that Mr Calzaghe really draws the viewer in and gets you feeling really invested throughout the whole film – similar to the 2018 documentary on Irish boxer Katie Taylor that we’ve reviewed previously.
Whether you’re a boxing fan or just enjoy sports documentaries you’ll find something to love in Mr Calzaghe, and we loved every minute of it.
“A man danced with another man like he was blessed. Like something was shining on him”
– Gareth A Davies, Boxing Correspondent on Joe’s performance against Jeff Lacy
Our Rating
Mr Calzaghe (2018)
4.5 stars out of 5
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If you’re looking for something different to watch check out our other film reviews.