By Tom Fordyce

Calzaghe celebrates his win over Mitchell

Move over Lennox, step aside Naseem.

After his brilliant dismantling of Byron Mitchell on Saturday, Joe Calzaghe is the British boxer of whom the country should be most proud.

For many years Calzaghe has had to contend with living life in the shadows of his flashier, louder rivals.

No more. The 31-year-old Welshman has come of age and it is time the world took notice.

Calzaghe, under the careful tutelage of father Enzo, has developed the technical ability to box whichever way a fight requires him to.

His defensive skills are so good that he has not had his nose broken once in over 120 amateur and 36 professional bouts, so tight that when Mitchell dropped him on Saturday it was the first time he had ever been put on the canvas.

And in attack mode he can be devastating.

US demands Hopkins-Calzaghe

Against Mitchell - as when he went toe-to-toe with Charles Brewer - there was graphic evidence of his blistering punching power, so much so that his opponent admitted afterwards, "I have never been hit so hard and so often."

Calzaghe launched into Mitchell from the opening seconds of the first round, landing successive flurries of punches and looking utterly in control.

Then, when Mitchell had caught him out with a howitzer of a right hook, Calzaghe threw caution to the wind and went for his man hell for leather.

Within 90 seconds of being down himself he had forced referee Dave Parris to stop the fight - a response that some viewed as suicidal, but others saw as a long overdue return to the explosive days of Nigel Benn and Marvin Hagler v Tommy Hearns.

The one thing Calzaghe has been missing, through no fault of his own, has been a definitive fight, a chance against a big name with the whole world watching.

Calzaghe hits out in his win over Mitchell

Promoter Frank Warren has done his utmost over the last four years to secure his charge the match-up which could make him a household name in the same way that Lennox Lewis is and Naseem Hamed once was.

Until now, Bernard Hopkins, William Joppy and Sven Ottke have all been offered fights and all turned them down.

That may have changed after Saturday's brutal display.

Not only was it shown on the American television network Showtime, but Hopkins - a notoriously difficult man to pin down to a deal - is now reaching the age when a big pay-day would be hard to turn down.

Calzaghe does not fit the traditional stereotype of a boxer.

He is happily married with children, lives close to his roots in Newbridge, South Wales, and prefers to train in the solitude of the Welsh valleys rather than the sunshine of the Canaries or Nevada.

You are unlikely to find him brawling with an opponent at a weigh-in news conference, getting blotto in a London bar or surrounding himself with an army of hangers-on.

But from the word go he has been a class act in the ring.

Fitting reward

As an amateur he became only the second boxer in history to win three straight Amateur Boxing Association titles in three different weight classes.

Calzaghe only had to go the full distance only once in 120 fights and also knocked out both future world champion Glen Catley and British champion Dean Francis.

It took him just two years from turning pro to become British super-middleweight champion, and he is still unbeaten in his 36 pro fights over eight years.

Since taking his first world title from Chris Eubank in 1997, he has made 13 successful title defences - making him the longest-running world champion in British boxing.

The chance to take on Hopkins in front of his fans at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff would be fitting reward for Calzaghe's years of honest - and inspired - endeavour.